Charles A. Taggart

Charles A. Taggart was born on January 17, 1843, in Blandford, Massachusetts. By the time of the American Civil War he was associated with Otis, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, the community to which his Medal of Honor record was later accredited. As a young man he entered the service of the United States and became a Private in Company B, 37th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, serving in the United States Army during one of the most destructive conflicts in American history. Congressional Medal of Honor Society The 37th Massachusetts Infantry was organized in western Massachusetts in 1862 and became part of the VI Corps of the Army of the Potomac. The regiment developed a substantial combat record, participating in major operations that included Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Overland Campaign, the Siege of Petersburg, and ultimately the closing Appomattox operations of 1865. At Gettysburg, the 37th Massachusetts served in the Third Division of the VI Corps, confirming that Taggart belonged to a regiment repeatedly exposed to front-line campaigning during the war. National Park Service Taggart remained a Private, and no reliable evidence has been found that he subsequently attained a higher military rank. This distinction is important for his profile because both his highest verified rank and his Medal of Honor action rank are the same: Private. His wartime identity therefore remains closely tied to Company B of the 37th Massachusetts Infantry throughout the documented record. Congressional Medal of Honor Society By the spring of 1865, the Civil War was entering its final phase. Confederate General Robert E. Lee had evacuated Petersburg and Richmond, and the Army of Northern Virginia was retreating west while Union forces pursued it aggressively. The VI Corps, including the 37th Massachusetts, took part in that pursuit. On April 6, 1865, Union forces caught large portions of Lee's army in a series of actions generally known as the Battle of Sailor's Creek. The engagement occurred only three days before Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House. It was during the fighting at Deatonsville, in the Sailor's Creek battlefield area of Virginia, that Charles A. Taggart performed the act that brought him national recognition. His official Medal of Honor record states simply and directly that he accomplished the capture of a flag. The Congressional Medal of Honor Society confirms the action date as April 6, 1865, the location as Deatonsville (Sailor's Creek), Virginia, and his unit as Company B, 37th Massachusetts Infantry. Congressional Medal of Honor Society The brevity of the official citation should not obscure the military importance of such an act during the Civil War. Regimental colors were central to battlefield organization. Soldiers used them as rallying points in smoke, confusion, and rapidly changing formations, while a unit's flag also embodied its identity and honor. Capturing an enemy standard therefore usually meant entering the immediate vicinity of the opposing color guard during active combat. Taggart's seizure of an enemy flag at Sailor's Creek occurred during the collapse of a major portion of the Confederate retreat and became the defining act of his military career. Historical material concerning the final campaign records Taggart among soldiers specifically recognized for capturing Confederate colors during the April 6 fighting. His regiment was deeply involved in the violent final operations against Lee's army, and his individual action was important enough to receive the highest military decoration the United States could award. American Civil War Forums Only a little more than a month after the action, on May 10, 1865, Charles A. Taggart was presented with the Medal of Honor. The award was not posthumous. His official record identifies him as a Private and gives the concise citation, “Capture of flag.” Because the award was issued in 1865, the historical ribbon representation used for this project is correctly classified as Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army. Congressional Medal of Honor Society No V device should accompany that Medal of Honor ribbon. The Medal of Honor itself represents recognition for extraordinary valor, so an additional modern-style valor device would be historically inappropriate for Taggart's rack. The second ribbon in the project profile, the Civil War Campaign Medal 1862–1895 Army, represents Taggart's qualifying Union Army service during the Civil War. The Army Civil War Campaign Medal was established by the War Department in 1907 and recognized Army military service between April 15, 1861 and April 9, 1865, with a later closing date for qualifying service in Texas. Taggart's service with the 37th Massachusetts clearly falls within that qualifying Civil War period. HRC Army There is an important historical distinction between the two decorations. Taggart's Medal of Honor was an individual decoration directly awarded for his specific act at Sailor's Creek. The Civil War Campaign Medal, by contrast, was a later service medal created decades after the conflict. Taggart survived long enough to be a living Civil War veteran when the campaign medal was established in 1907, but the rack should primarily be understood as representing his qualifying Civil War service unless recipient-specific issuance documentation is separately confirmed. The National Archives notes that the medal was established specifically to recognize Civil War veterans and that records concerning individual issuance are maintained separately. National Archives After the war, Taggart lived for more than seven decades beyond his Medal of Honor action. His long life made him part of the dwindling generation of surviving Civil War veterans who carried direct memories of the conflict well into the twentieth century. Charles A. Taggart died on April 10, 1938, in Dayton, Ohio, at the age of ninety-five. He was buried at Dayton National Cemetery. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs specifically records him there as a Civil War Medal of Honor recipient and gives his burial location as Section R, Row 9, Site 14. cem.va.gov Taggart's legacy is anchored in one of the final major battles of the American Civil War. After serving as an infantryman through the long and dangerous campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, he reached the closing pursuit of Lee's army in April 1865. At Sailor's Creek, while serving as an ordinary private in Company B, 37th Massachusetts Infantry, he captured an enemy flag. Four days later the Confederacy's principal field army was effectively finished, and little more than a month after Taggart's action the United States formally recognized his courage with the Medal of Honor. His military record therefore combines two forms of recognition: the Civil War Campaign Medal representing his qualifying wartime service, and the Medal of Honor representing the singular act of valor that distinguished him among thousands of Union soldiers.