Following the American Civil War Sesquicentennial with day by day writings of the time, currently 1863.

Post image for “The flag was shot through three times, and the flag-staff was shot off whilst in his hands.”–Memorials of Elisha Franklin Paxton.

“The flag was shot through three times, and the flag-staff was shot off whilst in his hands.”–Memorials of Elisha Franklin Paxton.

August 8, 2011

Elisha Franklin Paxton – Letters from camp and field while an officer in the Confederate Army

The following is taken from the Lexington “Gazette,” dated August 8,1861:

”It is due to our worthy fellow-citizen, Mr. E. F. Paxton, or rather it is due to the county of Rockbridge, to claim credit for Mr. Paxton’s conduct, which he has been too modest to claim for himself. A correspondent of one of the Richmond papers a short time since spoke of a Virginian who had been lost from his company during the fight, and fell in with the Georgia Regiment just as their standard-bearer fell. The lost Virginian asked leave to bear the colors. It was granted to him. He bore them bravely. The flag was shot through three times, and the flag-staff was shot off whilst in his hands. But he placed the flag on the Sherman Battery, and our brave men stood up to their colors and took the battery. That lost Virginian was E. F. Paxton, of Rockbridge.”

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