ence of all his officers, and in a
voice which must have betrayed my emotion, demanded to know why he was
parading our colors. His reply was, "Those are the colors of a d----d
runaway regiment which my men picked up on the battle-field of
Fredericksburg." My hair and whiskers were somewhat hot in color those
days, and I have not kept a record of my language to that colonel for
the next few minutes. I sincerely hope the recording angel has not.
Still, I am sure it was the explosion of a righteous indignation.

Full of wrath I galloped at topmost speed to camp and made known my
discovery to Colonel Albright. If I was "hot," what shall be said of
him? Of a fiery, mercurial disposition, his temper flew in a moment. He
mounted his horse and bade me lead him to this regiment. The brave
heralds who carried "the good news from Ghent to Aix," did not gallop
faster than did we two, and the wicked fellow who was hired to say two
dollars' worth of "words" for the Quaker did not do his work a bit more
effectively than did my brave colonel in denouncing the man who had made
that charge of cowardice against our regiment. Well, he began to hedge
immediately. He evidently saw that there was trouble ahead, and offered
to give us the colors at once, but Colonel Albright peremptorily refused
to accept them that way, and said he would demand a court of inquiry and
would require full and complete vindication, cost what it might. A court
of inquiry was at once asked for and granted. It was made up of officers
outside of our division, and was directed to investigate the loss of our
flag, and how it came into the possession of this other regiment.
Colonel Albright was a good lawyer and conducted his own case before the
court. It came out in the investigation that in making his report of the
part his regiment took in the battle of Fredericksburg this colonel had
used substantially the same language he had to me concerning how he came
into possession of the flag. Here is the paragraph referring to our
colors, taken from his report printed in the "Rebellion Records," vol.
xxi., page 275:

"I would also state that some cowardly members of a regiment unknown (?)
abandoned their colors, which were recovered by Captain Northrup, of my
regiment, and saved the disgrace of falling into the hands of the
enemy." My diary notes that I interviewed this Captain Northrup, and he
promptly stated that he took the colors from the hospital and brought
them with h