Clinton A. Cilley

Clinton Albert Cilley was an American soldier, Union Army officer, lawyer, and Medal of Honor recipient whose military career was shaped by some of the hardest fighting of the American Civil War. Born in New England in 1837, Cilley reached adulthood shortly before the nation was divided by war. When the conflict began, he entered Union service and gradually advanced from the enlisted ranks into commissioned leadership, ultimately earning distinction for courage on the battlefield and later receiving brevet promotion to Colonel. Cilley’s early military career demonstrated steady advancement. He began service as an enlisted soldier and earned promotion through increasing responsibility. His ability and experience eventually led to a commission as an officer. By 1863 he was serving as a Captain in Company C of the 2nd Minnesota Infantry, a veteran Union regiment that had already established a strong combat reputation in the Western Theater. The 2nd Minnesota Infantry served with the Army of the Cumberland and participated in several important campaigns. Its soldiers experienced the difficult conditions of campaigning across Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia, where Union and Confederate forces repeatedly fought for control of strategically important transportation routes and territory. By September 1863, the regiment had advanced into northern Georgia as part of the Union campaign against Chattanooga. That campaign led to the Battle of Chickamauga, fought on September 19 and 20, 1863. Chickamauga became one of the largest and bloodiest battles fought in the Western Theater. Union forces under Major General William S. Rosecrans confronted the Confederate Army of Tennessee under General Braxton Bragg. The battle developed through dense woods and broken terrain, where formations frequently became confused and units were forced to fight under intense pressure. On September 20, the Union position became increasingly dangerous. A major Confederate breakthrough struck part of the Federal line and forced many Union troops into retreat. Major General George H. Thomas and the troops remaining around him fought to prevent the retreat from becoming a complete disaster. Their stand on the battlefield later earned Thomas the famous reputation as the “Rock of Chickamauga.” Captain Clinton Albert Cilley performed the action for which he would eventually receive the Medal of Honor during this crisis. As Union soldiers were falling back under heavy Confederate pressure, Cilley saw the colors of a retreating regiment. Regimental flags were vital on Civil War battlefields. They represented the identity and honor of a unit, but they also served a practical purpose by allowing soldiers to locate and rally around their formation amid smoke, noise, and confusion. Rather than allowing the retreat to continue unchecked, Cilley seized the colors and carried them forward. By doing so, he helped rally soldiers and led them back toward the fighting. His action placed him directly in danger at a moment when Confederate forces were pressing hard against the Union position. The official recognition of Cilley’s conduct centered on this act of taking the colors of a retreating regiment and leading the men back into the thick of the battle. His courage was not simply a symbolic gesture. On a nineteenth-century battlefield, an officer who deliberately carried the colors forward exposed himself prominently to enemy fire while providing a visible point around which wavering troops could reorganize. Cilley survived the Battle of Chickamauga and continued his military career. His wartime service extended beyond the single action for which he became famous, and he continued to receive increased responsibility. His record ultimately brought him brevet advancement, and his highest verified rank became Brevet Colonel. The distinction between his ranks is important. At the time of his Medal of Honor action at Chickamauga, Cilley was a Captain. His later recognition and advancement brought him to the highest verified rank of Brevet Colonel. Therefore, Captain represents his rank during the heroic action, while Brevet Colonel represents the highest rank associated with his military career. Cilley remained connected with Union service through the later stages of the Civil War. The campaigns that followed Chickamauga eventually resulted in Union recovery at Chattanooga and renewed Federal advances into the Deep South. Officers such as Cilley served during a period in which the Union Army transformed from the defensive crisis of Chickamauga into the successful campaigns that eventually contributed to Confederate defeat. His wartime courage was not formally recognized with the Medal of Honor immediately after the battle. Like many Civil War veterans, Cilley waited decades before the United States formally reviewed and recognized his battlefield action. More than thirty years after Chickamauga, he received the Medal of Honor for his conduct on September 20, 1863. The Medal of Honor had been created during the Civil War itself. Congress authorized the Army Medal of Honor in 1862 as a decoration for soldiers whose actions demonstrated exceptional gallantry and distinguished military conduct. During the nineteenth century, many awards were granted for actions such as capturing enemy flags, saving regimental colors, rallying troops under fire, rescuing comrades, or voluntarily exposing oneself to extreme battlefield danger. Cilley’s decoration belongs to the original historical period of the Army Medal of Honor. For the ribbon classification used in this project, his verified decoration is: Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army No additional clasp, star, or device is verified for his Medal of Honor. The significance of Cilley’s award is closely connected to the role of military colors during the Civil War. A regiment whose colors were advancing could often maintain cohesion even when officers and soldiers were separated by smoke and difficult terrain. A regiment whose colors disappeared or moved rapidly toward the rear could lose its physical and psychological center. By taking control of retreating colors and carrying them forward, Cilley performed an act that combined personal courage with battlefield leadership. His action also demonstrates why Medal of Honor recognition was sometimes awarded for leadership rather than for the destruction or capture of an enemy position. Cilley’s achievement involved influencing the behavior of other soldiers during a moment of crisis. His willingness to expose himself while carrying a prominent battlefield symbol helped turn movement toward the rear into renewed resistance. After the war, Cilley made the transition from military service to civilian professional life. He studied and practiced law and became associated particularly with North Carolina during his postwar years. Like a number of Union veterans who settled in the South after the conflict, he became involved in the legal and civic life of the region during the difficult Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction periods. His legal career gave him a second identity beyond that of a soldier. Whereas his Civil War reputation had been built through battlefield leadership, his later years were spent within civilian institutions and the practice of law. His military title and wartime record nevertheless remained important parts of his public identity. Cilley lived long enough to see his conduct at Chickamauga formally recognized by the nation. The Medal of Honor linked his later civilian life permanently with the moment in 1863 when, as a Captain of the 2nd Minnesota Infantry, he took possession of retreating colors and carried them back toward the fighting. Clinton Albert Cilley died in 1900, bringing to an end a life that had spanned the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the closing years of the nineteenth century. His historical reputation, however, remained closely tied to his Army service and particularly to the Battle of Chickamauga. His military legacy is defined by leadership under severe pressure. Cilley did not earn the Medal of Honor through senior command or strategic planning. He earned it as a frontline officer who responded decisively when soldiers around him were retreating. By seizing their colors and moving toward the fight rather than away from it, he demonstrated the personal courage expected of battlefield leaders during the Civil War. From his early military service and rise through the ranks, through the brutal fighting at Chickamauga, his later advancement to Brevet Colonel, and his postwar career in law, Clinton Albert Cilley built a life that extended far beyond a single battlefield moment. Yet the action of September 20, 1863 remains the central event in his military story. His Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army stands as the enduring recognition of that courage. It commemorates an officer who, at a critical moment in one of the Civil War’s hardest battles, chose to move toward danger, rally retreating soldiers around their colors, and lead them back into the fight.