I absolutely love the old stories about the Civil War and the numerous people who took part in it. The article below is about Henry Renfrew, a Confederate, who stole a battle flag and left the country rather than surrender the flag to the Union soldiers.
Henry C. Renfrew and His Flag
During the past few weeks, General Basil Duke and General John B. Castleman have been overwhelmed with letters from old Confederates asking what they knew of the story of Henry Clay Renfrew, an ex-Confederate who carried away the last flag of the Confederacy and escaped with it to the Navigator Islands. Renfrew was supposed to have been a member of the Second Kentucky under General Duke. A reporter called on General Duke to learn the facts in the case.
“No,” said the general. “Renfrew’s name has slipped my memory. I thoroughly believe the truth of the story. The fact that his diary shows him to have been in both the Second and Fourth Kentucky is a point that goes far toward establishing the authenticity of the tale. If it were simply a cooked up yarn the author would never have thought to put him in two regiments.
“The matter of which flag he took must be a bit uncertain. You know, we old Confederates were so busy that we could not worry much about the flags. I don’t think I had a brigade flag. Renfrew probably got his company flag, as most of the companies had some emblem or pennon.
“I have talked with several of my men and they say that they remember renfrew perfectly. He came from somewhere near Midway. From what they tell me he was a gallant soldier.”
The reporter then hunted up one of the men who was a private under General Duke.
“Renfrew?” exclaimed the old soldier. “Of course I remember Renfrew. He was one of the finest fellows in the army. When I knew him he was about twenty-three years old and in Bart Jenkins’ brigade. Renfrew, Bayless and Mosgrove were mates. They were all college graduates, and naturally drifted together in the company. They messed together all the time. Every one of them was a brave soldier. Bayless now lives in Cincinnati. I know that Renfrew was in that march as one of Pres. Jefferson Davis’ escort. Most of that last command surrendered at Mount Sterling. Some of them, however, tried to work west to join Kirby Smith. The command split and I lost sight of Renfrew. Bayless of Cincinnati could tell all about him.”
The story is to the effect that out in the far Navigator Isles floats an old Confederate flag that has never been surrendered. And now all over the country old soldiers are rousing themselves and overwhelming General Duke with inquiries concerning the story of the young Kentuckian who bravely bore that flag, then willingly expatriated himself rather than surrender it. Four years he followed it, and then for twenty-five more, it proudly floated unsurrendered before his hut on a little Pacific island.
Now Private Henry Clay Renfrew, C.S.A., lies buried in a rocky headland of that fair isle. He lies so that, rising his face would look to the east, toward the land of his youth and his love. And over the grave of the dead soldier floats the tattered battle flag; the stars and bars for which he gave up home and friends and all that made life tolerable. The native who befriended him takes care of the grave.
Capt. Martin Schuyler, formerly captain in the Seventh Ohio Calvary, brought back the story from the Philippines. He told it to Capt. T. F. Allen, also of the Seventh Ohio. Captain Schuyler met the native and from him learned the story of the flag. The native told him that many years ago an American, who said he had drifted along the western coast of South America, settled in the Navigator Islands and lived alone, flying before his hut a Confederate battleflag which he said was carried by the cavalr escort that traveled with Jefferson Davis in the last stages of his flight from Richmond, before his capture by the Federals. The ex-soldier said that he had escaped with the flag, which he loved too well to permit him to live agin under the United States flag. The American refugee lived an isolated life for years, dying three years ago and leaving his flag to his native friend, with the injunction that he never part with it.
Captain Schuyler finally got the native’s permission to examine the dead American’s effects. He found papers and diaries indicating that the ex-Confederate was Henry Clay Renfrew, a member of either the Second or Fourth Kentucky Cavalry, or both, in the Confederate army. In some places he referred to Col. Basil Duke as the colonel, and Capt. John B. Castleman as his captain; in others to Col. Henry Giltner and Capt. Bart Jenkins as his colonel and captain respectively. He wrote of Bernard Bayless and Dallas Mosgrove as his chums. In one of the diaries Renfrew referred to length to the last days of the Confederacy. Then followed the statement that he was with the last body of organized Confederate soldiers that escorted Jefferson Davis, General Duke commanding, and that when Duke’s surrender was agreed upon the writer took the flag from the staff, concealed it about his body and escaped, with the intention of taking the flag to some foreign land.
Source: The Pacific commercial advertiser. (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands), 26 Oct. 1901.
