Carlton N. Camp

Private Carlton N. Camp

Private Carlton N. Camp was an American Civil War soldier and Medal of Honor recipient, remembered for an act of courage under fire during the final days of the war. He was born on January 5, 1845, in Hanover, New Hampshire, and enlisted in Company B of the 18th New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry on September 6, 1864.

Camp’s regiment entered service late in the conflict, but it saw hard fighting in Virginia during the closing campaign against Petersburg. On April 2, 1865, during the Third Battle of Petersburg, Union forces launched a major assault against the Confederate defensive lines. In the chaos and danger of battle, Camp left safety to rescue a wounded comrade from the picket line. His Medal of Honor citation records the act simply and powerfully: “Brought off from the picket line, under heavy fire, a comrade who had been shot through both legs.”

For this action, Camp received the Medal of Honor on December 21, 1909. Though his act took place in the last week of the Civil War, it stands as a clear example of battlefield courage: one soldier risking his own life not for glory, but to save another man who could not save himself.

Carlton N. Camp died on September 1, 1926, at the age of 81. He is buried at Etna Cemetery in Hanover, New Hampshire, the town where his life began and where his service is still remembered.