Page:Journal history of the Twenty-ninth Ohio veteran volunteers, 1861-1865.djvu/156



had been in the thickest of the fight, ever ready to breast the fury of the battle storm; but its history tells us that it has borne an honorable part in nearly a score of the hardest fought battles of the war. Citizen soldiers, take this flag and bear it aloft wherever duty calls, and your friends will take your past record as a guarantee that it will never be dishonored by the Twenty-ninth Ohio Veteran Volunteer Infantry. Colonel, please remember us to the dear old Twenty-ninth, and accept for yourself our best wishes.

,, Old Cols. of the Twenty-ninth Ohio.

,     }, June 5, 1865. }

Colonels Buckley and Fitch, and S. A. Lane, Esq.:

of the Twenty-ninth Ohio veteran volunteer infantry, I herewith acknowledge the receipt of the beautiful flag presented the regiment, and in return I present to you the old one, which it has been our proud honor to carry victoriously over many hard-fought battle-fields. That dear "old flag" which has been our companion through years of fearful war and carnage, and which symbolizes our glorious nationality, tells its own story. We return it to you, but not so beautiful in form and color as when presented to us eighteen months ago. But whilst its external beauty has been defaced, yet the great life-*giving principles of which it is the exponent, are all the more deeply enshrined in the hearts of its defenders, and Liberty receives through this standard another bright and shining star to her beautiful constellation. Take it, then, and place it among the archives of the nation, that it may be preserved as a sacred memorial, and handed
 * —In the name of the officers and men