COL. CURRAN POPE'S SPEECH ACCEPTING THE REGIMENTAL COLORS AT THE LOUISVILLE FAIR GROUNDS, OCTOBER 23, 1861

On the part of this noble regiment of Kentucky chivalry, which I have the honor to command, I return to you and to the ladies of Louisville whom you represent, our heartfelt thanks for this beautiful gift.  It is truly such a gift as fair hands may gracefully bestow and manly hearts proudly receive.  We behold emblazoned upon its bright folds the same stars and stripes which the eyes of Washington were accustomed to look upon, and we rejoice with joy unspeakable that it is still this day the consecrated flag of our Union.  It has streamed in triumph at the mast-head of our ships, and in many a bloody field has cheered the American armies on to victory.  It has waved in every breeze on the land and upon the sea, and in the strong hands of our fathers who bore it aloft, it has never, lo, never dishonored.  Around it have clustered the dearest hopes of every friend of human liberty in every clime, and who doubts the last shriek of freedom will rend the skies, if it shall fall forever.  Can you be so despondent, my countrymen, as to believe these evil days are about to dawn upon us, whilst the deathless name of Washington in other lands is growing brighter with the revolving years and exciting heroic and noble deeds, that Americans have ceased to prize his great boon to them?  Well may we trust it cannot be; and, though others may hate and curse the land that gave them birth, the brave and loyal sons of Kentucky will never strike with parricidal hands the State that has nurtured them.  Sooner may the battlefield run purple with our blood, and we fall, if fall we must, in civil strife, wrapping as a winding sheet these spangled colors around us and breathing out our last sighs for our country's glory.

Louisville Journal, October 23, 1861