Carrying the Colors of the 5th Texas at Gaines Mill

"I fought in the Battle of Gaines Mill as color bearer. In the beginning, Onderdonk was shot down. I took the colors and planted them on the heights 100 yards ahead of my regiment. I was complimented for the deed by Colonel Jerome Robertson and Lieutenant Colonel John Upton." ~ Corporal Robert A. Brantley, Co. D, 5th Texas

    

This 55" x 78" silk flag utilized elements of the first Confederate National flag (Stars and Bars) with the Lone Star symbolizing Texas and became the regimental colors of the 5th Texas shortly after the Texans arrived in Virginia in 1861. The regiment utilized these colors during the early stages of fight for Richmond before receiving a new set of colors in June 1862 (see below). The Texas State Archives and Library Commission now has custody of this flag.


In the early 20th century, Robert A. Brantley penned the following memoir of his experiences carrying the colors of his 5th Texas during the Battle of Gaines Mill. It was included in Mamie Yeary’s book Reminiscences of the Boys in Gray which was published in Texas in 1912.

    Early in the morning when the 5th Texas was formed, Adjutant Kerr said “Today we expect some of the heaviest fighting of our lives and I want five men from separate companies to volunteer to be color guards.” At this request I stepped out in front of my Co. D and Sergeant Frank Eldridge in front of Co. E; we were the only volunteers.

          The adjutant said, “Brantley, as you were the first, I will place you on the right of the flag and Eldridge on the left.” The other three men he detailed, but I do not remember who they were. We marched on paths and through woods slowly all day, halting now and then until we came to where General Lee stood, and there we right faced for battle. After the battle line was formed, General John Bell Hood held the 4th Texas in reserve and ordered the remaining portion of the brigade to move forward. This meant to go forward to where our own troops were lying in battle line in front of the enemy’s works; there to halt and await orders to fix bayonets and charge. This, I presume, every regiment did, anyway the 5th Texas did.

The bold assault of the Texas brigade at Gaines Mill made John Bell Hood's reputation within the Army of Northern Virginia. As Richard McMurry argued in his biography of Hood, the native Kentuckian "was about the only Southern general to emerge from the Seven Days with an enhanced reputation. He had been ordered to attack, he had done so, and the enemy had been driven from the field." Hood "emerged as a combat leader of great ability." 

          When the order came to move forward, the 5th Texas moved almost straight in front, meeting great bodies of straggling men with wounded coming out of the fight; sometimes breaking our ranks so bad that it kept up a confusion. They would implore us not to go as it was certain death, the place was impregnable. We moved steadily on through the brush and field until we were within 100 yards of Powhite Creek which the stragglers said we could not take. There is now wonder that General Stonewall Jackson said, “These men that carried that place were soldiers indeed.” [Brantley is more properly referring to Boatswain’s Swamp which was the watercourse directly in front of the Federal works; his regiment crossed Powhite Creek few hundred yards before contacting the Federal line.]

          We found a thin line of Confederate soldiers on the hill; it is said that several regiments charged before us and it was appalling to look upon them. We rested here and fired two or three rounds. As yet the 4th Texas had not arrived; it was behind and when it came up General Hood gave no orders for the brigade to charge but moved the 4th Texas right into battle and as soon as they began to fire, all regiments knew that the charge was on and moved off at once.

Just before the opening of the Seven Days battles, the 5th Texas received a new set of regimental colors emblazoned with the motto Vivere Sat Vincere, or "To conquer is to live enough." These were the colors that Robert Brantley carried at Gaines Mill; the Texas State Library and Archives Commission currently has custody of this flag. 


          Rapidly the order passed down the line, the smoke rising from the Federal works was so dense that we could not see them and did not see them until we got beneath it. The old Indian war whoop, now called the Rebel yell, was raised, and but a few bounds over the dead were made before we were standing on the brink of the creek and spring, pouring lead into the Federals as rapidly as we could load our guns. We, with the flag, landed at the spring where the gulch began and the best place to cross the creek. I, without delay, soon crossed and raised my gun to shoot the first Federal I saw rise from his works. He ran, looking back at me and someone shot him down.

          George Onderdonk, the color bearer, crossed right behind me at the same place, Eldridge next. As soon as Onderdonk hit the ground, he was shot down and the flag came down at my left. I caught it and looked at him. “Take it, I am shot,” he said. I then dropped my gun, drew my sword bayonet, raised the flag above my head with a yell and moved with all speed for the heights and when I passed over this wounded Federal, he was still looking at me. I was soon at the crest of the hill which was nearly 100 yards from my regiment.

