Ripon, Sept. 12, 1864.
I'm expecting to start a new colour for the Brigade this
afternoon. The old one, — red, white, and blue, with cross sabres in the white,
— is entirely worn out. I shall run up, for the present, a white triangle with
dark blue border, and cross sabres in the middle, — this is furnished by
Government; but in a week or so I expect from Baltimore a new one of the old
pattern. My colour for the old Brigade (3d) was the L Company, Second
Massachusetts guidon, red and white silk, with a wreath and a star with L in the
centre, — very ambitious forsooth, but the prettiest colour in the army. The
others are all of bunting, except General Sheridan's, and perhaps others I have
not seen. You’ll wonder at me, being willing to carry anything so “gaudy,” but
my well-known modesty enabled me to do it.
SOURCE: Edward Waldo Emerson, Life and Letters of
Charles Russell Lowell, p. 346
