Who is Col. W.F. Cloud ? The New Era newspaper, Fort Smith, AR http://www.couchgenweb.com/civilwar/NewEra_part1.html THE FEDERAL FLAG AT VAN BUREN The first of this month was a happy day for the ladies and other citizens of Van Buren. The ladies of that place made and presented the 1st Reg�t Ark. Infantry, a large Federal Flag, which was elevated to the top of a fine and substantial flag-staff occupying the front yard of the Court House. The rebels once waved the treasonable ensign of the Confederacy from the same towering shaft; but their first endeavor in this shameful boast of their treason resulted in tearing their flag nearly in twain. That disaster may be regarded as an omen of ill to the nefarious scheme of destroying the Federal Nationality, for the purpose of rearing on its ruins an aristocracy of the imperious few, who disregard the will and the interests of the laboring many that constitute the bone and sinew of the Arkansian population. Appropriate speeches were delivered on the occasion by Colonel J M Johnson, of the 1st Arkansas Infantry, Colonel W F Cloud, of the 2nd Kansas Cavalry, Colonel Williams, of the 1st �Iron-Clads�, and Lieutenant Colonel E J Searle, of the 1st Arkansas Infantry. These speeches were loudly applauded, and were well calculated to encourage the patriotic aspirations of the numerous assemblage of citizens and soldiers. Tom Cloud