While Branard was home on furlough in December 1862, six Houston ladies presented him with a miniature First National pattern flag measuring 63⁄4 by 131⁄2 inches with a single star in the canton. Against army regulations, the independent-minded Texan affixed the smaller flag to the staff of his Southern Cross standard, and it was carried this way throughout the rest of the war. Sergeant Branard and his flags would be in the thickest of the action at Gettysburg.

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After descending a gradual slope, the 426 men of the 1st Texas emerged at the base of a rock-strewn, triangular-shaped field. Looming ahead of the Texans on a narrow elevation known as Houck's Ridge stood four cannons supported by a line of blue infantrymen. At the southern end of this elevation lay a massive outcropping of huge boulders. The geological oddity known as Devil's Den was aptly named considering its eerie appearance and the savage, chaotic nature of the fighting that erupted there.

The 1st Texas charged up the slope only to be repulsed twice by Union counterattacks. One Texan described the seesaw battle as "one of the wildest, fiercest struggles of the war." The timely arrival of Brig. Gen. Henry "Old Rock" Benning's brigade of Georgians tipped the scales in favor of the attackers by a nearly 2-to-1 margin.

Following behind the first wave, Benning threw his fresh troops into the heated contest. At first, confusion reigned as the various regiments became intermingled in the rough terrain. Some of the Georgia infantrymen mistakenly fired into the backs of the Texans. To halt the friendly fire, Branard stepped into the open and vigorously waved his flag.

Afterward Branard and the color-bearer of the 15th Georgia engaged in a footrace for the summit. The Texan opened up a lead on his competitor and found himself well in advance of the main body. His gallantry apparently elicited the approval of the Union infantrymen on the ridge as some of them shouted, "Don't shoot that color-bearer—he is too brave."

When Union troops finally withdrew from the area, they left behind three guns from Captain James E. Smith's 4th New York Independent Battery. Sergeant Branard sought out the largest rock on the crest near the guns and planted the flag of the 1st Texas. His moment of triumph was short-lived. A nearby Union shell burst splintered a large portion of the flagstaff and "hurled the hero unconscious down the slope of the mountain."

After reviving a few moments later, the incensed color-bearer was determined "to whip the whole Yankee nation by himself." Obviously Branard was in no condition to attempt such an ambitious task, and for now capturing Devil's Den would have to suffice.

Among the Union troops defending Devil's Den were the members of the 99th Pennsylvania, who would later point with pride to the heroism of their own color-bearer, Harvey May Munsell. When the regiment was organized two years earlier, no one would have looked to the scrawny 18-year-old recruit for inspiration. His fellow soldiers admired his pluck, however.

A native of New York's Steuben County, Munsell was managing a lumberyard for an uncle in Oil City, Pa., when the war broke out. His opposition to slavery drove him to enlist. Thwarted in his efforts to join a local company, the patriotic youngster traveled to Philadelphia to sign up with the 99th. Through hard work and perseverance, Munsell was promoted to corporal, then to sergeant. The honor of carrying the state colors was bestowed upon him in August 1862.

At Fredericksburg, he rushed forward impetuously in the face of an enemy attack, an act that inspired his own unit and adjacent regiments to charge into the onrushing Southerners and push them back. His bravery at Chancellorsville earned him the Kearny Cross, a medal awarded to select III Corps soldiers for gallantry.

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