The Winder cavalry.
The gallant company of Marylanders, commanded by
Captain William I. Rasin, has just been presented with a beautiful flag by the ladies of
Kent county, Maryland, from which county many of the company have come to the
Confederate service.
The flag is a perfect
bijou, almost too fine for our rough-and-ready cavalry.
It displays the old Confederate colors—
red,
white, and
red—dear to the hearts of true
Maryland women.
The union shown on one side the arms of
Maryland; on the other a blue field with eleven golden stars and the legend, ‘Hope is Our Watchword and Truth our Guiding Star.’
It is richly ornamented with bullion fringe and tassels, and bears upon a silver plate on the flagstaff the inscription: ‘Presented to (the Winder cavalry), Company E, First Maryland cavalry,
Confederate States of America,
Captain William I. Rasin commanding, by the ladies of
Kent county, Maryland.
May its crimson folds burn
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fiercely through the storm of battle, till the brave men who bear it can wave it triumphantly over
Kent county, Maryland.’
For over twenty-two years this flag was folded away carefully by one of
Virginia's daughters in
Maryland, and yesterday one of the few survivors of Company E,
Corporal George T. Hollyday, bore its folds proudly aloft through the streets of
Richmond as one of the
Maryland Line here to honor the memory of
Virginia's great soldier,
R. E. Lee.
To the care and custody of
James R. Wheeler and
George T. Hollyday, both surviving members of this gallant company of
Maryland cavalrymen, this relic of the past, valued beyond all measure, has been intrusted.
This company was engaged in the last charge made by any portion of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Courthouse, Sunday, April 9, 1865.
