until August 31st, following; second, this same leader number two, had previously stated, at a gathering of F in 1883, that our regiment never crossed the pike; third, this glorious hero was, like Kensill, wounded and off the field before the 150th crossed the pike.
In July, 1863, Sergt. Major Lyon, a tentmate and intimate friend of mine, who was then in Philadelphia, having been wounded July 1st, at the request and dictation of an officer of 150th, wrote up the part taken by our regiment at Gettysburg; this, with some modifications of phraseology, corrections of orthography, &c., was published in the Philadelphia Press, of July 25th, 1863; Lyon sent a copy to me, which I still have; this was, I believe, the first public claim of the recapture of the 149th P. V. colors, by a squad of the 150th; the statement in Bates' history, page 651, is substantially the same, and was doubtlessly based on the newspaper article referred to.
In July, 1884, I wrote to Lyon, then in New York, in relation to the claim made by Kensill; he forwarded to me the original M. S., which he had written in July, 1863, this also I still have in my possession.
Lyon died at the Home of Incurables in Philadelphia, Dec. 12, 1898; while he was an inmate of that institution, I frequently visited him, and in one of our war talks, not long before his death, while speaking of the recapture incident, he said to me: "You know, Bill, that was all poppy-cock," a favorite expression of his for buncombe.
I have always been of the opinion that the advance of our right wing into the field north of the pike, saved your colors from capture at that time, and that fact was magnified into their having been recaptured by us; many a goodly edifice has arisen from a much slighter foundation.
I think the responsibility for the final capture of your colors is a divided one, including Stone, Dwight, Wister and possibly Dana.
Their detachment by order of Col. Stone, had served its purpose long before the position at McPherson's had been abandoned, and the guards could have been recalled to their place in the regiment at any time prior thereto.
