(Postwar illustration of the battle of Pickett's Mill by Alfred R. Waud. From The Mountain Campaigns in Georgia by Joseph M. Brown)
This account is from the memoirs of Pvt. William J. Oliphant, who was at this time serving in the 6th & 15th Texas consolidated, Granbury's Texas Brigade, Cleburne's Division, Hardee's Corps, Army of Tennessee.
There occurred at the Battle of [Pickett's Mill, Ga., May 27, 1864, Atlanta Campaign] an incident which impressed me greatly. In the last charge an Indiana regiment came up in front of our regiment in splendid style. Although we poured a deadly fire into them, they closed the gaps in their line and pressed steadily forward until they were almost upon us, but they could not stand our terrible fire. When but a few feet from the points of our bayonets they seemed to wither away, and those not killed or wounded were forced to fall back. The color bearer of the regiment fell with his colors, instantly another siezed [sic] the flag and held it aloft only to fall dead. Again and again it was raised until six brave men yielded up their lives in trying to keep it flying. The sixth man fell with the flag in front of our company and only about ten or twelve feet from us. There it lay a prize within our grasp. I could have reached it with a single bound but thought as it was already ours, I would wait until their line had been completely driven back before picking it up. When the Indiana regiment broke and fell back for the last time, leaving their flag on the ground at our feet, one of the brave fellows turned, and seeing it was being left behind, threw down his gun, came back and picked it up. He straightened himself to his full height, gritted his teeth and flapped his flag in our faces. Instantly a half dozen rifles were leveled on him and in another moment he too would have fallen riddled with bullets, but just then one of our boys cried out "don't shoot him, he's too brave." We lowered our rifles and gave him a cheer as he carried his flag safely away.
Before the regiment got entirely away I captured a young prisoner, about my own age, and during the brief conversation we had on the field I learned that he and I had sat on the same bench in the primary school we both attended in Indiana before I moved to Texas, and when he told me the name of his Colonel I recognized it as one that my mother had often mentioned to me as a friend of her girlhood days. After the war was over I had positive information that the identical flag which I came so near capturing and which was saved only by the bravery of the man who turned back and lifted it aloft, was made by my Mother's oldest sister and presented by her to that regiment, and as the battle was fought on the 27th of May, my Mother's birth day, I was struck with the singular chain of coincidences.
- Only a Private: A Texan Remembers the Civil War: The Memoirs of William J. Oliphant, edited by James M. McCaffrey, pp. 64-65.