Freedom by the Sword - US Army Center Of Military History

Virginia, May–October 1864 379
the Civil War: saving the regiment’s
colors or capturing the enemy’s, being
the first to enter the enemy’s position,
or refusing to leave the fight after being
wounded. 91
The men whose awards came in
April 1865 were the first black soldiers
to be honored with a military decoration.
A few others received medals
after the war. In November 1865, Sgt.
Decatur Dorsey of the 39th USCI received
one for bravery at the Petersburg
Crater fifteen months earlier. His
medal was one of only four awarded
for that battle until long after the war.
Sgt. James H. Harris of the 38th USCI
distinguished himself on 29 September
but did not receive a medal for his
actions until 1874, although his name
appeared in the same orders as those
of the other men. Sgt. William H. Carney
of the 54th Massachusetts had to
wait until 1900 to be decorated for his
bravery at Fort Wagner in July 1863.
Sgt. Andrew J. Smith of the 55th Massachusetts
received a medal as recently
as 2001. Such delays were not unusual
in the nineteenth century. Criteria for
award of the Medal of Honor have
changed over the years; a survey of 121
medals awarded for valor at Gettysburg,
the Wilderness, and Spotsylvania
Court House shows that sixty-nine of
them, or 57 percent, were issued during
the 1890s. 92
Christian A. Fleetwood in an undated
photograph taken long after the war. He
wears the uniform of an officer in the
Washington, D.C., militia and the Medal of
Honor awarded him for saving the colors of
the 4th U.S. Colored Infantry at New Market
Heights, 29 September 1864.
It is obvious that all of the medals awarded to black soldiers during the war
stemmed from one action and went to men of the 3d Division, XVIII Corps, in
General Butler’s Army of the James. None of the medals for New Market Heights
went to members of the black division of the X Corps. This is not surprising, for
only three of the seventeen medals awarded to white troops for the action went
to X Corps soldiers. Butler undertook his own project to overcome discrimination
against black troops. He designed a medal with the motto ferro iis libertas
91 OR, ser. 1, vol. 42, pt. 3, pp. 168 (“shot a”), 169 (“seized”); Department of the Army, Medal
of Honor, p. 176 (“loaded and”).
92 OR, ser. 1, vol. 42, pt. 3, p. 169; Department of the Army, Medal of Honor, pp. 137–43,
151–52, 154–57, 166.