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Our Colors Were Gone:
The battleflag of the 11th Alabama Infantry is connected with two dramatic stories from the Seven Days battles. At Gaines' Mill on June 27m, the man carrying the flag was killed, riddled by nearly a dozen shots. His successor fell with multiple wounds, too, but heroically begged to have the flag wrapped to his body so that he could continue in the charge.
Three days later, at Glendale/Frayser's Farm, a new colorbearer survived the carnage when his regiment charged Randol's Battery, only to be killed among the cannon. A relative in the same regiment raced to his assistance, but he too was killed, and the flag became a trophy of war, captured by a Pennsylvania soldier. Today the original flag is in the collection of the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond. |