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 The. Swallow-flight Series 
 
THE FLAG STILL THERE. 
 

The "Western Literary Press, Cincinnati, O. 
 

 c 
 
 rUBHAi^YafCOMGRESSJ 
 
 AUG 81 190/ 
 
 Gooyngrht BMry 
 
 CUSS XXCi No. 
 
 Copyright 1906 by John James Piatt. 
 
 Printed by W. E. Taylor, 
 
 HARRISON, OHIO. 
 
DEDICATED 
 
 TO 
 
 THE VANISHING ARMY 
 
 OF 
 
 ''MORGAN'S MEN." 
 
THE FLAG STILL THERE. 
 
 AN ANTIPODEAN SURVIVAL OF "THE LOST 
 CAUSE." 
 
 ^HE four vears of our Civil 
 War, with its kaleidoscopic 
 changes, wrought singTilar 
 effects upon the young men 
 of those days. One of the results of 
 their service in the army, especially 
 in the cavalry, was to create a spirit 
 of unrest in many of the boys of 
 '61-65, and this effect was produced 
 in a marked degree upon my old 
 friend and comrade. Captain Martin 
 Schuyler, of company C, Seventh 
 Ohio Cavalry, who, in the many 
 years since the disbanding of the 
 armies of Grant and Lee, has circled 
 the globe three times — and there is 
 scarcely a habitable region on the 
 7 
 
THE FLAG STILL THERE 
 
 face of the earth that has not felt 
 the imprint of his foot. I never 
 know when to expect a visit from 
 Captain Schuyler; but at long inter- 
 vals my office door flies open with a 
 bang, and the cheery, hearty voice 
 of Schuyler is heard as he grasps me 
 with both hands and says, ''Here I 
 am again." The Captain is now 
 about fifty-nine years of age, and 
 has such a large repertoire of stories 
 of adventure that an hour's visit 
 from him gives one three months' 
 enjoyment. He wears a deep sabre- 
 scar across his face, this being the 
 mark of one of his adventures in 
 the cavalry service. In response to 
 an inquiry as to how large a scar 
 the other fellow wears, the Captain 
 laughingly says, ''Oh, well, it's about 
 as large as the one he gave me." 
 He also has a perceptible limp from 
 a bullet-wound in the right leg, re- 
 ceived from one of Forrest's cavalry- 
 8 
 
THE FLAG STILL THERE 
 
 men, while resisting the advance of 
 Hood's Army on Frankhn, Tennes- 
 see, November 30th, 1864. 
 
 It had been nearly three years 
 since I had a visit from my old 
 comrade, when recently, while 
 traveling from Norfolk, Virginia en 
 route to New York City, on board 
 one of the steamers of the old Do- 
 minion Line, the first to greet me 
 was Captain Schuyler. Having a 
 twenty-four hours' run between 
 Norfolk and New York, we had 
 ample time for recalling events of 
 the past. In reply to my inquiry as 
 to what he had been doing since I 
 saw him last, the Captain told me 
 he had but recently returned from 
 the Philippines, where he had served 
 as an officer in one of the Volunteer 
 regiments, — the Thirty-ninth, if I re- 
 member correctly,— and, in this con- 
 nection, he told me an exceedingly 
 interesting story, which I will under- 
 9 
 
THE FLAG STILL THERE 
 
 take to relate, using his own lan- 
 guage as nearly as possible. 
 
 ^'At the expiration of our term of 
 service in the Philippines," said the 
 Captain, "I decided to return to the 
 United States at my leisure, and 
 visited many interesting points on 
 the way, my tour taking in some 
 fields hitherto unknown to me, and 
 altogether outside the usual line of 
 travel." 
 
