Keep the Flag to the FrontChickamauga
Hurrah! Hurrah! We bring the jubilee! The Eighth Kansas Infantry went farther east than any other Kansas regiment, finding itself fighting in northern Georgia. View a map of battles fought by the Eighth Kansas Infantry. 
It was at Chickamauga in Georgia that the Eighth Kansas had a very bloody day. It was particularly deadly for the color guard. Of the nine members of the color guard that day, four were killed, three wounded, and only two went unharmed. The regimental flag is pictured above, right. At left is the brigade flag of the Twentieth Army Corps, First Division, Third Brigade. The Eighth Kansas was a regiment in this brigade. Col. John A. Martin of the Eighth recalled the battle in 1886 for a Memorial Day address in Wichita: Selected, as the color-guard always is, from different companies, and with a carefulness inspired by regimental pride, the color-bearer and his guard of honor formed a striking group-he tall, powerful, manly, grave and silent; they boyish, beardless, laughing, chattering, careless-but one and all of them daring and gallant beyond what was common even in those heroic years. Within an hour after the battle began, Rovohl. . .was mortally wounded. When he fell his comrades indulged in fierce dispute as to which of them was entitled to carry the flag. Several claimed it, but Wendell, affirming his seniority in rank as a corporal, secured it. Two of them proposed carrying Rovohl to the surgeons in the rear, but he refused all help, saying, "My life is nothing-keep the flag to the front." 
Col. Martin became brigade commander after his predecessor, Colonel Hans Heg of Wisconsin, was killed at Chickamauga. Many souvenirs were taken from Civil War battlefields by soldiers and visitors. This tree stump (pictured at right) with an embedded artillery shell was taken as a souvenir from Chickamauga. The metal plate mounted to the top of the stump reads: From Chickamauga  Next |
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