From the Richmond Whig, 5/27/1865
THE MAN WHO FIRST RAISED THE UNION BANNER IN RICHMOND is
said to be John F. Locke, private in Company E, 39th regiment
Massachusetts Volunteers, 5th Army Corps. He was a prisoner at the
Libby at the time, and, pending the excitement consequent upon the evacuation,
he managed to slip down into the office of Major Thomas P. Turner, where a
number of Union flags were garnishing the rooms. They hung around the walls, and
covered the ceiling in place of wall paper. In fact, flag wall paper was cheaper
than the common paper supplied by the paper hangers. Locke seized one of the
flags, belonging to an Illinois regiment, and mounting to the cupola of the
Libby, threw the same to the breeze. The last remnants of the army of Gen. Lee
were then passing through the city; but we do not think that the fact of the
hoisting of the flag was noticed by them.
After the occupation of the city by the Union forces, Locke
turned over the flag to Gov. Andrew, of Massachusetts. Gov. Andrew communicated
the fact to Gov. Oglesby, who has now possession of it. Thus the first Union
flag raised in Richmond was an Illinois flag, raised by a Massachusetts
regiment.
|
