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What Happened to The 7th's Colors?
A Tale of Intrigue and Tragedy
The noted military historian, John R. Elting stated in his excellent study of Napoleon's Grande Armee, "If its drums or trumpets were the voice of a regiment, its flag was its visible honor." Certainly we in the recreated living history Seventh feel this applies to our own colors as has been demonstrated on numerous occasions. But often the question has been raised, what ever happened to the actual colors that the original 7th carried in Mexico?
Before we discuss the answer, let us first take a look at the Mexican War. The 7th was left to garrison Fort Texas on the Rio Grande (opposite Matamoras) while the American Army of Occupation returned to protect their supply base at Port Isabel. Almost immediately, the Mexican Army of the North commenced a bombardment upon the still unfinished earthwork, which the 7th defended along with one company each of the 2nd and 3rd Artillery.
When the American Army arrived at the Rio Grande several weeks before, a flag staff was quickly erected and the national colors hoisted over the Rio Grande. That flag staff was actually located outside of Fort Texas which took shape in the days that followed. When the Mexicans opened fire on May 3rd (just after reveille and while the fort commander, Major Jacob Brown, was holding an officers meeting) the colors had not yet been hoisted. Despite the bombardment, Lt. Earl Van Dorn of the 7th volunteered to go out of the works and raise the national standard (Niles National Register, September 12, 1846).
Van Dorn, in a letter to his sister, gave his version of his drama with the flag. "During the bombardment of Fort Brown I had the honor to be shot at several times outside the fort, when I went out to hoist the star and stripes, which were some hundred yards or more off. I dodged several bomb-shells which threatened to fall on my head. I skipped out of the way of a rolling howitzer ball; and stooping one way accidentally, a canon ball passed over my head which would have cut me in two; - musket balls flew around me at one time like a thousand humming-birds - so I had the sound of all kinds of music. The only wound I received was a scratch on the ankle in dodging a shell." (Van Dorn to Octavia, July 20,1846. Reprinted in A Soldier's Honor, Abby Press, New York).
This was not the only drama with the flag outside the works. During the night of May 7th, following Major Brown's mortal wounding, and Captain E. S. Hawkins assuming command, "the halyards of the flag on the outside had become unrigged and as the firing had become too intense to re-establish them, a temporary staff was erected on the inside, and the national flag of the seventh infantry was raised as a substitute." On the 9th, Hawkins reported that an officer of the regiment went out of the works, and succeeded in lowering the top mast of the flag staff, and rigging the halyards. But the officer found he could not raise the national flag without great labor, and braving enemy fire for fifteen or twenty minutes, at last got the outside flag free and flying. (Hawkins, May 10,1846).
The 7th's Regimental Color was also not left out of the drama. One officer reported that during the bombardment "we took out our two regimental colors, and planted them on different parts of the wall". (Niles National Register, June 6, 1846). It appears from this description, that when Hawkins had the regiment's national colors raised on the works, he also had the regimental colors placed at the same time on the opposite wall.
When General Taylor's Army, fresh from their victory at Resca de la Palma, arrived back at the Rio Grande, they found the garrison of Fort Texas (soon to be renamed Fort Brown in honor of the 7th's own late Major Brown) safe. Over their heads flew three flags; the national color outside the wall and the regimental colors inside the works. These three flags had the distinction of being the first three flags of the United States to fly in defense of the Rio Grande as a national boarder (and the first American flags to withstand as attack in defense of the new state of Texas).
Having survived the Siege of Fort Brown, the colors of the 7th Infantry went on to Monterey, and then with the regiment to Vera Cruz. The regiment had the honor of having its colors raised on the Mexican defenses atop Telegrapho Hill at Cerro Gordo. During the Mexico City Campaign, Lt. Samuel Bell Maxey found himself in command of the color detail (a fact he remembered with great pride in a speech during his later career as a U.S. Congressman).
From the battlefields of Mexico, the 7th's Colors traveled with the regiment back to St. Louis and from there to garrison duty in New Mexico. During the 1850's a new set of Colors was presented to the regiment, but the Mexican War Colors were also retained.
In July of 1861, Texan Confederate troops invaded New Mexico, and following a disastrous retreat from Fort Filmore, the 7th surrendered to Lt. Col. John R. Baylor. The infamous moment occurred on July 27, 1861 at St. Augustine Springs. Some three days following the surrender, former US Army Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston, on his way to report to Confederate officials back East, arrived and upon finding out Baylor had captured a Federal regiment, inquired what had become of its colors. Baylor, perhaps embarrassed that he had not thought of the flags first, ordered the 7th's adjutant, Lt. Edward J. Brooks, to his office and demanded the colors. Brooks informed Baylor that the colors including the set carried in the Mexican War had been destroyed personally by him. Baylor flew into a violent rage in front of Johnston, ordered Brooks arrested. After three days of close arrest, Brooks was released.
In later years, other members of the 7th would claim to have destroyed the colors, but in an 1891 letter to then 7th Adjutant, Lieutenant L.B. Johnson, Brooks made it clear that he alone made the decision to destroy the colors prior to the surrender of the command. Brooks noted that Sgt. Hubert H. Oberle (a 12 year veteran of the regiment) and Principal Musician Pound assisted him (the 7th's color sergeant, Peter Molony had dropped out of the column from fatigue before reaching the Springs). Sections of the colors were cut up and given to such ladies as were nearby. The Union of one was given to the wife of Captain Matt Stevenson who wore it apron style and kept it.
When Brooks was finished destroying the colors, he next wrecked the band instruments by smashing them against the wagon wheels.
Sgt. Oberle later claimed that he was in charge of the colors and that he was the one who destroyed them, noting that Baylor had him before a military trial for the act and threatened to hang him. While Brooks did confirm that Oberle assisted him, the Adjutant noted strongly, "Permit me to say that had Sgt. Oberly (sic) or any other enlisted man or even a commissioned officer other than the commanding officer, presumed to lay hands upon the colors for any purpose whatever in my presence, I should not have hesitated to use my saber to protect them. To me they were a sacred change to be surrendered only upon orders from my commander, and under no circumstances would I have permitted any unauthorized person to interfere with them".
Having been paroled by the Confederates, the 7th returned to New York to eventually become part of Sykes' Brigade of US regulars in the Army of the Potomac's 5th Corps. But getting a new set of colors was a different matter. The War Department informed the regimental command that they would have to win the right to carry a new set in battle. This occurred at the battle of Fredericksburg where the 7th held a forward position less than 80 yards from the stone wall on Marye's Heights. On January 5, 1863 the War Department awarded the Cottonbalers a new set of colors. Acting Regimental Commander, Captain David Hancock noted to his command, "Your country's flag again floats proudly over your ranks. Let your future conduct reflect naught but honor upon its folds."
(I am grateful to the research work of John W. Wike whose article, "Colors, Colors, Who's Got the Colors: An Episode in the History of the Seventh Infantry" published in The Military Collector and Historian, Volume IV, Number 4, December 1952, uncovered the later history of the 7th's colors.)
written by Kevin R. Young
Adjutant Kevin Young
- Fort Parker, Texas, 1997
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