PART VI. A.D. 1865-1880. THE END OF THE WAR AGAINST THE UNION AND THE FLAG. THE RETURN OF THE FLAGS OF THE VOLUNTEER REGIMENTS TO THEIR STATES. THE DISPOSITION OF THE TROPHY FLAGS OF THE WAR. ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS. STATE FLAGS AND COLORS. "Now silent are the forests old, amid whose cool retreats Great armies met, and from the shore have passed the hostile fleets. "O'er frowning ramparts, where once shone the sentry's gleaming steel, "The wealth of beauty that falls out from God's o'erflowing hand "The past is past; the wild flowers bloom where charging squadrons met; Thomas S. Collier, 1879. PART VI. THE END OF THE WAR AGAINST THE UNION AND THE FLAG. "Thank God! the bloody days are past; But lead our heroes home from strife! "Thank God! there beams o'er land and sea Our blazing star of victory; And everywhere, from main to main, The old flag flies and rules again!" George H. Boker, July 4, 1865. On the 3d of April, 1865, the national ensign, which had been gradually restored to one after another of its stolen fortresses, again waved over the rebel capitol at Richmond. Tidings of its fall spread with lightning speed over the loyal North, and public demonstrations and delight were visible everywhere. At Washington, the public offices were closed, and all business suspended. "In New York, there was an immense spontaneous gathering of men in Wall Street, to hear the news as it was flashed over the wires, to listen to the voices of orators and to the joyful chimes of Trinity. A deep, religious feeling, born of joy and gratitude, because of the deliverance of the republic from a great peril, prevailed, and was remarkably manifested when thousands of voices broke out spontaneously in singing the Christian doxology to the grand air of Old Hundred." 1 The occupation of the rebel capital on the 3d of April, with the surrender of General Lee and his army to General Grant on the 9th of April, 1865, may be considered to have virtually ended the civil war. There were other rebel armies in the field, but the great rebellion had collapsed, exhausted, and, as a matter of course, those armies were soon surrendered or disbanded. On the 11th of April, Washington City was brilliantly illuminated and ablaze with bonfires at the prospect of peace and reunion. On the 12th, the War Department issued an order directing a discontinuance of all drafting and recruiting for the army, or purchase of munitions of war; and declaring that the number of general and staff officers would be speedily reduced, and all military restrictions on trade and commerce be removed 1 Lossing's Civil War, vol. iii. forthwith. This virtual proclamation of the end of the war went over the land on the anniversary of the evacuation of Fort Sumter, and while General Anderson was replacing the old flag over the ruins of that fortress. Preparations for a national thanksgiving were being made, when the national joy was palsied by the assassination of 'the President,' the first martyr in our history, who had piloted the nation through its great war to the end. There is no need to repeat the story of that dastardly deed. It did not disturb the prospects of peace, and, while it gave an unenviable immortality to his theatrical assassin, it crowned President Lincoln with a martyr's glory. The honor of raising the colors of the United States over the capitol at Richmond, on its occupation by the Union forces, was sought for by many gallant men. One young man proposed to do so long before the opportunity was really presented. Nearly a week before the surrender of the city, Lieutenant de Peyster wrote to a young friend : "My dear Lew: To-morrow a battle is expected, the battle of the war. I cannot tell you any of the facts, for they are contraband; but we are all ready and packed. Anyway, I expect to date my letter soon, if I escape, Richmond, March 29th.' "I have promised to carry out a bet made by my general, if we take Richmond, to put a certain flag he has on the house of Jeff. Davis, or on the rebel capitol, or perish in the attempt." The writer of this letter, then in the eighteenth year of his age, was a member of one of the oldest families of colonial New York, and allied with nearly every family of consequence in that State. He entered the army to seek glory, and doubtless felt that the honor of a long line of ancestors was placed in his especial keeping. Six days after the date of his letter, the city of Richmond was occupied by the Federal troops; and among the first to enter it was Lieutenant Johnston Livingston de Peyster. On the pommel of his saddle was strapped a folded flag, the "colors of the United States." This flag had formerly belonged to the Twelfth Regiment of Maine Volunteers, of which General George F. Shepley, his chief, had been the colonel. It had seen active service in New Orleans, when General Shepley was the military governor of that city; and, some time before the movement on Richmond, the General, in his fondness for the flag, made a wager that some day or other it should wave over the capitol of the confederacy. Lieutenant de Peyster carried this storm-flag thus secured, not far behind the advance guard of the army when the city was occupied by the Federal troops. General Shepley had intrusted it to him on his promise to take care of it, and "to raise it on the flag-staff of the capitol." The following letter to his mother shows how he redeemed that promise: "MY DEAREST MOTHER, - This morning, about four o'clock, I was got up, just one hour after I retired, with the information that at six we were going to Richmond. At six we started. The rebs. had gone at three, along a road strewn with all the munitions of war. Richmond was reached, but the barbarous South had consigned it to flames. The roar of the bursting shells was terrific. "Arriving at the capitol, I sprang from my horse, first unbuckling the stars and stripes, a large flag I had on the front of my saddle. With Captain Langdon, chief of artillery, I rushed up to the roof. Together we hoisted the first large flag over Richmond, and on the peak of the roof drank to its "In the capitol I found four flags, three rebel, one ours. I presented them all, as the conqueror, to General Weitzel. I have fulfilled my bet, and put the first large flag over Richmond. I found two small guidons, took them down, and returned them to the Fourth Massachusetts Cavalry, where they belonged. I write from Jeff. Davis's private room. "I remain ever your affectionate son, "JOHNSTON." Two small guidons, belonging to the Fourth Regiment of Massachusetts Cavalry, were found on the roof of the capitol, by Lieutenant de Peyster and Captain Langdon, which had been placed there by Major Stevens and Major Graves, members of the military staff of General Weitzel, who had accompanied the party of cavalry which was sent forward in pursuit of the fugitive enemy. By an unauthorized detour they raised the guidons of their party on the roof of the abandoned capitol. The hoisting of these guidons failed to secure the grateful service, as it was styled in Mexico by General Scott, of a formal possession of the capitol at Richmond, and as was reserved to General Quitman, in the former case, the honor of formal occupation, by "hoisting the colors of the United States on the national palace," 1 so to Lieutenant de Peyster and Captain Langdon rightfully belongs the honor of hoisting the colors of the United States over the capitol of the Confederate States, and the formal occupation of that edifice. ་ 1 The ensign raised by General Quitman is, by resolution of the United States Senate, preserved in the War Department. The colors of the South Carolina Palmetto Regiment were the first to enter the gates of Mexico. |