ne of the regiments in
the rear. I saw them coming, and felt that I must salute them. How to
do it was a puzzle to me. If I saluted with my left hand, it would be
wrong, besides I would have to drop the reins, and my horse might start
to run, as he was prancing and putting on as much style as I was. If I
saluted with my right hand, I should have to let go the flag staff. The
salute must be sudden, so I could grasp the staff very quick, before it
toppled over. It took a great head to decide what to do, and I had to
decide quick. Just as the brigade commander got opposite me I let go the
flag stair, brought my right hand quickly to the right eye, as nice a
salute as a man ever saw, and returned it to grab the flag stall. But it
was too late. As soon as my right hand let go of the staff, it fell over
and the gilt dart on the end of the staff struck the general's horse in
the flank, he jumped sideways against the adjutant-general's horse, and
his horse fell over the brigade surgeon's horse, the general's horse run
under a tree, and brushed the general off, and the whole staff was wild
trying to hold their horses, and jumping to catch the general's horse,
and pick the general off the ground. In the meantime my horse had got
frightened at the staff and flag that was dragging on the ground, with
one end in the socket in the stirrup, the pole tickling him in the
ribs, and he began to dance around, and whirl, and knock members of the
color-guard off their horses, and they stampeded to the woods leaving me
in the road, on a frightened horse, whirliing around, unmanageable, the
start striking trees and horses, until the staff was broken.

The regiment in the rear of us saw the commotion, saw the general
dismounted, and the colors on the ground, and a general stampede in
front, and, thinking the general and staff had been ambushed by the
rebels, and many killed, the colonel ordered his men forward on a
charge, and, in less time than it takes to write it, the woods were
full of charging soldiers, looking for an imaginary enemy, a surgeon
had opened up a lot of remedies, and all was confusion, and I was the
innocent cause of it all. I had seen my mistake as soon as the flag
staff knocked the general off his horse, and when I dismounted and
picked up the flag, and the pieces of the staff, and found myself
surrounded by excited troops, I wondered if the general would pull his
revolver and shoot me himself, or order some of the soldiers