Christian Streile

Captured a flag at Paines Crossroads

Christian Streile served as a private in Company I, 1st New Jersey Cavalry, during the American Civil War. The U.S. Army’s Medal of Honor register records that he was born in Germany in 1839 and entered service at Jersey City, New Jersey. It identifies his act of gallantry as the capture of a flag during the Union’s final campaign against Robert E. Lee’s army in Virginia.

On 5 April 1865, at Paines Crossroads, Streile captured an enemy flag. The action took place during the rapid cavalry operations that followed the fall of Richmond and Petersburg, as Union forces pursued Lee’s retreating army toward Appomattox. The official award entry does not name the flag’s unit or describe the circumstances of its capture, so those details cannot be established from the citation itself.

The War Department issued Streile’s Medal of Honor on 3 May 1865. His award was one of several bestowed for the capture of flags during the closing movements of the Civil War, when cavalry units pressed the retreat and sought to seize enemy colors. The citation’s concise wording leaves Streile’s individual experience largely undocumented, but it records the specific act recognized by the government and preserves his place among the 1st New Jersey Cavalry’s Medal of Honor recipients.

Streile died in New York City on 4 December 1886. He was buried in Lutheran All Faiths Cemetery in Middle Village, New York.

Medal of Honor citation

“Capture of flag.”

Citation record: Private, Company I, 1st New Jersey Cavalry; Paines Crossroads, Virginia, 5 April 1865; medal issued 3 May 1865.