Andrew Jackson Sloan

Andrew Jackson Sloan was a Union Army soldier and Medal of Honor recipient whose defining act of courage came during the Battle of Nashville in the closing months of the American Civil War. Serving as a Private in Company H, 12th Iowa Infantry, Sloan captured the flag of the 1st Louisiana Battery, Confederate States of America, during the fighting on December 16, 1864. The deed earned him the United States' highest military decoration and left behind an unusually tangible legacy: the captured Confederate artillery flag associated with his action survives today in the collection of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

Early Life

Andrew Jackson Sloan was born in 1835 in Bedford County, Pennsylvania. Available authoritative Medal of Honor records do not establish a more precise birthplace that should be used in place of the county-level identification. He later became associated with Colesburg, Delaware County, Iowa, the community to which his Medal of Honor was officially accredited.

By the time of the Civil War, Sloan had entered military service with the United States Army and served as a Private in Company H of the 12th Iowa Infantry.

The regiment formed part of the Union forces operating in the Western Theater—a region in which control of the Mississippi Valley, Tennessee, and the major transportation routes of the South became central to the Union war effort.

Unlike officers whose military records were often extensively documented, Sloan remained an enlisted soldier. His highest verified military rank is Private, and there is no reliable evidence that he later attained a higher Army rank.

The Civil War and the Road to Nashville

By late 1864, the Civil War had entered a decisive stage.

Confederate General John Bell Hood led the Army of Tennessee north after the fall of Atlanta, hoping to disrupt Union operations and regain the strategic initiative in Tennessee. After suffering severe losses at Franklin on November 30, Hood nevertheless continued toward Nashville.

The Union commander there, Major General George H. Thomas, assembled a powerful force around the heavily fortified city.

On December 15 and 16, 1864, Thomas launched the Battle of Nashville. Over two days, Union forces struck Hood's positions, eventually breaking the Confederate defensive line. The defeat badly damaged the Army of Tennessee and effectively ended it as a major offensive force.

Sloan and the 12th Iowa Infantry took part in this campaign as part of the Union infantry force.

It was on the second day of the battle—December 16, 1864—that Sloan performed the action for which his name would be remembered.

December 16, 1864 — Capture of the Confederate Flag

Sloan's official Medal of Honor citation is exceptionally brief:

he captured the flag of the 1st Louisiana Battery.

Behind those few words was one of the most dangerous acts an infantry soldier could perform during Civil War combat.

Regimental and battlefield flags were not simply decorative objects. They helped soldiers identify their unit amid smoke, noise, confusion and broken formations. Flags also carried immense symbolic value. Capturing an enemy color could indicate that an opposing formation had been penetrated, disrupted or overrun.

During the fighting near Nashville, Sloan encountered the Confederate artillery flag associated with the 1st Louisiana Battery.

A contemporary regimental account later explained that the battery flag had been removed from its staff by an enemy soldier. Sloan captured that soldier and took possession of the flag. The action occurred during the wider Union assault that was breaking Confederate resistance south of Nashville.

The flag itself provides unusually strong physical evidence of Sloan's action.

The Smithsonian National Museum of American History preserves a Confederate artillery flag whose historical inscription identifies it as the flag captured by Andrew J. Sloan, Private, Company H, 12th Iowa Infantry, near Nashville on December 16, 1864. The object is part of the General Edward D. Townsend collection of American military relics.

This means Sloan's act of valor survives not only in an award citation but also through the actual battlefield object associated with it.

The Medal of Honor

For his actions at Nashville, Private Andrew Jackson Sloan was awarded the Medal of Honor.

The Medal of Honor originated during the American Civil War. Congress authorized the Navy Medal of Honor in 1861, followed by authorization of the Army Medal of Honor on July 12, 1862. The earliest recipients were therefore men serving during the same conflict in which Sloan fought.

The decoration evolved significantly in later decades. Modern Medal of Honor standards and procedures are more formalized than those used during the Civil War, but the fundamental purpose remained the recognition of exceptional military valor.

Sloan's recipient-specific record establishes:

Branch: United States Army Rank: Private Unit: Company H, 12th Iowa Infantry Action: Capture of the flag of the 1st Louisiana Battery Action Date: December 16, 1864 Location: Nashville, Tennessee Presentation Date: February 24, 1865 Posthumous: No

The Congressional Medal of Honor Society confirms that Sloan's Medal of Honor was presented on February 24, 1865, little more than two months after his action. He was alive to receive the recognition.

His Medal of Honor carries no additional repeat-award device.

