A Flag Incident

: MEMORIAL DAY
: Good Stories For Great Holidays

BY M. M. THOMAS (ADAPTED)



When marching to Chattanooga the corps had reached a little wooded

valley between the mountains. The colonel, with others, rode ahead,

and, striking into a bypath, suddenly came upon a secluded little cabin

surrounded by a patch of cultivated ground.



At the door an old woman, eighty years of age, was supporting herself

on a crutch. As they rode up she asked if they ere "Yankees," and upon

their replying that they were, she said: "Have you got the Stars and

Stripes with you? My father fought the Tories in the Revolution, and my

old eyes ache for a sight of the true flag before I die."



To gratify her the colonel sent to have the colors brought that way.

When they were unfurled and planted before her door, she passed her

trembling hands over them and held them close to her eyes that she might

view the stars once more. When the band gave her "Yankee Doodle,"

and the "'Star-Spangled Banner," she sobbed like a child, as did her

daughter, a woman of fifty, while her three little grandchildren gazed

in wonder.



They were Eastern people, who had gone to New Orleans to try to improve

their condition. Not being successful, they had moved from place to

place to better themselves, until finally they had settled on this spot,

the husband having taken several acres of land here for a debt.



Then the war burst upon them. The man fled to the mountains to avoid the

conscription, and they knew not whether he was alive or dead. They had

managed to support life, but were so retired that they saw very few

people.



Leaving them food and supplies, the colonel and the corps passed on.