Hood's brigade assaulted the Federal left center around 7 p.m. on June 27, 1862, striking the Federal line hunkered in its defenses above Boatswain's Swamp. As Corporal Brantley remembered it, there was a great deal of confusion in the ranks of both armies once the Confederates crossed the swamp and broke the Federal line. 
(American Battlefield Trust Map)

At the top of this hill were a few tents and I stopped near one of them and there stood three officers and two privates talking earnestly. The officers seemed to be looking down the hill with their backs half turned to me, the privates were on the far side of the officers looking in my direction. When I ran up and yelled, one of them said with an oath, “There’s a damned Rebel now,” and raised his gun to shoot, and as he did, I threw the flag in his face; he fired but did not hit me. After this, they all broke and ran down the hill. I then looked for my regiment and saw the right wing moving up to the spring to cross the gulch and the left wing going around the head of the spring. The Federals were still in their works. This crossing delayed the regiment, but they were fighting desperately.

I turned and surveyed the field before me. I saw a battery to my left with many pieces then looked to the right and saw the Federals moving towards another battery which was on the right of the 4th Texas. Then I saw the 4th Texas coming in sight at the top of the hill, moving in the same direction. A third battery was more or less hid from me by brush, but I saw one flash. These cannons could not use grape on the field lest they would roll down and kill their own men; they used them for long distance firing over their heads which is why their works were under the crest of the hill. No Federal was between the 4th Texas and me- the field was clear.



          I looked back for my regiment and the Federals were right on me, coming out of their works and moving panic-stricken. They were so thick that I could not see my regiment; they would run against me and I was kept busy trying to keep out of their way. I might have killed many of them with my sword, but I thought peace at that time was the better part of valor for not only was my life at stake, but the flag I held, and thought best not to use my sword unless it was in self-defense.

          After I found they were harmless, I moved a little nearer the tent where they did not keep me so busy trying to keep clear of them. I threw my eyes over the field again and saw one battery limbering up and moving away. Then I looked for the 4th Texas and it was standing still, but soon started after this battery. The whole field was covered with Federals and running around the 4th Texas, I could see them all around; there must have been 3,000-4,000. I could not distinguish the men of the 4th Texas but could see the flag as it moved towards the battery. When the 4th Texas was about half the distance, Captain Ike Turner [Co. K] was the first officer who came up to me. I called his attention to the 4th Texas and suggested he caution our men about shooting in that direction, which he did.

General Hood personally led the charge of the 4th Texas that broke the Federal line at Gaines Mill. When his troops stopped to return Federal fire at Boatswain's Swamp, Hood ordered the men to cease firing, fix bayonets, and charge. In the chaos that ensued, the 5th Texas captured most of the 4th New Jersey while the 4th Texas and 18th Georgia captured a Federal artillery battery.  Success did not come cheap: Hood's brigade suffered 572 casualties while the 4th Texas alone lost 253. One Texan later commented that the battle won the brigade such a reputation that it "nearly exhausted them to achieve it and finished them to maintain it." 


          The 5th Texas then passed beyond the tents and formed, following the retreating enemy to near the battery where the 4th Texas flag bearer was sitting on a cannon. If the 5th Texas could have crossed the creek easily, they would have been the first on the hill, but the 4th Texas is entitled to this honor as I myself witnessed.

          We turned to the left where there were some haystacks; the officers then discovered that many Federals were still running out from the works we had just passed and that we had better go back and put a stop to it. We faced about and marched back to the tents where we met a regiment. [This was the 4th New Jersey.] They first appeared like they intended to give us battle and some of them did fire at us. We were then about 30 feet apart and when they did fire our boys began to advance and fire upon them; with this they cried out with terrible rapidity, “We surrender.” Someone answered, “Throw down your guns,” and they seemed to drop them simultaneously and many of them ran toward the flag, falling on their knees and begging for their lives. One of them said, “Stand up and die like men.” Some of the boys ran up to the Federal colonel to take his sword, but he said he would only surrender it to another officer. After this, Lieutenant Colonel John C. Upton appeared and he took it.

 

"A brave soldier, devoted husband, perfect father, and Christian man."

Robert Brantley would serve with the 5th Texas for another year, sustaining two wounds during the Texas Brigade’s charge at Second Manassas in August. Commissioned a second lieutenant, he was captured July 2, 1863, while assaulting Little Round Top and spent the next 23 months as a prisoner of war at Fort Delaware. After the war, he returned home to Texas, married, and raised a family. He died August 3, 1911, at the age of 73 and is buried at Oaklawn Cemetery in Somerville, Texas.

