OLD ABE. 



"I'd rather capture Old Abe," said Gen. Sterling Price, of the Confederate Army, 

 whole brigade." 



than a 



LD ABE" was the live 

 war Eagle which accom- 

 panied the Eighth Wis- 

 consin regiment, during 

 the War of the Rebellion. Much of a 

 more or less problematical character 

 has been written about him, but what 

 we regard as authentic we shall pre- 

 sent in this article. Old Abe was a 

 fine specimen of the Bald Eagle, very 

 like the one figure^ in this number of 

 BIRDS. Various stories are told of his 

 capture, but the most trustworthy ac- 

 count is that Chief Sky, a Chippewa 

 Indian, took him from the nest while 

 an Eaglet. The nest was found on a 

 pine tree in the Chippewa country, about 

 three miles from the mouth of the 

 Flambeau, near some rapids in the 

 river. He and another Indian cut the 

 tree down, and, amid the menaces of 

 the parent birds, secured two young 

 Eagles about the size of Prairie Hens. 

 One of them died. The other, which 

 lived to become historical, was sold to 

 Daniel McCann for a bushel of corn. 

 McCann carried it to Eau Claire, and 

 presented it to a company then being 

 organized as a part of the Eighth 

 Wisconsin Infantry. 



What more appropriate emblem than 

 the American Bald Headed Bird could 

 have been thus selected by the patriots 

 who composed this regiment of free- 

 men ! The Golden Eagle (of which 

 we shall hereafter present a splendid 

 specimen,) with extended wings, was 

 the ensign of the Persian monarchs, 

 long before it was adopted by the 

 Romans. And the Persians borrowed 

 the symbol from the Assyrians. In 

 fact, the symbolical use of the Eagle 

 is of very remote antiquity. It was 

 the insignia of Egypt, of the Etruscans, 

 was the sacred bird of the Hindoos, 



and of the Greeks, who connected him 

 with Zeus, their supreme deity. With 

 the Scandinavians the Eagle is the 

 bird of wisdom. The double-headed 

 Eagle was in use among the Byzantine 

 emperors, " to indicate their claims to 

 the empire of both the east and the 

 west." It was adopted in the I4th 

 century by the German emperors. 

 The arms of Prussia were disting- 

 uished by the Black Eagle, and 

 those of Poland by the White. The 

 great Napoleon adopted it as the em- 

 blem of Imperial France. 



Old Abe was called by the soldiers 

 the "new recruit from Chippewa," 

 and sworn into the service of the 

 United States by encircling his neck 

 with red, white, and blue ribbons, and 

 by placing on his breast a rosette of 

 colors, after which he was carried by 

 the regiment into every engagement 

 in which it participated, perched upon 

 a shield in the shape of a heart. A 

 few inches above the shield was a 

 grooved crosspiece for the Eagle to 

 rest upon, on either end of which were 

 three arrows. When in line Old Abe 

 was always carried on the left of the 

 color bearer, in the van of the regi- 

 ment. The color bearer wore a belt 

 to which was attached a socket for the 

 end of the staff, which was about five 

 feet in length. Thus the Eagle was 

 high above the bearer's head, in plain 

 sight of the column. A ring of leather 

 was fastened to one of the Eagle's legs 

 to which was connected a strong hemp 

 cord about twenty feet long. 



Old Abe was the hero of about 

 twenty-five battles, and as many 

 skirmishes. Remarkable as it may 

 appear, not one bearer of the flag, or 

 of the Eagle, always shining marks for 

 the enemy's rifles, was ever shot down. 



35 