 "I was in no hurry; and as you 
 know I have visited nearly every 
 habitable region of the earth, I had 
 some difficulty in finding new fields; 
 but as I had never made an extend- 
 ed tour of the Navigator Islands in 
 the South Pacific Ocean, I concluded 
 to visit that region. I spent several 
 months in that interesting part of 
 the world, and while there a singu- 
 lar episode occurred which carried 
 me back to the far distant past, — to 
 the time our blessed old Seventh 
 10 
 
THE FLAG STILL THERE 
 
 Ohio Cavalry was having jousts 
 with 'Morgan's Men/ when w^e tilted 
 with both Duke and Cluke, Pegram 
 and others of the Blue Grass 'Critter 
 Companies/ during the Immortal 
 Sixties.' I was spending a few days 
 on one of the Islands, the sea in front 
 of me being dotted with sailing 
 craft, manned by the natives, who 
 are superb navigators and great 
 fishermen. It is the custom among 
 these people to fly a flag on each 
 boat. There are all sorts of flags, 
 as each native feels it incumbent on 
 him to fly his own colors, and many 
 of these are grotesque and not in the 
 least attractive. One evening, while 
 wandering along the beach, I ob- 
 served a flsherman standing in to- 
 wards the shore, who carried on the 
 mast of his boat a flag quite differ- 
 ent from anything I had ever seen 
 in that part of the world, and upon 
 inspecting the same with my field 
 11 
 
THE FLAG STILL THERE 
 
 glass, it looked like one of the old 
 Confederate flags. I kept my glass 
 on this fisherman as he stood in to- 
 wards the shore and made for the 
 point of his landing. Upon his com- 
 ing ashore, I asked permission to 
 examine his flag, which request was 
 readily granted, and, sure enough, I 
 found it to be an old Confederate 
 flag. I asked this half-naked fisher- 
 man where he got the flag, but he 
 was not inclined to give me any in- 
 formation. Later I undertook to 
 purchase the flag, and asked him 
 v/hat price he would take for the 
 same; but he was not disposed to 
 sell, and, in fact, seemed inclined to 
 avoid me, and get away from me 
 without imparting any information. 
 I therefore adopted another course, 
 seeking to win his favor, and pre- 
 sented him tobacco and inexpensive 
 trinkets, such as might please an 
 aborigine, whereupon he seemed to 
 12 
 
THE FLAG STILL THERE 
 
 open up a little bit, and invited me 
 to visit him at his home on one of 
 the neighboring islands, something 
 like thirty miles away. I accepted 
 this invitation, accompanying him to 
 his home, a fisherman's hut, on an 
 island about five miles long and 
 three miles wide, where, after much 
 persuasion, he told me the story of 
 the Confederate flag which had been 
 flying at the mast of his boat. He 
 stated that many, many years ago 
 there had come to him a man, an 
 American, who was not a sailor, but 
 said he had been a soldier, and the 
 principles for which he had fought 
 had become a ^Lost Cause.' There- 
 upon he had left his native land, 
 bringing the flag with him, this be- 
 ing almost his only possession. For 
 many, many years the soldier had 
 lived on this little island in the 
 Pacific Ocean, where, in fair weather, 
 he had kept the flag flying in front 
 13 
 
THE FLAG STILL THERE 
 
 of his little house; but about three 
 years ago this old soldier had died, 
 leaving his few effects to the native 
 fisherman. I asked the fisherman 
 for permission to inspect the things 
 left by this old soldier, and after 
 much urging this permission v/as 
 granted. I found among his time- 
 worn papers a few scraps, these be- 
 ing portions of an old diary, which 
 may lead to his identification. 
 These scraps have apparently been 
 wet by sea-water, and are mouldy 
 and difficult to decipher, but, as near 
 as I can make out, the man's name 
 w^as Henry Clay Renfrew, and he 
 was a member of either the Second 
 Kentucky Cavalry or the Fourth 
 Kentucky Cavaly, or possibly he 
 may have been a member of both 
 these regiments at different times, 
 as one portion of his diary refers to 
 Colonel Basil Duke having been the 
 Colonel of his regiment, and of his 
 14 
 
