Have you ever visited the Gettysburg Battlefield?

If you plan a visit, you could find out what regiments with men from your town fought at Gettysburg, and make a point of finding their monuments on the field.

The "Colors" or flags of a Civil War regiment were carried by sergeants who were unarmed. They were protected by four guards, usually corporals, who were armed; but who only fired when the Colors were in danger of being captured. It was considered a great honor to be chosen as a Color Sergeant or a member of the Color Guard, but it was an extremely dangerous responsibility. Obviously these men were easy targets for the enemy. If the Color bearer and/or his guards were shot down, other men would pick the Colors up and continue, often to be killed in their turn. It is said that no man who carried the Colors for the 16th Maine survived the War.

What do you think was the military purpose for the use of "The Colors" in battle? Why did the men of the 16th Maine cherish the fragments of the flags they saved? What do you think it means when someone tells you that you have accomplished something with "flying colors"?

The 16th Maine and the Turner Boys at Gettysburg

This is the monument erected by the State of Maine in honor of the 16th Maine Volunteer Infantry. Standing 24 feet high, it is located on the Chambersburg Road, just west of the town of Gettysburg on Seminary Ridge. Photo by Jeffrey Brown

Around 11: 30 on the morning of July 1st, 1863, two Divisions of the 1st Corps, Army of the Potomac arrived to join a fight that had been raging all morning, as the Confederates advanced on Gettysburg from the west and from the north. Among them was the 16th Maine. The Regiment, along with the rest of the Army, had been marching since the 12th of June, up from Virginia, through Maryland and into Pennsylvania. They were headed toward an eventual clash with the Confederate Army that was fated to take place in and around the little market town of Gettysburg. The 16th Maine fought bitterly for approximately three hours in the fields north of the Chambersburg Pike; but by mid-afternoon, it was evident that, even with the addition of the rest of the 1st Corps and the entire 11th Corps, the position of the Union forces could not be held. They began to fall back toward the town of Gettysburg.

The 16th Maine was then ordered to withdraw to a new position to the east of where they had been fighting. "Take that position and hold it at any cost!" was the command. This meant that those of the 275 officers and men of the Regiment who had not already become casualties had to sacrifice themselves to allow some 16, 000 other men to retreat. This they valiantly did, but they were soon overwhelmed and forced to surrender to the Confederates. As the Southern troops bore down upon them, the men of the 16th Maine spontaneously began to tear up into little pieces their "Colors" (the American and State of Maine flags they carried with them into battle). They quickly distributed the pieces and strips of the two flags among themselves, and each man hid his fragment inside his shirt or in a pocket. The Confederates were thus deprived of the chance to capture the flags as battle trophies. Most of the 16th Maine survivors treasured these remnants for the rest of their lives and bequeathed them to their descendents, some of whom still possess them as family heirlooms to this day.

By sunset on July 1, 11 officers and men of the 16th Maine had been killed, 62 had been wounded, and 159 had been taken prisoner. Only 38 men of the Regiment managed to evade being captured and report for duty at 1st Corps headquarters. But the 16th Maine had bought precious time for the Union Army. Those whose retreat they had covered were able to establish a very strong position just east and south of the center of the town of Gettysburg along Cemetery Ridge. During the night and into July 2nd the 1st and 11th Corps were reinforced by the rest of the Army of the Potomac. For the next two days they would withstand successive assaults by the Confederates until the final repulse of Pickett's Charge, on July 3rd.

What happened to the prisoners?