nd. Not a
man of them failed to execute my orders to the letter. Never
soldiers did their duty--their whole duty--more promptly or
gallantly. Take these beautiful flags, Company F, take them and
keep them; you have the well earned right to keep them. Twice
was your own flag stricken down in the field of battle and then
a third man from your ranks seized it and it was borne aloft in
safety from the field though pierced with many bullets.

Then turning to the Mayor, he added:

"And in conclusion allow me to thank you, sir, and all concerned
in this presentation, for this beautiful gift to Rhode Island's
first and gallant regiment.

Company F then made a parade through the city, displaying the flags.

At a meeting held by Company F at the armory of the Artillery
Company, November 5th, 1861, it was voted to place the flags in
charge of three members of Company F, and Corporal Tayer and Privates
DeBlois and Terrell were appointed that committee, with instructions
to place them in the Newport city hall for safe keeping. It was soon
afterwards ascertained that the place allotted to them in the city
hall was damp, and it was decided to remove them to a place where
they would be better preserved, and could be seen at any time. The
place selected was the Artillery Company's armory, where they were
suitably mounted, and will doubtless always remain.

Soon after the muster out of F Company, recruiting commenced at once
for new regiments from Rhode Island, and of 108 officers and men
composing Company F at muster out, 84 re-entered the service either
in the army or navy, many of them occupying positions of rank in both
branches of the service during the war.

CONCLUSION.

Company F, 1st Rhode Island Regiment, is a thing of the past. Thirty
years have come and gone since the enactment of the stirring scenes
in which we participated; but those scenes and incidents still exist
in the minds and memories of the men composing that company. A large
portion of its members have left the city, and many have been carried
to that silent camp where they "sleep their last sleep, have fought
their last battle; no sound can awake them to glory again." But as
each succeeding 17th of April rolls around, the surviving members of
the company meet to talk over the incidents of the long ago, tell
stories of camp and field, and say a word of those who have left us
to return no more; and we shall