The Confederate Veteran, Vol. XI

FIFTH TEXAS REGIMENT FLAG

Mrs. M. J. Young was a daughter of Col. N. Fuller, of Houston, Tex., and was a loyal daughter of the South. Hers was a life of service, and she sacrificed it in the sacred office of ministering to the sick during a yellow fever epidemic. The following letter is the outcome of the return of the Fifth Regiment flag to Mrs. Young, its donor, in 1864:

THE FIFTH REGIMENT OF TEXAS VOLUNTEERS

HEADQUARTERS FIFTH TEXAS REGIMENT, NEAR RICHMOND, VA., Jan.14, 1865

To the Editor of the [Richmond] Whig:

Enclosed I send you for publication a letter written by Mrs. M. J. Young, of Houston, Texas, to the officers and men of the Fifth Texas Regiment upon the receipt of a battle flag sent to her by the command. Mrs. Young made and presented the flag to this regiment in June 1862 and after it had withstood the clash of arms on many and memorable battlefields, and had become but a worn and tattered remnant of an ensign, it was returned to her by the regiment. By giving the letter publicity in your valuable journal, you will confer a great. favor upon the soldiers of this regiment.

W. P. McGowan, Adit. Fifth Regt., Texas Volunteer Inf.

Houston, Tex., November, 1864.

My Dear Brothers [Soldiers and officers of the Fifth Regiment of Hood’s Texas Brigade]:

I received front Capt. Farmer the letter and the worn and battle-torn flag you did me the honor to send. Words are totally inadequate to express my feelings. The 8th of October will ever be remembered by me as the proudest of my life, yet mingled with the deepest sadness; for more eloquent than speech, more powerful than Caesar’s gaping wounds, was the story told by its blood-stained, weather-beaten, and bullet-scarred folds.

The weary march, the aching feet and throbbing brow, the cold bivouac, the lonely picket, the perilous scout, the gloomy hospital, the pride and pomp of battle array, the shock of arms, the victory, and, O, those silent, nameless grass grown mounds, strewn from Richmond to Gettysburg, from Chickamauga and Knoxville to the Wilderness and Petersburg — mounds whose shadows rest cold and dark upon a thousand hearts and homes in our once bright and happy Texas. All these came rushing thick and trooping over heart and brain; and, clasping the blood-banner to my heart, with a burst of tearful anguish, I could not but exclaim: '0 that my eyes were a fountain of tears, that I might weep over the slain of my people!

Maximilian's august dame felt not half the pride and delight when upon her brow was placed the glittering crown of the empire of Mexico that I do in being made the custodian of your flag. It shall be preserved as long as one of my name or blood exists. And when my son and younger brother gird them for the strife, I shall place the Bible and that flag before them, and on those swear them to fidelity to God and our Confederacy, to Liberty and Truth; and, invoking the benediction and guardianship of heaven, and the noble army of martyrs — swelled to countless number by the slain of our Southland-deem them fully panoplied and armed for the Battlefield of armies, Or the battlefield of life."

You bid me "hang the flag upon the outer walls," to strike terror to the hearts of the cowards skulking at home. Ah! my noble brothers of the Fifth, if the sable-clad forms of the mourning women and children, if the numberless maimed soldiers who greet us at every turn, if the cold contempt of proud beauty's eye, the averted faces of our gray-haired sires, if the form of the Confederacy, beleaguered with foes and bleeding at every vein, strike no remorse and inspire no patriotic deeds, think you this flag will? They are joined to their idols — money-making and selfish ease — so we will let them alone, hoping for the day soon to come when you shall return and scourge them from the land. If honor or peace or safety were depending upon them, we would long ago have worn the Yankee yoke and eaten the bread of slaves.

But, thank God, our liberties have not been in their keeping, but in theirs who sprung to arms as the first gun from Sumter awoke the echoes of the South, and well have you proved yourselves worthy of the task. You have saved us (under God) from destruction, and made our name the most glorious on earth. Already we see the dawning of the day star of peace, and no men have so contributed to its rising as 'the soldiers under Lee.' With a worshipful love and enthusiasm our State contemplates the deeds of Hood's Brigade. From the first hour that you drew your battle blades, Glory adopted you as her own; and Fame, plucking the brightest star from her crown, placed it on your banner, and the world has watched it since, growing in magnificence and brilliancy even in the forefront of conflict, gleaming like a Pharos of hope and success over the black sod Surging billows of a hundred battles.

Methinks in ages to come, should our beloved land he called to pass through another long and bloody struggle like this, that the old, worn, and tattered banner of the Fifth will be taken like the 'heart of Bruce' along to the field, aid when numbers overwhelm and all seems lost, they will fling it to the breeze, knowing that powel; almost to waken the dead, lives in its heart-stirring folds, and that its faded cross and bloodstained Stars will call to them like a clarion to rise and strike, to be worthy of being the countrymen and descendants of "The Old Texas Brigade."

