Bernard Shields

He Took Their Flag on the Night Before Surrender

Bernard Shields was born in Ireland in 1833 and later made his life in the United States. By the beginning of the American Civil War, he had become associated with Ohio and entered Union military service. He served in the United States Army as a cavalryman with the 2nd West Virginia Cavalry, a regiment whose ranks included many volunteers from communities along the Ohio River. Shields would remain a Private, but in the final days of the war he performed an act that placed his name among the recipients of the Medal of Honor.

The 2nd West Virginia Cavalry experienced years of demanding mounted service. Cavalry soldiers were expected to scout, screen larger formations, pursue enemy troops, raid communications, fight dismounted when necessary and charge mounted when the tactical situation demanded it. As the war progressed, the regiment served through difficult campaigning in Virginia and became part of the veteran cavalry force operating under Union commanders Philip Sheridan and George Armstrong Custer.

By late 1864, the regiment had been reorganized after years of service and heavy wartime attrition. Shields was serving in Company E when the Union armies entered the final campaign against General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. The Confederates had abandoned Richmond and Petersburg in early April 1865 and were moving west in an increasingly desperate attempt to escape the pursuing Union forces, obtain supplies and continue the war.

Union cavalry moved aggressively to prevent that escape. Custer’s division, which included the 2nd West Virginia Cavalry in Colonel Henry Capehart’s brigade, raced ahead of Lee’s army during the Appomattox Campaign. Their objective was not simply to pursue the retreating Confederates but to get in front of them, seize strategic roads and deny them the supplies they desperately needed.

On April 8, 1865, the struggle reached Appomattox Station, Virginia.

Confederate supply trains had arrived at the station carrying food and other materials intended for Lee’s exhausted army. Nearby was a large force of Confederate reserve artillery under Brigadier General Reuben Lindsay Walker. Union cavalry reached the area before Lee’s main army could secure those supplies, captured the trains and then turned against the Confederate artillery positions.

The fighting continued into the evening. Confederate guns were dangerous opponents for cavalrymen advancing across difficult ground, and repeated Union attacks met artillery fire as Custer’s troopers attempted to break through. The contest became a chaotic combination of mounted charges, close combat, captured guns, scattered artillerymen and rapidly collapsing Confederate defensive positions.

Private Bernard Shields entered this fighting with Company E of the 2nd West Virginia Cavalry.

During the battle, Shields captured the flag of the Washington Artillery, a Confederate artillery organization. A military flag in the Civil War was not simply decorative. Colors identified units on confused battlefields, served as visible rallying points and carried enormous symbolic importance. Soldiers responsible for defending them often fought fiercely to prevent their capture.

To seize an enemy flag therefore meant reaching the center of a hostile formation at precisely the point where resistance could be most determined.

Shields succeeded.

His official Medal of Honor recognition would later reduce the moment to a remarkably brief statement: the capture of the flag of the Washington Artillery. Behind those few words was an action performed during one of the final and most consequential cavalry engagements of the Civil War.

The larger battle was rapidly turning against the Confederates. Custer’s cavalry ultimately broke through Walker’s defenses, captured artillery pieces and prisoners, and secured vital ground west of Appomattox Court House. Lee’s badly needed supplies were lost, and Union forces now occupied positions directly threatening his remaining route of escape.

The strategic importance of what happened that evening was enormous. Lee had hoped to reach supplies at Appomattox Station and then continue westward. Instead, Federal cavalry had seized those supplies and placed themselves across his path. During the night, Union infantry was also arriving in strength, tightening the trap around the Army of Northern Virginia.

When morning came on April 9, Lee attempted to break through.

Confederate troops initially advanced against what they believed was primarily cavalry opposition, but they soon discovered that large Union infantry forces had reached the battlefield. Escape had become increasingly unrealistic. Later that day, Lee met Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House and surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia.

Shields had captured the Washington Artillery flag only one day before that surrender.

His act of courage was recognized almost immediately. On May 3, 1865, less than a month after the action at Appomattox, Bernard Shields was presented with the Medal of Honor. He was alive to receive the decoration, making the award a lifetime recognition rather than a posthumous honor.

The Medal of Honor itself had been created during the Civil War. Congress authorized the Army Medal of Honor in 1862 at a time when the United States had no extensive system of personal military decorations comparable to those developed in later generations. During the Civil War, the Medal of Honor became the principal national award for soldiers whose actions were judged exceptionally courageous or distinguished.

For Shields, the decoration recognized one clearly defined battlefield achievement: the capture of the Washington Artillery flag at Appomattox on April 8, 1865.

His medal belongs to the early Army Medal of Honor period and is represented as the Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army. He received a single Medal of Honor, with no additional device or clasp associated with the decoration.

Shields remained with the 2nd West Virginia Cavalry through the final period of its service. After Lee’s surrender, the regiment’s wartime role was essentially complete, though Union forces still had administrative and ceremonial duties before returning home. The regiment was ultimately mustered out on June 30, 1865.

He left military life having served through the Civil War as an enlisted cavalryman and having participated in the campaign that brought the Army of Northern Virginia to its final surrender. Although he never held a high military rank, his status as a Private makes his Medal of Honor story particularly representative of the ordinary enlisted soldiers whose individual actions could suddenly become historically significant.

After the war, Shields returned to civilian life in Ohio. Unlike senior generals and prominent officers whose postwar careers generated extensive documentation, comparatively little detailed information survives about his later civilian years. His military legacy, however, remained permanently connected with the final days at Appomattox.

Bernard Shields died on April 20, 1887. He was buried at Mount Calvary Cemetery in Columbus, Ohio.

His life had begun in Ireland and eventually carried him into one of the defining conflicts of American history. He entered the Union Army as an ordinary cavalry soldier, remained a Private, and served through years of war without the prominence of high command. Then, on April 8, 1865, history placed him in the center of the struggle at Appomattox Station.

Around him, Confederate artillery was fighting to protect the remains of Lee’s retreat. Union cavalry was charging to close the escape route. The war in Virginia was approaching its final hours.

In that chaos, Shields captured the Washington Artillery flag.

The next day, Lee surrendered.

Less than a month later, Bernard Shields received the Medal of Honor, permanently connecting the Irish-born cavalry private with the dramatic final chapter of the American Civil War.