101st Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteer Infantry's Colors
returned to Harrisburg!!!
The symbolic return of the 101st PA's flag took place after the Grand Review 2000 parade on June 10th, 2000.
Obituary of the Color Bearer who helped bury the Colors
"Few regiments that went out from the State of Pennsylvania had so many of their original members, seal their devotion to the Union by giving their all -- their lives, 'the last full measure of devotion' -- to preserve its integrity, and to the proposition that all men are created equal. Forty per cent of the men and boys who accompanied the standard of the 101st Regiment to the seat of war sleep in Southern graves."
During the Battle of Plymouth, NC, which took place April 17th - 20th, 1864, the entire 101st PA regiment was captured along with several other regiments garrisoning Plymouth. The 101st PA's colors were never captured by the Confederates due to the fact that they buried them just prior to being captured by General Ransom’s troops. Sadly, the soldiers of the 101st Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers weren't able to take part in the Grand Review held in Washington following the end of the war. The few emaciated survivors of Andersonville & Florence made their way back to Pennsylvania in ones and twos; thankful merely to be alive.
As a result of their brave act of burying the flag at Plymouth, the brave men who suffered and fought around the flag of the 101st Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers never had the opportunity to return their state color to Governor Curtin. But they surely did honor to the flag that had been committed to their safekeeping. Torn and faded it was, and consecrated by the valor and sacrifice of battle. But most importantly, it was never stained by the touch of an enemy’s hand. It lies to this day beneath the soil of North Carolina, protected to the last moment by Pennsylvanians who would have died to preserve and protect it.
On June 10th, 2000, as part of the Grand Review 2000 event, the 101st PA reenactors marched at the head of the parade as the Color Guard. At the end of the parade, Dean Wilson, a descendant of Colonel Wilson’s brother (John Hays Wilson who went down to VA to retrieve the Colonel's body), presented to a man portraying Governor Curtin (the Governor of PA during the war) an exact replica of the 101st PA’s colors. Governor Curtin then presented the flag to Gary Crowell, Secretary of the PA Department of General Services. This symbolic gesture was considered the final official act of the 101st PA Regiment and was carried out by descendants of the regiment! 101st PA descendants from as far away as Texas were present to witness the event!
We thank all of the men and women who represent those long-departed veterans of the 101st Pennsylvania Infantry who were present for the return of the colors. It was certainly a unique opportunity to honor their service and sacrifice by completing their final duty—a duty that they, their ranks depleted by battle and imprisonment, were unable to perform. It is a duty the performance of which will finally allow the boys of the 101st to rest peacefully, knowing that they have not been forgotten and that those who remember and love them have performed their final obligation.
The following comments by Dean Wilson & Governor Curtin are placed here to show the dignity in which this duty was performed:
Colonel Wilson presented the Regimental Flag to Governor Curtin and made the following remarks:
"Your Excellency, Governor Curtin: At the request of the descendants of the brave men who served with the 101st Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteer Infantry, and who on the field of battle represented our beloved State of Pennsylvania, I am here upon this occasion to present to you, Sir, a faithful likeness of their battle-stained banner. For four years it was carried by those noble men amidst the bullets and cannon roar, and in the face of the enemy."
"The war is long-past and peace has returned to bless our happy land. It is altogether fitting that you should receive on this day, sacred to their memory, this flag, symbolic of the original color which our forefathers carried through the fiery ordeal. In the name of our ancestors who served proudly and faithfully in the 101st Pennsylvania Infantry, I present to you this flag. Its predecessor was borne through the war with honor by the soldiers we remember today. Receive it, Sir, as a memento of the prowess and deeds of valor of our ancestors, noble sons of Pennsylvania. Cherish it for all time and place it where our posterity for all generations may see it, to know what their forefathers did in the hour of trial." *
* From remarks made by General George Gordon Meade on Independence Day 1866 in Philadelphia on the occasion of the return of Pennsylvania battle flags to Governor Curtin (revised to reflect the belated return of a likeness of the original Regimental Flag of the 101st Pennsylvania Infantry).
Governor Curtin accepted the flag from Colonel Wilson and made the following remarks:
"On behalf of a grateful Commonwealth, I accept this flag. To your ancestors, the men who carried the steel, the musket and the sabre—to the private soldier, the unknown dead—I seek this day in vain to express all my gratitude. If there be men more distinguished than others, more entitled to our highest veneration, it is the private soldier of the Republic. If we follow him through all the sufferings and privations of the service, his long weary marches, his perils on the outposts, his wounds and sickness, even unto death, we trace him back to that sentiment of devotion to his country that led him to separate from home and its ties, and to offer even his life as a sacrifice to the Government his fathers gave him and his children. I cannot take back this likeness of the color committed to your ancestors’ keeping without attempting to gather into my arms the full measure of the Commonwealth’s overflowing gratitude and lay it at their feet. As their descendants, it is fitting that I present to you, in their stead, the thanks of your cherished mother, this ancient and goodly Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. And now, remembering your ancestors’ sacrifice, and acknowledging your faithful performance of their final duty, I transfer possession of this symbol of their sacrifice to the official representative of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Honorable Gary Crowell, Secretary of the Interior.**
** Excerpts from Governor Curtin’s remarks in response to General Meade’s remarks (revised to reflect the return of a likeness of the original Regimental Flag of the 101st Pennsylvania Infantry).
Secretary Crowell accepted the flag and passed it into the arms of a Marine who accompanied him. Secretary Crowell then presented an eloquent speech about the 101st PA and the Civil War in general. At the conclusion of the event, Secretary Crowell came over to the color guard and thanked all of them personally for their family's sacrifice during the Civil War.
Videos of the Grand Review 2000 event, which includes coverage of the returning of the colors and personal interviews with Edward Boots & Bob Eberly are available by sending $30 to: SC ETV Marketing, Box 11000, Columbia SC, 29211 or by calling 1-800-553-7752 with your credit card. Further information can also be obtained at the Grand Review 2000 website http://www.grandreview2000.org/
Rest in Peace, Boys! The battle has been won and victory is yours!
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