THE FLAG STILL TIL ERE 
 
 belonging to the company com- 
 manded b/ Captain John B. Castle- 
 man; and in another part of his 
 diary he refers to Colonel Henry 
 Giltner as having been Colonel of 
 his regiment, and Captain Bart 
 Jenkins as commander of his com- 
 pany. There was also found a pic- 
 ture (an ambrotype) of a little girl 
 about five years old, marked in faded 
 letters, 'Lela Giltner, the Daughter 
 of the Regiment.' This may have 
 been the Colonel's daughter. His 
 home is mentioned as having been 
 near Midway, Kentucky. Turning 
 over the mouldy leaves of his diary 
 I found mention of Captain E. 0. 
 Guerrant as having been Adjutant- 
 General of his brigade, and the 
 name of Lieutenant T. M. Freeman 
 as having been adjutant of the reg- 
 iment. I infer from this that Ren- 
 frew may have been a soldier de- 
 tailed at brigade or regimental head- 
 15 
 
THE FLAG STILL THERE 
 
 quarters, serving with either the 
 adjutant general of the brigade or 
 the adjutant of the regiment. He 
 also speaks of Brainard Bayless and 
 Dallas Mosgrove as chums and mess- 
 mates. In one part of his diary he 
 refers at great length to the last 
 days of the Confederacy, and his 
 last hours' service in the army, and 
 tells of the march, ragged, hungry 
 and weary, through South Carolina 
 into Georgia as far as the town of 
 Woodstock; and also states that the 
 brigade is commanded by General 
 Duke, and refers to the fact that it 
 was the last body of organized Con- 
 federate soldiers escorting Jefferson 
 Davis and his party through South 
 Carolina into Georgia. He says that 
 Duke's Cavalry followed the flag to 
 the last hour of the last day of the 
 Confederacy. 
 
 "At this point in his diary the 
 soldier refers to the fact that, Gen- 
 16 
 
THE FLAG STILL THERE 
 
 eral Duke having at last decided to 
 accept the terms of surrender, he 
 (the writer) took from the flag-staff 
 the colors they had been carrying, 
 and concealed them by wrapping 
 them about his body under his cloth- 
 ing, with the intention of leaving 
 the country for foreign lands. Fur- 
 ther along in his diary I find men- 
 tion of the fact that this soldier is 
 in Mexico. Then I find from the 
 diary that he had drifted down along 
 the west coast of South America, 
 spending some time along that coast. 
 His diary does not give the date of 
 his arrival at the Navigator Islands, 
 but, from the testimony of the na- 
 tive who had possession of his ef- 
 fects, it must have been twenty-five 
 or thirty years ago that our ex-Con- 
 federate soldier decided to make his 
 permanent home among these far- 
 away islands of the sea in the South 
 Pacific Ocean. 
 
 17 
 
THE FLAG STILL THERE 
 
 ^The native who had possession of 
 his effects dechned absolutely to al- 
 low anything to be taken away, tell- 
 ing me that the old soldier and him- 
 self had been great friends for 
 many, m.any years, and upon the sol- 
 dier's death-bed he had given a 
 promise never to part with any of 
 the mementoes left by him. There- 
 fore I was not able to bring back the 
 Confederate flag, which for more 
 than twenty-five years had been fly- 
 ing over this little 'Island Empire' of 
 the sea. But the information I bring 
 may lead to the identification of 
 this man, who, for more than a third 
 of a century, had never seen home 
 or kindred, and who voluntarily ex- 
 patriated himself when the cause for 
 which he fought became 'The Lost 
 Cause.' " 
 
 Continuing the narrative, Captain 
 Schuyler told me of having visited 
 the grave of the ex-Confederate, this 
 18 
 
