The First Federal to Enter Richmond. 153
ungrudgingly. That officer was Major Atherton H. Stevens, Jr., of the Fourth Massachusetts Volunteer Cavalry.
"LooMis L. LANGDON,
" Colonel First United States Artillery, Late Chief of Artillery, Twenty-fifth Corps, San Francisco"
The following is from Greeley's The American Conflict :
" Major A. H. Stevens, Fourth Massachusetts, and E. Graves, of Weitzel's staff, had already hoisted two cavalry guidons over the imposing Capitol of Virginia, wherein the Confederate Congress had, since July, 1861, held its meetings; but these, being scarcely visible from beneath, were now supplanted by a real American
flag," etc.
Yours respectfully,
FRED. S. STEVENS.
(The above confirms the recollection of a Richmond lady, who witnessed the hauling down of the Confederate flag and the running up of the Stars and Stripes from the western slope of Strecker's hill on the day the Federal troops came into Richmond. This very subject was under discussion by the writer with the lady a few nights ago, and she insisted that the flag was a small one, and to her it looked like a yellow flag. I tried to convince her that the distance made the flag look small and that the color was not yellow. She backed down as to the color, and remarked that the smoke and flames of the burning city may have made the flag look yellow, but stuck to her recollection that the flag was a small one. The above account seems to confirm the lady's recollection, and as the command was cavalry, it may be that the company's guidon was yellow, or trimmed with yellow, thus agreeing with her account entirely.)
