Thought you all might like to read this inspiring little vignette of Southern bravery, and, as we enjoy the bounty of the season, please take the time to reflect on the intentional privations and deliberately-inflicted suffering our noble Confederate forebears had to endure while POW's at the hands of their Yankee hosts.

By the way, Color Corp. (later Ensign) Godfrey Gaisser, Co. K ("Violett Guards"), 6th LA Infantry, was not alone among the "Violett Guards" in his bravery. The Violett Guards suffered 80% casualties at Sharpsburg and 62.5% casualties at the Wilderness!

Many thanks to legendery Confederate researcher Ken Legendre for this article! (Everybody go out and buy one of Ken's books today!) -- Jim Huffman, Adj., Gainesville Vols

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Among the captured of the 6th LA Infantry at Rappahannock Station was "Violett Guard" (Co. K) Color Corporal Godfrey Gaisser, whose amazing and inspiring story was re-told in the Charleston Mercury of March 22, 1864, by that paper's war correspondent, "Hermes," in his description of the return of some six-hundred CS soldiers from the hellholes that were the Yankee prisons, where the US Government undertook a deliberate policy of starvation and retribution against our Patriotic forebears:

"LETTER FROM RICHMOND. Richmond, Wednesday, March 16. Wild cheers, exulting shouts, waving handkerchiefs, hysterical sobs, martial music, speeches, plenty to eat and drink -- such was the reception, yesterday, of the returned prisoners. The scene, as the boats approached the wharf at Rocketts, was beyond description, affecting and exciting.

Of all the speeches made in the Capitol Square, that of Capt. Hatch was the best. He said, among other things, that, when the [Yankee and Confederate POW exchange] boats met at City Point, and our prisoners were told we had plenty to eat and drink, they were silent. When told that a band of music awaited their arrival in Richmond, they were still silent. Even the promise of a greeting from the ladies and citizens of Richmond generally failed to move them. But when the [Yankee-commanded] boats moved off, and Ensign Godfrey Gaissier, of Company K [i.e., the "Violett Guards"], 6th Louisiana Regiment, hoisted, on a rough sycamore sapling, the battle flag he had concealed about his person ever since his capture at Gettysburg [should be Rapphannock Station], and flaunted it defiantly in the face of the Yankees on board the other boats, there arose from the six hundred of Hays' [Louisiana] Brigade such a shout as has seldom been heard on this Earth....'Hermes'"

Truly, we are descended from some amazing men! -- Jim Huffman, "Violett Guards"