777^ FLAG STILL TflERE 
 
 grave being situated upon a rocky 
 headland of the island, overlooking 
 the sea. The body lies with the feet 
 to the east, and the grave is marked 
 with substantial stones at both the 
 head and at the foot. The grave is 
 kept in most excellent order by the 
 simple native fisherman, who for 
 many years had been the friend of 
 the old soldier who rests there, with 
 his "Old Kentucky Hom.e Far Away." 
 Captain Schuyler said that he vis- 
 ited this grave with the intention of 
 erecting thereon some marking 
 stone, but that with infinite care the 
 simple native fisherman had done all 
 that the most loving hand could do, 
 and this lonely grave, thousands of 
 miles away from the ''Blue Grass 
 State," on a little rock-bound island 
 in mid ocean, is cared for with lov- 
 ing attention, and our ex-Confeder- 
 ate soldier sleeps peacefully, "where 
 the sun woos out the day." 
 19 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 OL. ALLEN'S little semi-historical 
 episode, originally published in **The 
 Indicator: a Hesperian Leaflet," 
 in 1901, attracted much attention 
 throughout the United States, particularly in 
 the Southern States, as indicated in the fol- 
 lowing, from the New York Sun of Septem- 
 ber 15, 1901: 
 
 RENFREW AND HIS FLAG. 
 
 THE CONFEDERATE SOLDIER WHO TOOK THE 
 STARS AND BARS TO A SOUTH- 
 SEA ISLAND. 
 
 [From the Louisville Courier-Journal,] 
 
 ''During the past few weeks General Basil 
 Duke and General John B. Castleman have 
 been overwhelmed with letters from old Con- 
 federate soldiers, asking them what they 
 knew of the story of Henry Clay Renfrew, 
 an ex-Confederate who carried away the last 
 flag of the Confederacy, and escaped with it 
 to the Navigator Islands. Renfrew was sup- 
 posed to have been a member of the Second 
 21 
 
THE FLAG STILL THERE 
 
 Kentucky Cavalry under General Duke. A 
 reporter called on General Duke to learn the 
 facts in the case. 
 
 '' 'No,' said the General, 'Renfrew's name 
 has slipped my memory. I thoroughly believe 
 the truth of the story. The fact that his 
 diary shows him to have been in both the 
 Second and the Fourth Kentucky Cavalry is 
 a point that goes far toward establishing the 
 authenticity of the tale. If it were simply a 
 cooked-up yarn the author would never have 
 thought to put him in two regiments. 
 
 " 'The matter of which flag he took must 
 be a bit uncertain. You know, we old Con- 
 federates were so busy that we could not 
 worry much about flags. I don't think I had 
 a brigade flag. Renfrew probably got his 
 company flag, as most companies had some 
 emblem or pennon. 
 
 ** 'I have talked to several of my men and 
 they say they remember Renfrew perfectly. 
 He came from somewhere near Midway. 
 From what they tell me, he was a gallant 
 soldier. ' 
 
 "The reporter then hunted up one of the 
 men, who was a private under General Duke. 
 
 "'Renfrew?' exclaimed the old soldier. 'Of 
 course I remember Renfrew. He was one of 
 the finest fellows in the army. When I knew 
 him he was about twenty-three years old and 
 in Bart Jenkins' Brigade. Renfrew, Bayless 
 
 22 
 
THE FLAG STILL THERE 
 
 and Mosgrove were mess-mates. They were 
 all college graduates and naturally drifted to- 
 gether in the company. They messed to- 
 gether all the time. Every one of them was 
 a brave soldier. Bayless now lives in Cin- 
 cinnati. I know that Renfrew was in that 
 last march as one of President Jefferson 
 Davis' escort. Most of that last command 
 surrendered at Mount Sterling. Some of 
 them, however, tried to work west to join 
 Kirby Smith. The command split and I lost 
 sight of Renfrew. Bayless, of Cincinnati, 
 could tell all about him. ' 
 
 **The story is to the effect that out in the far 
 Navigator Isles floats an old Confederate flag 
 that has never been surrendered. And now, 
 all over the country, old soldiers are rousing 
 themselves and overwhelming General Duke 
 with inquiries concerning the story of the 
 young Kentuckian who bravely bore that flag, 
 then willingly expatriated himself rather than 
 surrender it. Four years he followed it, and 
 then, for twenty-five more, it floated proudly 
 unsurrendered before his hut on a little Pa- 
 cific Island. 
 
