Flag mentions at Gettysburg
A wonderfully detailed account of the Gettysburg campaign by Major Alexander Biddle of the 121st Pennsylvania can be found at the Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia. Biddle writes of the time when the regiment retreated to Seminary Ridge in front of the Lutheran Seminary on the late afternoon of 1 July [1863]: "... then Hardy showed me his colors staff shot in half in his hands ..." During the cannonade on 3 July on Cemetery Ridge, Biddle's regiment was lying behind a breastwork when "the 5th Michigan came and lay down at our breastwork and behind us. ... I had some little altercation with the Major of this regiment about keeping his color staff up when his men were lying down - I thought the flag staff was an unnecessary indication of our whereabouts." As the argument ensued, "A shell exploded almost in front of our breastwork and the Major [of the 5th] called out, 'put down those colors,' and they were put down."