 

To learn more about the fighting at Gaines Mill, please check out these other blog posts on the subject:

Louder Than the Bolts of Heaven: With the 1st Michigan at Gaines Mill

A Promise Kept After Gaines Mill (1st Michigan)

With the Jasper Greys at Gaines Mill (16th Mississippi)

More in the Wind than We Bargained For: The Seven Days with the 3rd New Jersey


Sources:

Memoir of Corporal Robert Augustus Brantley, Co. D, 5th Texas Infantry; Yeary, Mamie, compiler. Reminiscences of the Boys in Gray, 1861-1865. Dallas: Wilkinson Printing Co., 1912, pgs. 76-79

McMurry, Richard M. John Bell Hood and the War for Southern Independence. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1982, pgs. 45-51

Comments

Post a Comment

Most Popular Posts

Arming the Buckeyes: Longarms of the Ohio Infantry Regiments

Image
     A common question that comes up in conversation about Civil War Buckeye regiments is "What were they armed with?" We are fortunate in that the state of Ohio kept good records of how the regiments were armed when they went into service, this being especially true for those regiments which went into service in 1861 and 1862. The state adjutant general's reports for 1861 and 1862 have been heavily drawn upon to construct this article, as well as consultation with Phil Spaugy who has done extensive research on how Ohio's troops were armed during the war.      Buckeyes carried a fairly wide variety of weapons into the field, and the below article breaks this down into weapons of both domestic manufacture and imported arms. The early days of the war found the state of Ohio practically bereft of longarms; as an example, when the 1st and 2nd Ohio Volunteer Militia left the state in late April 1861, they left unarmed, being armed at Lancaster, Pennsylvania on their way to
Read more

Dressing the Rebels: How to Dye Butternut Jeans Cloth

Image
     In the early days of the Civil War,  the Southern states found themselves with an abundance of cotton but a shortage of cloth with which to make army uniforms. The trade in cloth prior to the war had largely been to send raw cotton or wool north to New England (or Great Britain) where it was converted into usable cloth; but now that trade was broken and the Southern states were thrown upon their own resources in their efforts to properly clothe the Confederate army.  This collection of Confederate enlisted men's frock coats and shell jackets gives some indication of the variety of shades of butternut worn during the war. All of them are shades of yellow brown, some heavier on the yellow and some heavier on the brown. The blue used around the collar or as rank insignia indicates that the soldier was in the infantry. Surviving Confederate uniforms are considered rather rare and command quite a healthy price in the collecting market. For an in-depth study of how Confederate jacke
Read more

Bullets for the Union: Manufacturing Small Arms Ammunition During the Civil War

Image
       Civil War bullets are perhaps the most common item collected from the era; the two armies expended bullets by the millions during the four years’ conflict and spent or deformed bullets of all shapes and sizes have made fascinating and affordable collectibles since the guns went silent in 1865.       I recently acquired a display piece featuring 35 different types of small arms ammunition used during the Civil War, including everything from a small .28 caliber ball up to a .69 caliber three-ring Minie and it triggered some questions: how did the Federal army obtain its small arms ammunition during the war? Where did the lead come from to make the bullets, and where and how was the ammunition manufactured? This post seeks to answer those questions. A typical .58 caliber 3-ring Minie bullet   “Whenever the blasts of war blow in the ears of men who trade in the implements of destruction, they are apt to experience more joy than the true warrior, for then comes the harvest of gain.
Read more

The Cannons are Now Silent: The Field of Death of Tupelo

Image
       The smoke of battle had drifted away from the battlefield at Tupelo, Mississippi on the hot afternoon of July 14, 1864, but the carnage of war lay spread across the open fields. “Scattered at intervals over the field of a few yards are dull gray blotches half shaded by grass,” an officer from the 7 th Minnesota Infantry recorded. “These are the Rebel dead. They have fought their last battle and lie generally in attitudes of rest; some of them look as if they had welcomed death. On the faces of two is imprinted a smile. One is a boy of 16 with delicate features, almost girlish in their beauty. His last gaze seems to have been directed toward his hand on the forefinger of which was a ring. A circle of purer white indicates its place; the ring was carried off as a trophy of the field.” The following account of the Battles of Tupelo and Old Town Creek was written by an unknown officer of the 7 th Minnesota Infantry, his account appearing in the August 5 th 1864 edition of the
Read more

The Vaunted Enfield Rifle Musket

Image
     The English-made Model 1853 .577 caliber Enfield Rifle Musket was widely regarded as the best infantry arm in the world at the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861. Favorable international press describing its efficiency in the Crimean War and in suppressing the Indian rebellion led to the widespread desire of American infantrymen (both Federal and Confederate) to be armed with these accurate and well-made arms. The lock plate of this well-worn P1853 Enfield rifle musket produced in 1862 shows the typical markings of a British-made weapon that made it through the Federal blockade.  ( Army of Tennessee Relics ) Enfield-pattern weapons were imported into the states by the tens and hundreds of thousands during the war years; one estimate stated that the Federal government purchased 500,000 while the Confederates purchased another 400,000. The Confederate government dispatched Captain Caleb Huse to Europe in April 1861 to purchase weapons and Huse focused on securing all the Enfi
Read more

