The following was printed in the Rockingham Register, 28 June 1895:

Saving the Colors
From time immemorial the armies of every warlike people have set the highest value upon the standards they bore to battle. To guard one's own flag against capture is the pride, to capture the flag of one's enemy the ambition, of every valiant soldier. In consequence, in every war between peoples of good military record, feats of daring performed by color bearers are honorably common.--The civil war was full of such incidents. Out of very many, two or three stand as especially noteworthy.
One occurred at Fredericksburg on the day when half the brigades of Meagher and Caldwell lay on the bloody slope leading up to the Confederate intrenchments. Among the assaulting regiments was the Fifth New Hampshire, and it lost 186 out of 300 men who made the charge. The survivors fell back behind a fence, within easy range of the Confederate rifle pits. Just before reaching it the last of the color guard was shot and the flag fell in the open.
A Capt. Purdy instantly ran out to capture it, and as he reached it was shot through the heart; another captain, Murray, made the same attempt and was also killed, and so was a third, Moore. Several private soldiers met a like fate.--The were all killed close to the flag, and their dead bodies fell across one another. Taking advantage of this breastworks, Lieut. Nettleton crawled from behind the fence to the colors, and bore back the blood won trophy.--Harpers Round Table