MEMPHIS DAILY APPEAL [ATLANTA, GA], August 8, 1863
Heroic Color-Bearer.
We learn from the Examiner that among the paroled prisoners who have reached Richmond, from the last flag of truce, is C. S. Clancey, color-bearer of the 1st Louisiana regiment, who was taken prisoner in the battle of the 2nd of July, at Gettysburg, while bearing his colors up to the very front of the enemy's breastworks, amid a perfect tornado of shell and bullets. Finding himself cut off from escape, and certain to be either killed or captured, Clancey tore his already bullet-torn flag from its staff, and secured it underneath his shirt. He was taken prisoner, and carried to Fort McHenry, Baltimore, and from thence sent to Fort Delaware, carrying his flag with him, not floating to the breeze, of course, but furled beneath his shirt. Clancey kept his own secret while in the fort, and when the sick and wounded prisoners were selected to be sent Southward, he feigned extreme illness, and was put on board the steamer, with a number of others, still holding fast to his regimental colors, which he brought safely away, and exhibited in this city yesterday. The flag bears the perforations of upwards of two hundred bullets and one shell, and the piece of another, passed through it in the fight at Gettysburg. Clancy is the sixth color bearer of the regiment, five having fallen in battle, with the identical flag in their grasp. The sixth, Clancy, has carried the flag for nearly a year, and he certainly can claim to have carried it farther into the North than the Confederate flag has ever yet been advanced, and, what is better, back again in triumph.
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what a wonderful article and how inspirational it must have been to the Confederates--thank you for sharing this!
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