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

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