Abel G. Cadwallader

More than thirty years passed before the United States formally recognized the act of courage that defined Abel G. Cadwallader’s Civil War service. On 6 February 1865, with the war nearing its end, the young Maryland soldier advanced ahead of his regiment and planted its colors on the enemy’s works during the fighting at Hatcher’s Run and Dabney’s Mills, Virginia. For that action, he would eventually receive the Medal of Honor.

Abel G. Cadwallader was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1841. By the opening months of the American Civil War, he was living in Frederick, Maryland, and in May 1861 he entered Union service with the 1st Maryland Infantry. His military career would carry him through some of the most turbulent years in American history and ultimately place his name among the Medal of Honor recipients of the Civil War.

By February 1865, Cadwallader was serving as a corporal in Company H, 1st Maryland Infantry. On 6 February, Union and Confederate forces fought around Hatcher’s Run and Dabney’s Mills in Virginia as part of the continuing operations against the Confederate defenses protecting Petersburg.

It was during this fighting that Cadwallader performed the act for which he became nationally recognized. Moving in advance of his regiment, he planted the regimental colors on the enemy’s works before the rest of the regiment arrived. In an era when military colors served as both a rallying point and a visible symbol of a regiment’s position on the battlefield, carrying them forward into contested ground exposed a soldier to extraordinary danger.

The official U.S. Army Medal of Honor citation records his action in a single powerful sentence:

“Gallantly planted the colors on the enemy's works in advance of the arrival of his regiment.”

Cadwallader survived the war and rose to the rank of sergeant before leaving the Army in July 1865. Yet his battlefield action at Hatcher’s Run did not immediately bring him the nation’s highest military decoration. More than three decades passed before his service was formally recognized with the Medal of Honor.

His Medal of Honor was issued on 5 January 1897, nearly thirty-two years after the action for which it was awarded. The award was not posthumous. Cadwallader was still alive to receive the recognition, making the long interval between battlefield action and official acknowledgment an important part of his story.

The Congressional Medal of Honor Society records Cadwallader as a U.S. Army Civil War Medal of Honor recipient, with the rank of corporal at the time of his heroic action and sergeant as his highest rank. His Medal of Honor action is officially associated with Hatcher’s Run and Dabney’s Mills, Virginia, on 6 February 1865.

Abel G. Cadwallader died in Baltimore, Maryland, on 6 July 1907. He was buried at Loudon Park Cemetery in Baltimore, in Section YY, Lots 1006–1007. Details concerning much of his civilian life after the Civil War remain less firmly documented than his military record, but the moment that secured his place in American military history is preserved in the official Medal of Honor record.

From a Maryland infantryman who entered Union service in 1861 to a sergeant whose courage was finally recognized more than thirty years later, Abel G. Cadwallader left a concise but enduring military legacy. His Medal of Honor citation contains only a handful of words, yet those words preserve the defining image of his service: a soldier moving ahead of his regiment and planting its colors on the enemy’s works.