Sunday, April 3, 2022

Diary of Private Daniel L. Ambrose: Wedesday, July 29, 1863

Soon after breakfast the bugle is sounded and the men are soon in their saddles; about eight o'clock we pass through Huntington; here we find a great many Union citizens who hail our advance with joy. The little girls stand by the roadside waving their beautiful little Union banners as the soldiers in blue pass along. We thought we had never seen the old flag’s colors look so brilliant as they appeared to us in the hands of those little, smiling, bright eyed girls. They seemed to love them so fondly; loved them for their beauty; loved them for their virtue.” Why do you love that flag so much, little girl? "I love it because it is the Union's flag, and because my father suffered and died for it at the hands of the traitors.” With these associations connected with the Union flag, their little hearts seemed to worship it, and we thought we never beheld a more touching scene than the little girls, with their flags, standing by the roadside in Huntington, and we imagine to-night that the years will not make the memory old. We pass on through this place and halt for dinner at Macedonia. After dinner we are told that we will remain here this afternoon to wait for the arrival of Rowett's Brigade. While so doing Captain Ring gets permission from Colonel Hatch to go out scouting, &c. We succeed in capturing some fine secesh mules, and then return to camp. Colonel Rowett has now come up, and Companies A and H join the regiment. We remain in camp here to-night.

SOURCE: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 183-4

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