red the piazza, and stood at bay on the wall.
"We'll go and get more men, and then d----d if it don't come down!"
"Yes, go and get more men--you are not men!" said the heroic woman,
contemptuously, as the two backed from the place and disappeared.
Miss Alice Taylor, daughter of Mrs. Nellie Maria Taylor, of New Orleans,
a young lady of great beauty and intelligence, possessed much of her
mother's patriotic spirit. The flag was always suspended in one or
another of the rooms of Mrs. Taylor's dwelling, and notwithstanding the
repeated searches made by the Rebels it remained there till the city was
occupied by Union troops. The beauty and talent of the daughter, then a
young lady of seventeen, had made her very popular in the city. In 1860,
she had made a presentation speech when a flag was presented to one of
the New Orleans Fire Companies. In May, 1861, a committee of thirteen
gentlemen called on Mrs. Taylor, and informed her that the ladies of the
district had wrought a flag for the Crescent City (Rebel) regiment to
carry on their march to Washington, and that the services of her
daughter Alice were required to make the presentation speech. Of course
Mrs. Taylor's consent was not given, and the committee insisted that
they _must_ see the young lady, and that she must make the presentation
address. She was accordingly called, and after hearing their request,
replied that she would readily consent on two conditions. First, that
her mother's permission should be obtained; and second, that the Stars
and Stripes should wave around her, and decorate the arch over her head,
as on the former occasion. The committee, finding that they could get no
other terms, withdrew, vexed and mortified at their failure.
Mrs. Booth, the widow of Major Booth, who fell contending against
fearful odds at Fort Pillow, at the time of the bloody massacre, a few
weeks after presented the blood-stained flag of the fort which had been
saved by one of the few survivors, to the remnant of the First Battalion
of Major Booth's regiment, then incorporated with the Sixth United
States Heavy Artillery, with these thrilling words, "Boys, I have just
come from a visit to the hospital at Mound City. There I saw your
comrades, wounded at the bloody struggle in Fort Pillow. There I found
the flag--you recognize it! One of your comrades saved it from the
insulting touch of traitors. I have given to my country all I had to
give--my husband--such a gift! Yet I
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