Why Capturing a Flag Mattered

To understand Sloan's Medal of Honor fully, it is important to understand the place of colors on a nineteenth-century battlefield.

Civil War infantry and artillery formations depended heavily on flags as visual rallying points. In thick battlefield smoke, with shouted commands difficult to hear and formations constantly changing, a unit's colors could tell soldiers where their organization remained concentrated.

Enemy soldiers therefore deliberately targeted colors.

The men carrying or defending them often faced exceptionally high risk.

Capturing an enemy flag could demonstrate that a soldier had reached or penetrated the opposing formation at close range. Consequently, a significant number of Civil War Medals of Honor recognized the capture or preservation of battle flags.

Sloan's action fits this historical context. His decoration was not awarded merely for possessing a Confederate flag after the battle. The official record specifically connects him to its capture during the Battle of Nashville.

The Battle's Outcome

The wider battle in which Sloan distinguished himself ended in a major Union victory.

On December 16, Union attacks finally broke the Confederate defensive line. Fighting around positions such as Shy's Hill helped trigger a broader collapse, and Hood's Army of Tennessee withdrew southward. The National Park Service describes the Confederate force as thoroughly defeated, with the threat to Tennessee effectively ended.

Sloan's individual act therefore occurred during a battlefield moment of considerable historical importance.

His capture of an enemy artillery flag represented one small but vivid part of a much larger collapse of Confederate resistance around Nashville.

After the Medal of Honor

Sloan survived the Civil War era and returned to civilian life.

The surviving authoritative record of his later years is much thinner than the documentation surrounding his Medal of Honor action. For that reason, details of occupations, family relationships or other activities should not be expanded unless supported by stronger records.

What can be stated securely is that Sloan remained connected with Colesburg, Iowa, the community to which his Medal of Honor had been accredited.

He did not become known for a long list of additional military decorations, nor is there recipient-specific evidence supporting another medal for inclusion in his verified rack.

This is important for the VictoriaCross.ca profile. Sloan certainly served during the Civil War, but service during a particular conflict does not automatically establish personal entitlement to every later-created campaign medal associated with that conflict.

Accordingly, the Civil War Campaign Medal is not being added to his final verified rack.

Death and Burial

Andrew Jackson Sloan died in 1875 in Colesburg, Iowa.

He was buried in Platt Cemetery, Colesburg, Iowa, where his grave preserves the connection between his civilian community and his Civil War service. The Congressional Medal of Honor Society identifies Platt Cemetery as his burial place.

He died approximately a decade after the end of the Civil War and only about ten years after receiving the Medal of Honor.

His Captured Flag Today

One of the most remarkable aspects of Sloan's legacy is that the object associated with his Medal of Honor action has survived.

The Confederate artillery flag preserved by the Smithsonian National Museum of American History bears an inscription identifying it as the flag captured by Sloan near Nashville on December 16, 1864.

The flag is described as having a blue field with 13 stars arranged in an X pattern, alongside alternating red and white horizontal sections. Its historical documentation connects it directly with Private Andrew J. Sloan and Company H, 12th Iowa Infantry.

For researchers, this gives Sloan's story a rare physical continuity.

The Medal of Honor citation tells us what he did.

The surviving flag provides the artifact connected to that act.

More than a century and a half later, the object remains part of America's national historical collection.

Legacy

Andrew Jackson Sloan's military legacy is concentrated in a single, clearly documented battlefield action.

He was not a general, a commissioned officer or a career military commander.

He was a Private.

Yet on December 16, 1864, during one of the Civil War's decisive late battles, he captured the flag of a Confederate artillery battery. The United States formally recognized his action with the Medal of Honor on February 24, 1865.

His story also illustrates why seemingly simple nineteenth-century Medal of Honor citations need historical context. The official description—“captured flag of 1st Louisiana Battery”—contains only a few words, but those words represented an action carried out amid close combat and the collapse of an enemy defensive position.

Today Sloan is remembered through his Medal of Honor record, his grave in Iowa, and perhaps most strikingly, through the Confederate flag that still survives in the Smithsonian.

Final Verified Military Record

Andrew Jackson Sloan served in the United States Army as a Private in Company H, 12th Iowa Infantry during the American Civil War. His defining combat action occurred at Nashville, Tennessee, on December 16, 1864, when he captured the flag of the 1st Louisiana Battery, C.S.A.

His final verified medal rack contains one award only: Medal of Honor — No Device.

No Civil War Campaign Medal or additional decoration has been inserted without recipient-specific entitlement evidence. This keeps his biography and medal record consistent with the client's zero-assumption standard.