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Frank Battle, fought with the 20th Tennessee and particularly distinguished himself at Stones River where he
saved the regimental colors during Breckinridge’s charge and was commended for his bravery. “It was here that
Frank Battle, carrying the colors, found them so badly shot and torn as to be hard to handle, and having gone some
fifty yards in advance, dropped down, the colors falling on him. We thought he was killed, and Capt. W.T. Ridley rushed
out to get the colors but Frank jumped up and commenced to wave them. He had only been tieing (tying) the fragments
together,” McMurray wrote. Lashing the flags to what remained of the flagpole, Battle wrapped the remainder around his
body and ran back to the forefront of the Confederate lines. Eventually captured by Union forces, Battle had the misfortune
to get caught up in the controversy involving Capt. Shad Harris, an East Tennessee Yankee serving in the 3rd Tennessee
Cavalry (U.S.). Rebel authorities put Harris in irons and threatened to hang him as a spy. Federal authorities then used
Battle as leverage, putting him in irons and promising to execute him if Harris was sentenced to death. He was selected for
this indignity because his father was serving as treasurer of the state of Tennessee and was politically prominent like
Harris’s father was in East Tennessee. It took long months to resolve the issue, but eventually Harris and Battle were
released in 1864 following a prisoner exchange endorsed by President Lincoln.

This CDV features a Memphis, TN backmark and a federal revenue stamp indicating that it is likely a late or post
war copy of an earlier CDV. the image is crisp and has good definition as can be seen in the scans. Battle wears
a double breasted frock coat with trefoils on the sleeves. #JS1066=$800.00