Color Sergeant Thomas W. Shiflett, color bearer for the 14th Virginia

Broadfoot: VA 14th Inf. Co. C

 

               Excerpt from "The Virginia Regimental Histories Series 14th Virginia Infantry"

                             Written by Edward R. Crews,   Timothy A. Parrish


     Submitted by Warren D. Shiflett 

 

Pickett's Division reached the Stone wall about 3:30 PM.  Although Garnett was dead at this point and Kemper was wounded, Armistead still was up and leading his men.  He crossed the stone wall, his hat on his sword, and headed into the enemy lines.  "It's the Philadelphia Brigade," Armistead told his men as he jumped into the Federal position.  "Give them the cold steel, boys."  All integrity within the Confederate units now was gone as the men fought hand-to-hand with the federal troops.  Color Sergeant Thomas W. Shiflett, color bearer for the 14th Virginia, attempted to cross the stone wall with Armistead.  As the sergeant went over the wall, he was shot below the eye and the ball exited the back of his head.  Amazingly enough, Shiflett survived his wound, and his savior was the Federal who shot him.

 

    Immediately after being hit, Shiflett fell unconscious and remained so until the next morning.  He awakened when kicked by a Federal soldier.  The wounded Confederate heard the man, who was combing the field for souvenirs, tell a comrade that he had killed Shiflett the day before.  When Shiflett moved, the enemy soldier realized he was alive and took him to a hospital.  Shiflett recovered there.  Pickett's Charge evidently had not diminished his willingness to fight.  While recuperating, Shiflett was in a cot beside a patient from the Army of the Potomac.  The Union soldier began taunting the Confederate about the Southern defeat at Gettysburg.  "Shiflett told him he had not been whipped, and if his cot could be placed near enough for him to get hold of him he could then whip him," a comrade recalled after the war.  Shiflett apparently was paroled and exchanged in September.  He rejoined the Army of Northern Virginia, was paroled in 1865, and died not long afterward from the affects of his wound. 

 

After Shiflett went down, somebody else took the 14th Virginia's battle flag across the wall and leaned it against an artillery piece.  A regiment's flag was it's proudest possession; it's capture the worst humiliation.  When they spotted the unguarded flag, several Confederates rushed to save it and died doing so.  Their efforts were in vain.  Corporal Joseph DeCastro grabbed the Southern colors, and, as was traditional in the Union army, received the Medal of Honor for his action.  


This page is part of the Shiflet Family Genealogy Website and is maintained by:
Julia Crosswell / Fort Worth, TX / 1998 - 2006
Robert Klein / Pasadena, MD / 2008 - present