A member of Co. I of the 8th DID capture a flag. I got it from the CSR's. I am including the transcript of his record. However, there is nothing more mentioned and in all my research on the 8th, have nothing else on it either. I tried a number of years ago to try to identify which flag but hit dead ends. The J. Arthur Taylor letter saying a piece of it was in the letter is the first I have heard on this also so possibly the entire flag or guidon was cut up and sent home piecemeal. Here is what the CSR's had on Holmes Willis:

Willis, Holmes Nathan, Private

Holmes Willis was born in 1835 in Canaan, New Hampshire. He was single and working as an engineer in Alexandria when he enlisted in the 8th Regiment in New Orleans on May 26th, 1861. Holmes was present at all actions up to Gettysburg on July 2nd, 1863. In the twilight attack on Cemetery Hill, Willis captured a Federal flag in a hand-to-hand fight and bore the trophy from the field. His jubillation would be short lived as he was severely wounded with a gunshot wound to the right shoulder at Rappahannock Station on Nov. 7th, 1863. He was wounded while on picket duty and recovered from the field. The wound would require the amputation of his right arm. He remained in the army but was furloughed and was at home at the surrender. After the war, he married a lady named Sarah before 1870 and worked in a sawmill in Pineville. Late in life, he checked himself into the Camp Nicholls Old Soldier's Home in New Orleans and died there on May 8th, 1916. Holmes Willis was buried in the Soldier's Tomb at Greenwood Cemetery in New Orleans. 46