“Work of a Confederate Woman”, ‘Mrs. Jane Claudia  Johnson’s Effective Activities for the Cause of Maryland.’  Wife of General Bradley T. Johnson, Confederate Veteran, July 1901, pg 323.

The Valley campaign and the seven days' battles had reduced it from seven hundred and twenty men to less than two hundred. In August, 1862, the regiment was mustered out of service, to the great indignation of officers and men. The pretext of the War Department was that it was for the purpose of allowing the Marylanders to reorganize themselves, and thus strengthen the Maryland Line. The truth was that a number of prominent Marylanders had rendezvoused in Richmond , and wanted a new organization and new deal, whereby they might draw the highest prizes ignoring the services of officers and men who had won distinction on twenty pitched battlefields.

On being mustered out, the men, by a unanimous vote, amid tears and sobs, presented their little flag to Mrs. Johnson. This Bucktail flag, decorated with a captured Bucktail, and honored by a special order by Gen. Ewell, commander of the division, lay on her bier when she was carried to her grave in Loudon Park by her old soldiers, and she left it in her will, as an heirloom to her son and grandson and their remotest posterity.

Their letter to Mrs. Johnson is as follows:

'Dear Madam: Upon the occasion of the disbandment of the First Maryland Regiment on the 17th of August, we, the undersigned, members of the above named regiment, do unanimously agree and resolve to present to you, as one true and truly worthy to receive it, our flag, which has been gallantly and victoriously borne over many a bloody and hard fought field, and under whose sacred folds Maryland's exiled sons have fought and bled in a holy cause.

 'Our attachment to our flag is undying, and now that circumstances have rendered it necessary that our organization should no longer exist, we place in your hands as a testimonial of our regard and esteem our little flag, which is dear to us all.'

It was signed for the regiment by the following sergeants: Albert Tolson, Company C, George Tyler. Company A, George W. Wentworth, Company B: F. Farr, Company F, W. Joseph Wrenek, Company D, Calvin Myers, Company E, Charles N. Ferciot, Company G, Richard L. Brown, and Edwin Selvage, the color bearer.

Mrs. Johnson wrote from Charlottesville , Va. , August 18, 1862 , to Edwin Selvage, color bearer, and the First Maryland Regiment:

'Gentlemen: This emblem of your courage and State pride I have received. The truth you have reposed in me shall be sacredly guarded, and only to the same organization and men will I ever yield it. I take this means of assuring you all that as I have been with you in all the trials you have undergone in the South, so will I ever be, and no member of the First Maryland Regiment will ever want a friend while I live.'