On September 11, 1889, in Gettysburg’s notorious Wheatfield, a crowd gathered for the dedication of the 62nd Pennsylvania Infantry’s monument, placed where a bloody contest for the regiment’s flags had taken place 26 years earlier. An inscription on the monument read: “Position occupied by the Regiment on the evening of July 2. 1863. After the troops on the right had retired, and where the Brigade had a Bayonet contest.”
The Wheatfield had been the gory epicenter of fighting on the Battle of Gettysburg’s second day. The 62nd, part of Colonel Jacob Sweitzer’s 2nd Brigade in the 5th Corps’ 1st Division, suffered heavily in this field alongside the 4th Michigan and the 32nd Massachusetts. Second Lieutenant William Patterson of the 62nd remembered that just before the fighting commenced, the Wheatfield was “covered with the plumage of waving grain, ready for the harvest, and when twilight gathered over its surface the ripening stalks were trampled into the earth and dyed with the blood of the blue and the gray, and when the light of the moon cast its gentle rays over this gory plain it revealed scores of the pale, upturned faces.”
Several of those “pale, upturned faces” had died fighting for the regimental flags that had been symbols of pride for the 62nd since early in the war. Before leaving Pittsburgh, where the regiment was raised, in August 1861, a church group presented the men with a “beautiful silk flag.” Captain James C. Hull, who led the 62nd at Gettysburg as a lieutenant colonel, accepted the flag. Colonel Samuel W. Black then made a few remarks, proclaiming that the “colors should never be dishonored, and if stained at all, it would be with the best blood of the regiment in their defense.” He was prophetic.
A few months later, with the 62nd posted at Camp Bettie Black near Fairfax, Va. (named for Black’s daughter), Pennsylvania Senator Edgar Cowan presented the 62nd a state flag that the regiment would use as its national colors, what would become known as the “Bettie Black Flag.” As Colonel Black proclaimed: “Behold and admire the beauty of the glowing thought that shines upon the standard! The arms of the State are inlaid amongst the stars of the Union! Her shield, her buckler, and her strength are there.”
By March 1863, that resplendent banner had become tattered and worn. “The old flag that was presented to us more than a year ago at Camp Bettie Black is here yet with no less than forty seven (47) bullet holes through it,” wrote Sergeant William Hagerson of Company D. “The boys have nobly defended it. When I look at it a thrill of Patriotism runs through me.”
That spring, Pennsylvania began issuing replacements for the battle-worn and damaged flags carried in the Army. Because the 62nd’s regimental flag certainly qualified, it received a new one in April. The flag that had been presented at Camp Bettie Black remained in service, however. After all, the more battle-scarred the flag, the more it was beloved, and to bear the flag into battle was considered a true honor.
The first day of
