A Gallant Act. – the following is given upon the authority of a citizen who fought with his rifle in the ranks:
When the battle of the 21st instant raged fiercest, a cry was heard in the gallant Seventy-first Regiment of New York, that they were firing upon friends, and, moved by the instincts of humanity ever responded to by the truly brave, the firing partially ceased, when it was proposed to advance the flag. Captain Coles, of Company C, seized the colors and ran with them some fifty paces in front, when they were greeted with a heavy discharge of musketry. The gallant Captain, concluding that friends would not fire upon the Stars and Stripes, returned to his company untouched. Not so with the flag; that was riddled with several bullets.
The Wheeling (WV) Daily Intelligencer, 7/30/1861
* The letter writer’s identity is unknown. It is assumed here that he is a member of Co. C.
Harry Smeltzer
Bull Runnings 
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