Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 37.djvu/304

 pike after Kensill was wounded; Evans was with the company till the close of the day, and he and I left the Seminary together; Street also was there through the engagement; I saw and spoke to Gimber a full hour after Kensill had gone to the rear.

I will now give you some extracts from my note book, under head of "Statements of sundry persons in regard to reported recapture of 149th colors by squad of 150th P. V."

Ramsey, of F, crossed the pike, saw your colors when we swung out from barn to fence on south side of pike, from which point we opened fire on the advancing rebel line, which was then partly across the R. R. grading, west of the cut—remained in field until the right wing—A, F, D—fell back, under orders, to the south side of pike; he saw no fight around your colors, to which Co. A, 150th, was nearest, on account of our position being diagonal to the pike, with right of A farthest north of the road.

John Hines, of Co. F, crossed the pike, was wounded in field north of it; saw no dash, knows nothing of recapture; F. M. James, of F, wounded in field north of road, saw nothing of dash; Ned Fowler, of F, was in field north of pike, saw Lt. Keyser killed, noticed 149th colors, but says we did not get them; Ned Hess and Geo. Bates, both of F, crossed pike, know nothing of dash; MacDonald, of F, crossed the pike to fence on north side, but did not enter field, he saw 149th colors and locates them to our front and right, which agrees with Ramsey's recollections; he says the colors were still there when he fell back to the barn. MacDonald was a veteran of the Mexican War, cool and observant, a thoroughly reliable man in every way.

Many other members of A and F were written to, or interviewed, and with but one exception, none had any personal knowledge of the recapture, although several had heard of it as a camp-fire rumor after the battle.

The one exception was a man of F, who, like Kensill, described in glowing language the color episode, with this difference, however, that he himself was the gallant leader; there were some weak spots in his story: first, he assigned to the command of F an officer who was not at McPherson's, having fallen by the wayside before reaching the field, and not rejoining the regiment