, took him from the nest
while an Eaglet. The nest was found on a pine tree in the Chippewa
country, about three miles from the mouth of the Flambeau, near some
rapids in the river. He and another Indian cut the tree down, and, amid
the menaces of the parent birds, secured two young Eagles about the size
of Prairie Hens. One of them died. The other, which lived to become
historical, was sold to Daniel McCann for a bushel of corn. McCann
carried it to Eau Claire, and presented it to a company then being
organized as a part of the Eighth Wisconsin Infantry.

What more appropriate emblem than the American Bald-headed Bird could
have been thus selected by the patriots who composed this regiment of
freemen! The Golden Eagle (of which we shall hereafter present a
splendid specimen,) with extended wings, was the ensign of the Persian
monarchs, long before it was adopted by the Romans. And the Persians
borrowed the symbol from the Assyrians. In fact, the symbolical use of
the Eagle is of very remote antiquity. It was the insignia of Egypt, of
the Etruscans, was the sacred bird of the Hindoos, and of the Greeks,
who connected him with Zeus, their supreme deity. With the Scandinavians
the Eagle is the bird of wisdom. The double-headed Eagle was in use
among the Byzantine emperors, "to indicate their claims to the empire of
both the east and the west." It was adopted in the 14th century by the
German emperors. The arms of Prussia were distinguished by the Black
Eagle, and those of Poland by the White. The great Napoleon adopted it
as the emblem of Imperial France.

Old Abe was called by the soldiers the "new recruit from Chippewa," and
sworn into the service of the United States by encircling his neck with
red, white, and blue ribbons, and by placing on his breast a rosette of
colors, after which he was carried by the regiment into every engagement
in which it participated, perched upon a shield in the shape of a heart.
A few inches above the shield was a grooved crosspiece for the Eagle to
rest upon, on either end of which were three arrows. When in line Old
Abe was always carried on the left of the color bearer, in the van of
the regiment. The color bearer wore a belt to which was attached a
socket for the end of the staff, which was about five feet in length.
Thus the Eagle was high above the bearer's head, in plain sight of the
column. A ring of leather was fastened to one of the Eagle's legs to
which was connected a strong h