36. “where is that flag, Oh! where?”
by W. H. Hayward.
At the battle of “Carnifax Ferry,” Va., the color-bearer of the Tenth Ohio regiment, Fitzgibbons, who was terribly wounded, as he lay dying, looked frantically to a companion, and not seeing the colors which he himself carried and grasped with a dying tenacity after he fell, exclaimed, in paroxysms of despair, his life-blood flowing: “Where is that flag, O heavens! where is it? keep it and preserve it.” These were his last dying words.Where is that Flag? Fitzgibbons cried,
Confided to my care;
My flag! the glorious Stars and Stripes,
Triumphant everywhere.
I swore to guard and bear it safe,
'Mid flashing cannons' glare;
But wounded, bleeding, here I lie--
Where is that flag, oh!
where?
Where armies meet in dread array,
When brave hearts charging, dare
To fight, the Union to maintain,
And death and peril share,
To shield, protect it with my life,
Each Star and Stripe all there;
I grasped and bore it in the fight--
Where is that flag, oh!
where?
He raised his sinking, dying head,
With wild, convulsive stare--
“O heavens!
where is it?
keep it safe,
Preserve the flag I bear.”
His pulse grew weak, his eyes grew dim;
His blood fast oozing there;
In agony he faintly sighed:
“My flag, my colors, here they are!”
And as he gasping now beheld
His flag beside.him there,
He died, a soldier's glorious death;
“Preserve that flag!” his prayer.
With the above came the following:
To the Colonel of the Tenth Ohio regiment, or any officer who was a friend of “Fitzgibbons,” brave, noble, true-hearted color-bearer of the Tenth Ohio regiment, who fell at the battle of “Carnifax Ferry,” this little song is respectfully forwarded with the compliments of the author.
