Today’s Flag-Waving Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
Account of the death of Sergeant Major Asa W. Blanchard, 19th Indiana Infantry, 1st Brigade, 1st Division, 1st Corps, Union Army, during the American Civil War:
In a memoir written many years after the Civil War, a hospital steward of the 19th Indiana relived the bravery and death of one of its color guards during the hard fighting which occurred on July 1, 1861 just in front of the Lutheran Theological Seminary slightly northwest of Gettysburg. This soldier, Henry Marsh, said that his regiment, “held its position for a long time, [but] it was several times driven back through the groves and fields down to the base of Seminary ridge.” During one of those retreats, Marsh recollected:
When the Regiment was ordered to fall back, someone said to Capt. W. W. Macy, “The flag is down.” He answered, “Go and get it.” The reply, with an oath was, “I won’t do it.” Captain Macy then ran back, [was] assisted by 2nd Lieutenant Crockett East, of Co. K., in putting the flag in the shuck, when Lieutenant East was shot dead, bearing it to the earth. Captain Macy was carrying the flag from the field, when Sergeant Major Asa Blanchard came up and demanded it. Macy said, thinking that Blanchard would act rashly, “No, there’s been enough men shot with it.” Blanchard then appealed to the Colonel, who said to Macy, “Let him have it.” As soon as Blanchard received it, he tied the shuck around his body, unfurled the flag, and began waving it at the rebels crying out, “Rally, boys.” At once he was shot in the groin, an artery being cut. W. M. Jackson, who was next to him, said the blood came in a gush. Blanchard said, “Don’t stop for me. Tell mother that I never faltered.” Capt. Wm. H. Murray took the shuck from Blanchard’s body, sheathed the flag again and started to carry it off, knowing that to do so was almost certain death. Just then Burr M. Clifford, of Co. F, came up and took the flag.
Sergeant Major Blanchard’s life must have ebbed quickly. He surely bled to death in minutes, and his corpse may have been buried by the Confederates between July 1 and July 4. Or, it could have decomposed quickly in the heat waiting for Union burial squads to find it days after the Southern army left Adams County. Many eyewitnesses stated that a large number of the dead who were left in rebel hands, including their own, were not interred until the Federal army began its cleanup of the battlefield. Blanchard’s present grave site is not known.
Culled from: Killed In Action: Eyewitness Accounts of the Last Moments of 100 Union Soldiers Who Died at Gettysburg