"Saving the Flag, July 2, 1863"
While Colonel Jeffords was back in Michigan on a recruiting trip, the ladies of Monroe, Michigan, presented him with a new national flag to replace the regiment's original flag, which had been badly damaged in recent battles. Jeffords stated that he would defend the flag with his life.
During the second day at Gettysburg, the color-bearer of the 4th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment dropped this flag, and as Colonel Jeffords advanced to retrieve it, he fought with the Confederate soldier who had seized the flag. In the ensuing melee, Jeffords received a gunshot wound to the thigh and was bayoneted by a Confederate soldier in the left abdomen, a mortal wound for the 26-year-old officer. He died at 4 am the next day, on July 3, 1863.
His final words were said to be "Mother, mother, mother." Jeffords became the highest commissioned officer in the Civil War to die of a bayonet wound. His body was sent home to Dexter, Michigan, after the battle, where approximately 2,000 people attended the funeral of its beloved hero. He is buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Dexter.
(Painting by Don Troiani)













