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- Jan 16, 2015
The Ohio History Connection Library and Archives in Columbus has an ornate roster of Company H, 75th Ohio. Attached to the lower right of the roster is a white star, bearing a handwritten inscription: “Star from Gettysburg flag.” See attached two photographs.
The 75th Ohio was overrun at the base of Cemetery Hill on the evening of July 2 by the Louisiana brigade of Brig. Gen. Harry T. Hays. Among the four Federal flags claimed by Hays that night was one captured by Private Holmes N. Willis of Company I, 8th Louisiana. Some of the men from the 8th tore pieces from this flag as trophies, but the larger part was recovered and presented to Hays as likely representing the banner of the “57th Ohio” – most probably a transposition of 75. Forward to 1890, when Hays’ widow wanted to return the flag to the survivors of the regiment.
The question naturally arises as to whether the star attached to the Company H roster came from the remnant of the flag that was presumably passed to the survivors of the regiment by Mrs. Hays. If so, it had followed a fascinating journey.
Lieutenant Joseph Warren Jackson of Company I, 8th Louisiana recalled the twilight attack on July 2: “We ‘fotched up’ at a stone fence behind which Mr. Yank had posted himself and he did not want to leave – but with bayonets and clubbed guns we drove them back, by this time it was dark and we couldn’t tell whether we were shooting our own men or not. Some of our men went on up to the battery … Willis had a hand to hand fight with a Yank and took his colors away from him.” Jackson’s description suggests the 75th lost its colors further up the hill. The attached map fixes the time at around 7:50 p.m., as the light was rapidly dimming (sunset was at 7:32).
Sources:
-Official Report of Harry S. Hays.
-July 10, 1863 letter of Capt. A. L. Gusman, commanding 8th Louisiana, to Harry S. Hays.
-July 16, 1890 letter of A. S. Graham to George T. Hodges, Department Commander of the Louisiana and Mississippi G.A.R., which was forwarded to the Adjutant General of the G.A.R., published in the Journal of the Twenty-Third Annual Session of the National Encampment, G.A.R., 1889 (a typewritten version of this letter and the Gusman letter were provided to me by N. Wayne Cosby in 2013).
-The Gettysburg Campaign – a Louisiana Lieutenant’s Eye-Witness Account, ed. by Merl E. Reed, Pennsylvania History, vol. XXX, April, 1863, no. 2, pp. 181-191.
The 75th Ohio was overrun at the base of Cemetery Hill on the evening of July 2 by the Louisiana brigade of Brig. Gen. Harry T. Hays. Among the four Federal flags claimed by Hays that night was one captured by Private Holmes N. Willis of Company I, 8th Louisiana. Some of the men from the 8th tore pieces from this flag as trophies, but the larger part was recovered and presented to Hays as likely representing the banner of the “57th Ohio” – most probably a transposition of 75. Forward to 1890, when Hays’ widow wanted to return the flag to the survivors of the regiment.
The question naturally arises as to whether the star attached to the Company H roster came from the remnant of the flag that was presumably passed to the survivors of the regiment by Mrs. Hays. If so, it had followed a fascinating journey.
Lieutenant Joseph Warren Jackson of Company I, 8th Louisiana recalled the twilight attack on July 2: “We ‘fotched up’ at a stone fence behind which Mr. Yank had posted himself and he did not want to leave – but with bayonets and clubbed guns we drove them back, by this time it was dark and we couldn’t tell whether we were shooting our own men or not. Some of our men went on up to the battery … Willis had a hand to hand fight with a Yank and took his colors away from him.” Jackson’s description suggests the 75th lost its colors further up the hill. The attached map fixes the time at around 7:50 p.m., as the light was rapidly dimming (sunset was at 7:32).
Sources:
-Official Report of Harry S. Hays.
-July 10, 1863 letter of Capt. A. L. Gusman, commanding 8th Louisiana, to Harry S. Hays.
-July 16, 1890 letter of A. S. Graham to George T. Hodges, Department Commander of the Louisiana and Mississippi G.A.R., which was forwarded to the Adjutant General of the G.A.R., published in the Journal of the Twenty-Third Annual Session of the National Encampment, G.A.R., 1889 (a typewritten version of this letter and the Gusman letter were provided to me by N. Wayne Cosby in 2013).
-The Gettysburg Campaign – a Louisiana Lieutenant’s Eye-Witness Account, ed. by Merl E. Reed, Pennsylvania History, vol. XXX, April, 1863, no. 2, pp. 181-191.
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