Charles Henry Fasnacht

The Medal of Honor Sergeant Who Captured a Confederate Flag at Spotsylvania

In the chaos of Spotsylvania, Sergeant Charles Henry Fasnacht fought for an enemy battle flag at close quarters, captured it in a hand-to-hand contest, and then faced an ordeal almost as remarkable as the act itself. Wounded and temporarily in Confederate hands, he concealed the captured colors inside his clothing rather than surrender them. When Union troops recovered him, the flag was still with him. It was an extraordinary episode of personal courage during one of the American Civil War's most violent battles, and it eventually earned Fasnacht the Medal of Honor.

Charles H. Fasnacht was born on 27 March 1842 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. When the Civil War divided the United States, the young Pennsylvanian entered Union service with Company A, 99th Pennsylvania Infantry. His military career would carry him through some of the hardest fighting in the Eastern Theater and eventually from the enlisted ranks into the officer corps. The Congressional Medal of Honor Society records him as a Sergeant at the time of his Medal of Honor action and notes that his highest rank was First Lieutenant.

Fasnacht's service was not confined to a single famous day. He served with the 99th Pennsylvania during a long sequence of campaigns with the Army of the Potomac. Historical records associated with his service place the regiment in major actions that included Second Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, and the final operations toward Appomattox. A surviving veterans' escutcheon connected with Fasnacht records that he was wounded during the war and advanced through the ranks from Corporal to Sergeant and First Sergeant before receiving a commission as First Lieutenant in 1865.

His defining moment came on 12 May 1864 during the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House in Virginia. That day saw some of the fiercest close-range combat of the Overland Campaign. In the midst of the fighting, Fasnacht seized the colors of the 2nd Louisiana Tigers. The official United States Army Medal of Honor citation is strikingly brief, but its language captures the essential fact: he captured the enemy flag "in a hand-to-hand contest."

The fuller contemporary account makes the episode even more dramatic. According to an 1888 biographical record, Fasnacht captured the Louisiana colors and took members of the color guard prisoner before being wounded himself. He subsequently fell into Confederate hands with other wounded soldiers. Rather than surrender the captured flag, he concealed it in the lining of his blouse while awaiting removal toward Richmond. Union forces eventually recovered the wounded men, allowing Fasnacht to return with the Confederate colors he had fought to capture.

The flag was more than a battlefield trophy. Civil War regimental colors were rallying points, symbols of unit identity, and visible markers around which soldiers formed in battle. Losing one to the enemy carried enormous symbolic weight. Capturing one required a soldier to enter the most dangerous part of an opposing formation, where the color bearer and guard were expected to defend it. Fasnacht's action at Spotsylvania therefore represented not simply physical bravery, but a direct victory in one of the most personal forms of Civil War combat.

His heroism was formally recognized years after the war. On 2 April 1878, Charles H. Fasnacht was issued the Medal of Honor, the United States' highest military decoration. The official Army record identifies him as Sergeant, Company A, 99th Pennsylvania Infantry, and specifically cites his capture of the flag of the 2nd Louisiana Tigers at Spotsylvania on 12 May 1864. The National Archives independently preserves his Medal of Honor file in the records of the Adjutant General's Office, confirming the federal documentation behind the award.

The Medal of Honor was not the only recognition associated with Fasnacht's wartime courage. A period biographical account records that he also received a bronze Kearny badge and a silver medal from the directors of the United States Sanitary Fair in Philadelphia. These were historically significant distinctions, although they were not federal U.S. Army decorations forming part of the official military ribbon rack. Their presence nevertheless demonstrates that Fasnacht's wartime reputation extended beyond the later Medal of Honor award.

Fasnacht continued serving after his Spotsylvania ordeal. He ultimately rose to First Lieutenant, remaining with the Union Army through the closing phase of the war before mustering out in July 1865. The Congressional Medal of Honor Society confirms both his Sergeant rank during the Medal of Honor action and First Lieutenant as his highest rank.

Charles Henry Fasnacht died on 21 July 1902 and was buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. His life had stretched from antebellum Pennsylvania through the Civil War and into a new century, but one moment continued to define his military legacy. At Spotsylvania, amid close combat and confusion, he seized an enemy flag with his own hands, protected it even after being wounded and captured, and brought it back to Union lines.

Sergeant Charles Henry Fasnacht's Medal of Honor story is ultimately one of determination after the moment of bravery had already passed. Capturing the Louisiana Tigers' colors was extraordinary. Keeping possession of them while wounded and in enemy hands made the episode unforgettable. From an enlisted soldier in the 99th Pennsylvania Infantry to a First Lieutenant and Medal of Honor recipient, Fasnacht left behind a powerful Civil War story of courage, endurance, and refusal to surrender what he had won on the battlefield.