Straw Already Threshed: Sherman on Shiloh

Image
  W illiam Tecumseh Sherman was enjoying retired life in New York City when just before Christmas in 1889 he was presented with an article written by John Cockerill, a former drummer boy in the 24 th Ohio who was visiting his father Colonel Joseph Cockerill of the 70 th Ohio of Sherman’s division when the Battle of Shiloh began. Cockerill’s article, originally published in the New York Journalist and later featured in the January 1893 issue of Blue & Gray Magazine, Sherman later pronounced as “the best war story ever written” and the truest account of Shiloh.           On New Year’s Day 1890, General Sherman composed the following letter to his friend Marshall P. Wilder thanking him for sending along Cockerill’s article and giving his own explanation of Shiloh. “This to me is straw already threshed for we have fought this battle on paper several times, a much more agreeable task than to fight with bullets,” he concluded. “When in England some years ago I was gratified to liste
Read more

Federal Arms in the Stones River Campaign

Image
  T he following list, constructed after many years of research, lists unit by unit which type of weapons were carried by the Army of the Cumberland during the Stones River campaign. A number of sources were consulted including state ordnance reports, Federal quarterly ordnance reports (thank you Research Arsenal ), Ken Baumann’s Arming the Suckers, regimental histories and memoirs, captured ordnance reports, and consultation with knowledgeable experts in the field of firearms. Some of this information has been shared on the blog before in “ Rosy’s Heavy Metal: Artillery of the Army of the Cumberland ” or “ Shoulder Arms: How Sheridan’s and Davis’s Divisions Were Armed at Stones River ” but this is the first time the army as a whole has been presented. The overall conclusion I drew from looking at this data is that the Army of the Cumberland in December 1862 was an organization in the midst of transformation as far as arms. Many of the regiments still retained their original issue
Read more

Escape of Captain Henry H. Alban of the 21st Ohio Infantry

Image
Captain Henry H. Alban was among the dozen officers of the 21 st Ohio Volunteer Infantry who were captured on September 20, 1863 at the Battle of Chickamauga. The regiment had held its position atop Snodgrass Hill against repeated Confederate assaults and now battered and without ammunition, with the darkness of evening enveloping the hill, the remainder of that gallant band found themselves at the mercy of the 54 th Virginia. A total of 12 officers and 121 enlisted men surrendered; the regiment’s colors were taken, and the men marched off the field into captivity. Captain Henry Harvey Alban, Co. F, 21st O.V.I. Captain Alban along with the rest went through a series of Confederate prison camps before arriving at Columbia, South Carolina in October 1864. Determined to make an escape, he watched for his chance and one night made his leap for freedom, successfully eluding the local camp guard and setting out along the railroad to head for the mountains of eastern Tennessee and
Read more

Knapsack Compression: Wilbur Hinman recalls the first step of becoming a veteran

Image
L ooking back on his experiences during the war, Captain Wilbur Hinman of the 65 th Ohio (perhaps best known as the author of Si Klegg and His Pard ) recalled that the first road along which his regiment marched was strewn “with debris. A pair of six-mule wagonloads might have been gathered of notions that had been flung aside by a thousand suffering “tenderfeet.” “The average young patriot started for the war with a wheelbarrow load of clothing, a bed quilt or two, books, photograph albums, toilet articles, and gimcracks of every sort,” he wrote. “Neither he nor the good homefolks had the slightest conception of the capacity of a knapsack, nor did they for a moment imagine that before the close of his first day upon the road every pound he carried would seem a hundred.” To the true mark of a veteran soldier was one who “learned to dispense with every unnecessary ounce of weight, and just in the ratio that he did this he increased his efficiency as a soldier. It was of the highest
Read more

Federal Arms in the Chickamauga Campaign

Image
T he ordnance returns of the Army of the Cumberland at the end of September 1863 show the results of a transformational year in weaponry. Since taking command of the army at the end of October 1862, General William S. Rosecrans had repeatedly pestered the War Department to supply his regiments with better firearms both to improve the command’s efficiency as well as expand its striking power. The results speak for themselves: for the infantrymen at the end of September 1863, 90% of them now carried Class I long arms (36,058 out of 39,959), 8.3% carried Class II arms, and a mere 1.5% carried Class III weapons. Most of the foreign-made weapons (except Enfields) were gone, and by and large the army had settled on a single common .58 caliber ammunition, although a few .54 caliber and .69 caliber weapons remained within the ranks. The English-made Enfield rifle musket was by far the most common arm, carried by 56% of the men while the second-most common arm was the .58 caliber M1861 Spring
Read more