You ask that I shall, with it, wave you a welcome when you return. Ah! the very thought of that return thrills me with emotion. I weep for joy. The day so long looked for, so long delayed, so sought for at God's throne, day and night, by a thousand grief-worn, anxious hearts in that day how doubly sacred shall this flag seem, when, with tearful eyes, we shall speak of the noble dead who fell bearing it onward! We will remember that —

Never yet was royal banner

Steeped in such a costly dye;

It hath lain on many bosoms

Where no other shroud shall lie.

And this revering them, doubly dear shall be the blessed fruits that their toils and yours have won for us. God in his mercy grant that no more of your numbers shall fall, and that ere many months have rolled away you may crown your muskets with roses, and with your hands playing 'Home, Sweet Home,' turn your feet away from the bloody ground of the old mother State to the quiet hearths and loving hearts in your proud prairie homes. Then will our State rise up to meet you, streets and thoroughfares will be crowded, old men leaning upon their staves, with trembling hands, will shade their eyes to better behold the warriors who have won such imperishable renown, such good things for the country, as to enable them, when the summons comes, to lay their gray heads calmly down in the grave, feeling that all is well in the land that you defended. In the name of the God of Israel, they will bless you. Matrons, feeling nobler than the grandest old Roman mothers will hail you as sons. Young men will say; 'They are my countrymen,' and will grow braver and purer and nobler with the thought. Young maidens, blushing at the very excess of their enthusiasm and admiration, will wave you a loving welcome of smiles and tears. Your mothers, wives, sisters — ah! I cannot proceed, my feelings overwhelm me, God hasten the day-hasten the day!

With deep gratitude and affection, honored Fifth Regiment, I remain ever your friend and proud countrywoman.

Fifth Texas Flag - It Was Made by Mrs. Young, and Afterwards Returned to Her.

(Special to the News.)

Marlin, Tex., June 26, 1903. — The following account of the flag of the Fifth Texas is furnished the News correspondent by Maj. Geo. A. Branard of Houston. The account is an extract from a letter that Major Branard received from Dr. S. O. Young, Secretary Galveston Cotton Exchange.

"My mother made the flag — I think in '62 — and sent it to the Fifth Texas by Bob Campbell of Company A, Fifth Texas, one of the recruits who went back with Lieutenant Clute. The flag was used until '64, when Lieutenant Clay, Captain Farmer and some other officers, whose names I forget, came back to Texas after recruits. The Fifth Texas held a meeting, wrote a magnificent letter and appointed these officers a committee to return the flag to my mother, it being so badly torn and tattered as to be of no use. During its use by the regiment, fourteen men were shot down and killed; two, I remember, were badly wounded, one of whom was George Onderdonk of Company A, who was afterwards killed in a runaway accident after the war; the other is his dear old side-partner of J. C. COX, whom you will see in Bryan, and who will show you the ball from a wound he received at Manassas, I believe, and carried for over thirty-five years." [Note: Although John Calhoun Cox was indeed wounded at Second Manassas, the ball which Dr. Young mentioned was "received" at Chickamauga.]

Houston, Texas, August 13 <1905>.

To the editor of the Chronicle:

As a Texas boy a long way from home and poor prospects of ever getting back, I was always a welcome visitor to the War Department and White House at Richmond, Virginia, in 1861. I had the further prestige of an uncle, Hon. Wm. P. Chilton, member of Congress from Alabama and my kinsman, General R. H. Chilton, at that time Assistant Adjutant General of the Confederacy, but subsequently chief of General Lee’s staff. I also knew Judge Reagan of the cabinet and General Wigfall of the Senate, as well as all the Texas Congressmen, all of which coupled with my extreme youth gave me many privileges among the official Confederacy. It was my honor to often meet, and as a boy, know quite well the President’s family and my dear privilege after the war to receive letters at various times from members of the family and it is the last letter received from our beloved President that I herewith enclose and submit to the Chronicle and ask its solution of a paragraph contained therein. Directly after adjournment of the Southern Interstate Immigration Convention that met in the old historic capitol building at Montgomery, Alabama, in 1887, and where by the delegates of 13 Southern States, I was elected the general manager of interests of the association there formed. I sent Mr. Davis the minutes of said convention as a matter of interest to him. Neither war or rumors of war was in my mind, nor did I mention the brigade or anything connected with the Confederacy — but the noble soul and master mind of Mr. Davis traveled back and connecting me with Hood’s Birigade in his reply to my letter uses this language:

"The gallant and distinguished organization, Hood’s Texas Brigade, to which you belonged, showed on many battlefields its willingness to 'live and die for Dixie,’ and might have inscribed on its banner the motto of Hampden."

Hood’s Texas Brigade history is now being written by General J. B. Polley, brigade historian, of Floresville, Texas, and inclosed letter of President Davis will be used therein, and as there has been differences as to the "motto of Hampden," your Tuesday issue of the Chronicle is most respectfully requested to tell us what the motto was that President Davis referred to.

I inclose both letter of Mr. Davis and envelope that covered same. Please handle carefully. Copy exact and return safely to me, giving us a solution we can rely on. As the language comes direct from the President of the Confederacy, and is addressed to troops that were directly under his eye throughout the whole four years’ struggle, it will not only appear in our history, but in substance may be inscribed on the monument we are soon to erect.

