Chickamagua after battle report:
Report of Col. R. H. Keeble, Twenty-third Tennessee Infantry.

" . . . We had on this day 28 officers and 158 non-commissioned officers and privates, and lost in the charge upon the bridge 5 non-commissioned officers and privates, among whom was the color bearer (Private A. Melton), wounded in the leg. This brave soldier wept when he had to part with the colors, and said to the one who took them up, "Carry them through the thickest of battle
ahead of everything else. . . ."

………….

" . . . . Private J. D. Jeffries, color bearer, displayed the highest degree of courage and extraordinary degree of valor in the manner in which he bore the colors. Always far in advance, he would move if defiantly in the very face of the
enemy. . . . ."

Source: Official Records
CHAP. XLII.] THE CHICKAMAUGA CAMPAIGN. PAGE 484-51
[Series I. Vol. 30. Part II, Reports. Serial No. 51.]