Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 37.djvu/292

 and Dana. That attaching to the last two is comparatively slight; and if Stone had not been severely wounded and carried into the barn, he would no doubt have kept a watch over the colors and got them back in time; but, badly wounded though he was, he should not have forgotten that the colors were exposed to capture by his very unusual military stratagem of ordering them away from the regiment to confuse the enemy; and he should not have passed over the matter in silence when writing his official report, giving outside interests a chance to distort it. Not a word of reference to it does he make in that document. As far as I know, it was only when I sent him a copy of my pamphlet, thirty-three years after the battle, that he expressed himself on the subject. This he did in the following letter:

Washington, D. C, Sept. 26, 1896.

My Dear Comrade:—I have read with much pleasure your excellent address on the "First Day at Gettysburg," and I write to ask you to send me another copy for the "U. S. Battlefield Commission," who are anxious to gather all the facts and to do justice to all who fought so well on that day.

Our position is described by General Doubleday as the "key point" of the line of battle and the enemy so regarded it, as appears from their official reports and from the fact that they focused 64 guns upon it, enveloping and enfilading both wings of our line.

I am glad to see the incident of our flag properly understood; of course, I intended to take care of it, and would have done so in good time if I had been spared; but if I had not detached it the regiment could not have lived to do the grand work it did later in the action. (Daniel's Confederate report does more justice to this work than all the Union reports.)

The colors of the 149th were a target for the 34 guns which practically enfiladed the regiment from the ridge beyond the run and when they had got the range, there was no safety for the regiment from quick destruction, but in confusion and deceiving the enemy to its location. My plan was to fire a volley or two