It may be interesting to the Shepherdstown Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and others also to know the facts about a flag that was made and sent through the line in 1861 to our own Company B.(*1)
A U.S. flag was given to four or five young girls (young girls at the time), by Mr. Rezin Shepherd who lived in New Orleans. In the summer he lived at Wild Goose Farm. The flag was one from one of his vessels. It was sent to us by Mr. James Henry Shepherd and was to be converted into a Confederate flag, a work that was dangerous at the time, being in disputed territory.(*2) We could work only when our men were in the lines and had to be very cautious then. My father Joseph ENTLER owned and lived at Wingerd Cottage during the war and there the flag was made. The location off from town and the large wide hall were ideal places for the work, which took many anxious weeks to complete. It was very tedious to rip every seam of the stripes in such a way as not to ravel the bunting. Every star was ripped from the blue field and then to sew all the red together and all the white to form the bars red, white, and red. Of course we had a surplus of stars as the Confederacy was young. After many weeks of work the flag was finished and a beautiful Confederate flag was ready to be sent through the line to Company B. It was hidden away awaiting a safe transfer. I heard the tramp of cavalry and clank of swords and sabers. I looked out the window and saw the cottage was surrounded by Yankee Cavalry. Oh, the flag, what was to be done with it? I heard the officer read orders to my father to search his premises thoroughly for contraband goods. My father seemed to be protesting against the search. But that gave me a little time to take the flag from its hiding place in a chest. The house was surrounded. I could not get out to hide it. I pulled a dress from the wall and put the flag in it and threw the dress carelessly across the back of a chair. Skirts were very wide and deep facings upon them. I put the little flags that we wore on our dresses and letters under the carpet. When my door was pushed open by Capt. Horner of Col. Coles' Cavalry and the search began. Every bureau drawer and closet was searched, even the grandfather clock where reposed letters to go through the lines. But they were too deep in the bottom of the old clock to be detected. Everything was handled but the blue striped dress hovering over its precious treasure. It was too insignificant to attract their notice and they gave up the search, but rather in a bad humor. The flag was safe and sent to Company B, but all inquires after the war failed to locate it. There was an exchange of flags several years ago. That flag would be readily recognized by its many seams and its homemade marks. Now what became of that flag is a mystery. It went through the lines and was received by the company. I believe I am the only one living who helped to make the flag and saved it from being captured by Capt. Horner, its first Yankee assailant.
Footnotes
(*1) Company B, was a local infantry company formed in Jefferson County, VA,
now WV, and was composed mainly of men from Shepherdstown. Mary Louise
ENTLER'S brother, Cato MOORE ENTLER, and the compiler's great-great
grandfather, was in this unit.
(*2) Shepherdstown, Jefferson County, VA, now WV; Shepherdstown was about 5
miles south, across the Potomac River, from Sharpsburg, MD, near the
Battle of Antietam. The areas of Jefferson, Berkeley, and Frederick Counties in
VA, were in constant turmoil during the war. Winchester, VA, changed hands some
40 or more times.