On the evening of July 3, 1863, US Army forces had just repelled a massive Confederate assault on their lines just south of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, known to history as Pickett’s Charge.
As final artillery shells were exchanged between the two exhausted armies, one of them landed in a grove of trees atop Cemetery Ridge near US lines and exploded.
The shell killed Captain Charles H. Flagg of Pittston, Pennsylvania.
Weeks after Flagg’s death, the following was published in the Pittston Gazette describing the circumstances of Flagg’s demise:
At the late battle of Gettysburg, he was at his post doing duty fearless of the danger to which he was exposed. The two first days of battle were passed, though his comrades fell by thousands around him, yet he was still all right, as he remarked to a friend.
On the third day, when the battle commenced, the officers of Gen. [Thomas] Rowley’s Staff hitched their horses in a grove close to the General’s headquarters. The rebels had been throwing shells into the grove, and about 5 o’clock p. in., when the battle was nearly over Capt. Flagg went to look for his horse; having been gone two hours and a half, the other officers became alarmed about him, made search and found him in the grove dead, robbed of his watch, money, sword, and a beautiful gold ring his wife had sent him.
It is supposed that he was killed by the concussion of a shell or cannon ball, as one of his arms was slightly wounded and his side near his lungs appeared to be bruised, but the skin was not broken. He was buried in the grove near where he fell, but afterward removed to the Cemetery by order of Gen. Rowley.
The grave was not marked so that it could be distinguished from others. Our army moved on after Lee, and no one was left that knew where he was buried, that was the reason that Mr. Beyea could not find him, until Gen. Rowley sent a draft [map] of the Cemetery and the exact location of his grave, which enabled him to find the place and bring his body home.
Flagg had left a successful business and his wife Mary at home in Pittston to join the US Army in the fight to save the Union.
He had formed Company K, 142nd Pennsylvania in the Luzerne County in 1862 and had survived the horrific Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Chancellorsville, and the fierce fighting experienced by the 142nd at Gettysburg on July 1. That fight on Seminary Ridge on the first day at Gettysburg left more than 200 of the 330 men in the regiment at the time killed or wounded.
Death caught Captain Flagg as the greatest battle in the history of the Western Hemisphere was just drawing to a close with victory for his beloved army.
Flagg’s remains were taken home to Luzerne County and buried at Hollenback Cemetery in Wilkes-Barre.
Of the brave officer, a soldier in the 142nd wrote:
Captain C.H. Flagg: where is he today? He has gone from time to eternity, and but few are left in his company [Company K, 142nd PA] to lament his loss.
But I can truly say for myself, and for those who are left, that we truly mourn and lament his loss. But there is one consolation left for those who are deprived of his company, and that is that he died doing his duty as a soldier and a man…
May God give us a speedy and final close to this cruel war and bless our fair land once more with peace and prosperity
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