 "Now private Henry Clay Renfrew, C. S. 
 A., lies buried in a rocky headland of that 
 far isle. He lies so, that, rising his face 
 would look toward the East, toward the land 
 of his youth and his love. And over the 
 grave of the dead soldier floats the tattered 
 23 
 
 LOfC. 
 
THE FLAG STILL THERE 
 
 battle-flag; the Stars and Bars for which he 
 gave up home and friends and all that made 
 life tolerable. The native who befriended 
 him takes care of the grave. 
 
 ''Captain Martin Schuyler, formerly Cap- 
 tain in the Seventh Ohio Cavalry, brought 
 back the story from the Philippines. He told 
 it to Colonel T. F. Allen, also of the Seventh 
 Ohio Cavalry. Captain Schuyler met the 
 native and from him learned the story of the 
 flag. The native told him that many years 
 ago an American, who said he had drifted 
 along the western coast of South America, 
 after passing through Mexico, settled in the 
 Navigator Islands and lived alone, flying be- 
 fore his hut the Confederate battle-flag, 
 which he said was carried by the cavalry es- 
 cort that travelled with Jefferson Davis in 
 the last stages of his flight from Richmond 
 before his capture by the Federals. The ex- 
 soldier said that he had escaped with the flag, 
 which he loved too well to permit him to live 
 again under the United States flag. The 
 American refugee lived his isolated life for 
 years, dying three years ago and leaving his 
 flag to his native friend, with the injunction 
 that he never part with it. 
 
 "Captain Schuyler finally got the native's 
 permission to examine the dead American's 
 effects. He found papers and diaries indicat- 
 ing that the ex-Confederate was Henry Clay 
 24 
 
THE FLAG STILL THERE 
 
 Renfrew, a member of either the Second or 
 Fourth Kentucky Cavalry, or both, in the 
 Confederate Army. In some places he re- 
 ferred to Colonel Basil Duke, as the Colonel, 
 and Captain John B. Castleman as his Caj)- 
 tain; in others to Colonel Henry Giltner and 
 Captain Bart Jenkins as his Colonel and Cap- 
 tain respectively. He wrote of Brainard 
 Bayless and Dallas Mosgrove as his chums. 
 In one of the diaries Renfrew referred at 
 length to the last days of the Confederacy. 
 Then followed the statement that he was 
 with the last body of organized Confederate 
 soldiers that escorted Jefferson Davis, Gene- 
 ral Duke commanding. And that when Duke's 
 surrender was agreed upon, the writer took 
 the flag from the staff, concealed it about 
 his body and escaped, with the intention of 
 taking the flag to some foreign land. ' ' 
 
 In his charming book entitled ''The Little 
 Shepherd of Kingdom Come," published since 
 the above, Mr. John Fox, jr., the distin- 
 guished Kentucky author, having Col. Allen's 
 episode of "The Flag Still There" in mind, 
 makes frequent mention of "Renfrew the 
 Silent, ' ' and in one of the concluding chap- 
 ters refers to the self-exiled Confederate 
 
 25 
 
THE FLAG STILL THERE 
 
 soldier and his Unconquered Banner as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 ''Renfrew the Silent was waiting at the 
 smouldering fire. He neither looked up nor 
 made any comment when General Hunt spoke 
 his determination to surrender. His own face 
 grew more sullen and he reached his hand 
 into his breast and pulled from his faded 
 jacket the tattered colors that he once had 
 borne. 
 
 " 'These will never be lowered as long as 
 I live, ' he said, 'nor afterward if I can pre- 
 vent it. ' And lowered they never were. On 
 a little island in the Pacific Ocean, this strange 
 soldier, after leaving his property and his 
 kindred forever, lived out his life among the 
 natives with this blood-stained remnant of 
 the Stars and Bars over his hut, and when he 
 died the flag was hung over his grave, and 
 above that grave to-day the tattered emblem 
 still sways in Southern air. ' ' 
 
 26 
 
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 4. The Gift of Tears - - By Sarah Piatt. 
 
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M\i 31 uoy 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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