F. B. CHILTON, President Hood’s Texas Brigade Monument Committee.

Letter of President Davis to Captain Chilton, as copied from original and carefully compared is as follows:

Beauvoir, Miss.,

April 6, 1889

Captain F. B. Chilton,

Austin, Texas

My Dear Sir:

I am much obliged to you, both for your kind consideration and for the very interesting pamphlets you sent to me after the meeting of the interstate immigration convention. The gallant and distinguished organization, Hood’s Texas Brigade, to which you belonged, showed on many battlefields its willingness "to live and die for Dixie," and might have inscribed upon their banner the motto of Hampden.

With best wishes for you and all the survivors of Hood’s Brigade, I am,

Fraternally,

JEFFERSON DAVIS

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Houston Chronicle, 15 August, <1905>

What Was the Motto of Hampden?

Quotation From Jefferson Davis Starts the Query.

On page 2 of the second section of The Sunday Chronicle there is given a letter from Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, to Captain F. B. Chilton, in which Mr. Davis refers to the members of Hood’s Texas Brigade and says they might have inscribed upon their banners the motto of Hampden. In republishing the letter Captain Chilton has asked The Chronicle to publish the motto of Hampden. Research into English history has thus far failed to disclose it.

John Hampden was a Yorkshire gentleman, who with John Pym, from Gloustershire refused to pay the second ship tax levied by Charles the First of England in his terrific fight to secure funds to run the government without making application to parliament.

The first ship levy made by Noy’s <office> on the coast cities was paid. Then the inland country was asked to give a subsidy in money in place of furnishing a certain number of ships. Hampden’s share of the tax was only 20 shillings but he refused to pay it, claiming that a great principle was at stake, the principle being a denial of the right of the king to levy taxes without the consent of parliament. Hampden and Pym were tried, arrested and convicted, but of the eleven judges trying the case five dissented and this dissent was supposed to be a great moral victory for the opponents of the ship tax money.

On account of the notoriety thus gained Hampden was sent to parliament where he was a consistent opponent of the king. He and Pym were two of the five men whom Charles went in person to expel from parliament but who had obtained warning and were not present at the time of his visit. When war broke out Hampden was made general in the parliamentary army and commanded the cavalry of a portion of it. He was wounded in an early engagement with the cavalry of the king led by Prince Rupert of the Palatinate and his forces were routed and he himself died from the wound thus received. His name is found in the most solemnly beautiful poem ever penned in the English language, Gray’s Elegy, in the line —

"Some village Hampden that with dauntless breast

The little tyrant of his fields withstood."

Who knows the motto to which President Davis referred?

How the great soul of the president of the Confederacy must have yearned and his heart gone forth to the old brigade when a quarter of a century after the war was over the name of Captain Chilton as one of the boy members he so well knew, brought the noble old brigade before him — as it were in reality — and he once more had his whole being stirred as in the days of yore, when Lee listened for their terrible guns and death-dealing rebel yell at Gaines’ Mill and relied on them to the death at Wilderness and how he as president had refused to have a single regiment of the brigade consolidated with other troops, even though they had but a corporal’s guard left to each regiment, saying: "The Texas Brigade shall remain so until the last man has gone." He seems to have entirely ignored the substance of Captain Chilton’s letter, but seeks at once — as he had often done in the past — to pay the highest tribute at his command to Hood’s Texas Brigade, while sending his love to every survivor.

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MOTTO OF HAMPDEN

"No Steps Backward" Was What Davis Said of Hood’s Brigade.

To the Editor of the Chronicle:

In answer to an inquiry contained in your issue of Sunday, will say: —

When King Charles I, by violence and perfidy, by tyranny and folly, alienated his parliament and the greater part of his people from all fealty to his person, and parliament, in self-preservation, had recourse to the sword against their foresworn and faithless king, John Hampden took a colonel’s commission in the parliamentary army, and raised and equipped a regiment at his own expense.

His men were known by their green uniform and standard, which bore on one side the words, "God With Us," and on the other the motto, of Hampden, "Vestigia nulla retrorsum." (No steps backwards.) This is the motto Jefferson Davis in his letter to Capt. F. B. Chilton says might have been inscribed upon the banners of Hood’s Texas Brigade.

Respectfully,

JOHN A. KIRLICKS

Houston, Texas, August 19, <1905>

[NOTE: The phrase, Vestigia . . . nulla retrorsum, comes from Horace, Epistles 1:1:74 —

Quia me vestigia terrent, / Omnia te adversum spectantia / Nulla retrorsum

Conventionally rendered as "no steps backward," the phrase may be translated more literally as "no signs of any returning." In its Horatian context, the Fable of the Fox and the Lion, it refers to all the creatures which have ventured toward the lion's den, never to return. Jefferson Davis, who was classically educated in both Latin and Greek by the Dominican Fathers, in Springfield, Kentucky, at the St. Rose Priory, would most certainly have known this. The St. Rose Priory, named for St. Rose of Lima, was founded in 1806 as the first priory in the Dominican Province of St. Joseph. Pius Joseph Gaddis, the Master of the Order, established the Province of St. Joseph in May 1806.]