CHENEYVILLE (LA.) RIFLES' FLAG RETURNED

During the Reunion at Little Rock there was returned to Gen. Thomas J. Shaffer, Commander of the Louisiana Division, U. C. V.. a silk Confederate flag which belonged to the Cheneyville Rifles. This flag was presented to General Shaffer by Mrs. Walke, the custodian of the banners of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

The address of the Louisiana Division was made Maj L. B. Claiborne, of Pointe Coupee Parish, and a member of General Shaffer's staff.

Since the Reunion the exact history of the flag has been learned, It was made from the wedding dress of Mrs. T. B. Helm, and was presented to the Cheneyville Rifles on the occasion of its departure to the seat of war.

The banner is held by General Shaffer, and he will place it in Memorial Hall.

E. C. Herbert, of Alexandria, Rapides Parish, who, with Mrs. Herbert, was present on the day the flag was originally presented, has contributed the following history:

"Mrs. Herbert and I were present on that May day in 1861. when the 'beauty and chivalry' of old Cheneyville, with ether portions of Rapides Parish, had assembled for the proceedings of that patriotic gathering, and it had more the resemblance of a festive gathering than one to ‘good-by’ to loved ones on their departure for the seat of war.

"We have been trying to recall the names of the eleven young ladies who, with the colors of the young Confederacy appropriately and conspicuously arranged and displayed about their persons, represented the eleven States. Together we can remember only five, whose names follow: Miss Mary C. Wright, Miss Mathilde Clark, Miss Ellen Tanner, Miss Elizabeth Compton. and Miss Betty Tanner. The five whose names are given all in churchyards lie.

"Mrs I. B. Helm, who was Miss Jane Tanner, gave her bridal dress to be made into that 'historic flag,' which was presented to the Cheneyville Rifles by Miss Clark.

"The Cheneyville Rifles, Capt. P F. Keary commanding, became Company H, 8th Louisiana Regiment, and with the 6th, 7th. and 9th Louisiana Regiments, and Wheat's Battalion, also from Louisiana, constituted for a time the 1st Louisiana Brigade, commanded by Gen. Dick Taylor. In May, 1862, the but of late years the people better appreciate his noble char- brigade, with General Ewell's entire division, was sent to re-enforce Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley, and thenceforward was of Jackson's Corps

"In 1864, Captain Keary was sent to the Trans-Mississippi Department to organize a battalion. From that time till the end the Cheneyville Rifles ( Company H, 8th Louisiana Regiment) was commanded by the late Capt. John Burgess and Lieutenant Oliver, who is still living near Evergreen, La."

Confederate Veteran, Vol. 19, 1911, pp. 373/4