Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry tells the inspiring story of some brave African American soldiers and sailors awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military decoration. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.

The collage below shows 15 African American soldiers and sailors who received the Medal of Honor for service in the American Civil War, American Indian Wars, and Spanish-American War. These 15 recipients are my subjects for this miniseries. I was able to utilize GenealogyBank’s Historical Newspaper Archives to find some history about these men.

In this collage we see, from left to right: (top row) Sergeant Robert A. Pinn, Co. I, 5th U.S. Colored Troops Infantry Regiment; Sergeant Major Milton M. Holland, Co. C, 5th U.S. Colored Troops Infantry Regiment; Landsman John Lawson, U.S. Navy; (2nd row) Sergeant John Denny, Co. B, 9th U.S. Cavalry Regiment; Corporal Isaiah Mays, Co. B, 24th U.S. Infantry Regiment; Sergeant Powhatan Beaty, Co. G, 5th U.S. Colored Troops Infantry Regiment; Sergeant Brent Woods, Co. B, 9th U.S. Cavalry Regiment; (3rd row) Sergeant William H. Carney, Co. C, 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment; Sergeant Thomas Hawkins, Co. C, 6th U.S. Colored Troops Infantry Regiment; Private Dennis Bell, Troop H, 10th U.S. Cavalry Regiment; Sergeant James H. Harris, Co. B, 38th U.S. Colored Troops Infantry Regiment; (bottom row) Sergeant Thomas Shaw, Co. K, 9th U.S. Cavalry Regiment; Sergeant Alexander Kelly, Co. F, 6th U.S. Colored Troops Infantry Regiment; Private James Daniel Gardiner, Co. I, 36th U.S. Colored Troops Infantry Regiment; and Sergeant Major Christian Fleetwood, Co. G, 4th U.S. Colored Troops Infantry Regiment.

Another African American recipient of the Medal of Honor not shown in the collage is Corporal Miles James, Company B, 36th U.S. Colored Troops.

One of the soldiers pictured in the collage, Private James Gardiner, as well as Corporal Miles James, are mentioned in this 1992 Richmond Times article.

Their story reveals their brave deeds in the battle at Chaffin’s Farm, Virginia, on 29-30 September 1864 that earned them Medals of Honor. They were among 13 black soldiers in the battle who earned the Medal of Honor.

This article reports:

About 4:30 a.m., the column moved across a cleared space of some 1,500 yards under heavy fire from the Chaffin’s Farm complex.

Advancing across the open field, the 36th [United States Colored Troops] emerged upon an open plain about 800 yards from the Confederates’ fortified structure. The entire brigade charged across this area, losing men heavily as they dropped in rows as if felled by a scythe. (The New York Times would later write of the brigade, “200 Negroes went into a ditch at Chaffin’s Farm and none came out alive.”)

The brigade counterattacked. Then, “When the 36th was making [its] first charge, a rebel officer leaped upon the parapet, waved his sword, and shouted ‘Hurrah, my brave men.’ Private James Gardiner, Company I, 36th U.S. Colored Troops, rushed in advance of the brigade, shot him, and then ran the bayonet through his body to the muzzle.”

In his report, Colonel Alonzo G. Draper put in a recommendation for a medal for Private James Gardiner.

Corporal Miles James, Company B, of the 36th, after having his arm so badly mutilated that immediate amputation was necessary, loaded and discharged his piece with one hand and urged his men forward – this within 30 yards of the Confederates’ fortified structure.

Here is a photo of James D. Gardiner (1839-1905), an oysterman in Virginia before the war. He died at age 66 and is buried at Calvary Crest Cemetery in Ottumwa, Iowa.

Below is the historical marker for Miles James (1829-1871) which describes his heroism. It is located on Princess Anne Road, Virginia Beach, Virginia.

The inscription reads:

Sgt. Miles James
(ca. 1829 – ca. 1871)
Miles James, born into slavery in Princess Anne County, made his way to Portsmouth and enlisted in the U.S. Army in Nov. 1863. He was mustered into service at Fort Monroe and soon became a corporal in the 36th U.S. Colored Infantry. James was awarded the Medal of Honor for extraordinary heroism in action at New Market Heights, VA, on 29 Sept. 1864. After a bullet shattered his arm, necessitating an immediate field amputation, he continued to fight and urged his men forward within 30 yards of the Confederate works. Promoted to sergeant, he returned to duty by April 1865. He served briefly in Texas before rejoining his family in Norfolk. James died ca. 1871 of complications from his wound.

To the Memory of a Forgotten Hero

Powhatan Beaty (1837-1916) served in the Union Army’s 5th U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment throughout the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign. He took command of his company, all the officers having been killed or wounded, and gallantly led it; for this action he received the Medal of Honor.

Powhatan’s regiment found themselves in a fierce battle in June 1864 and their beloved flag that they carried with honor and pride fell into the hands of the rebel enemy. Here is his story, published in the Cincinnati Post in 1930.

This article reports:

This occurred in the great battle of Petersburg, Va., where the armies had gathered to break down a fortress which might lead to Richmond. The flag of his regiment stood perilously on a fragment of breastworks under which a mine had been exploded.

Powhatan Beaty’s eyes were offended [by] the sight of this, inasmuch as the flag must momentarily fall into the hands of the despoiling enemy. The regiment was desolated, for this flag had led it thru all the battles, like the pillar of fire which the Lord had set before the children of Israel in the desert.

Then Powhatan Beaty arose above all his fellows and, leaping over earthworks and into craters and minding no hail of bullets or crash of explosions that rocked the earth, he rescued the flag.

Gen. [Benjamin] Butler awarded him a silver medal for this, and later Congress voted him its Medal of Honor which has come to few men white or black. Powhatan Beaty died in 1916. The other day there came to the G. A. R. Reunion Committee a contribution of $100 “in memory of Powhatan Beaty.”

It was from his son, A. Lee Beaty, attorney, who is the keeper of the medal by which Congress distinguished Powhatan Beaty as among the greatest of the nation’s heroes.

To be continued…

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Note on the header image: tri-department Medals of Honor display. Credit: U.S. Special Operations Command; Wikimedia Commons.