Frank Emil Fesq

Frank E. Fesq was born on April 4, 1840, in Germany. Some later secondary accounts expand his name to “Frank Emil Fesq,” but the principal United States military and Medal of Honor records identify him simply as Frank E. Fesq. For that reason, the historically secure form of his name is Frank E. Fesq. He eventually immigrated to the United States and became associated with Newark, New Jersey, the place credited with his entry into military service. Fesq entered the United States Army during the closing phase of the American Civil War. In late 1864 he joined Company A of the 40th New Jersey Infantry. The 40th New Jersey was historically significant as the last infantry regiment raised by New Jersey for the Civil War. Recruitment occurred as the Union armies were already tightening their operations around Petersburg and Richmond, but the soldiers of the regiment would still experience major combat before the Confederacy collapsed. The 40th New Jersey developed in stages as its companies were organized and sent toward the front. The regiment was formally mustered into service in March 1865 and became associated with the veteran First New Jersey Brigade of the Army of the Potomac’s VI Corps. Although newly organized as a regiment, it entered a formation with a long combat tradition dating back to the earliest campaigns of the war. Before its decisive combat at Petersburg, troops associated with the regiment were present during the operations around Hatcher’s Run in February 1865. The 40th New Jersey did not become heavily engaged there, but the campaign placed its soldiers within the enormous Union military effort surrounding Petersburg, Virginia. By this point the siege had continued for many months as Union forces attempted to break the Confederate defensive system protecting Petersburg and the Confederate capital at Richmond. By the beginning of April 1865, General Ulysses S. Grant’s armies had finally placed Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia in an increasingly desperate position. Union victories west of Petersburg threatened the remaining Confederate supply and escape routes. Grant ordered a general assault against the Petersburg defenses for April 2, 1865. For the 40th New Jersey Infantry, this assault became the regiment’s principal battle of the war. Private Frank E. Fesq advanced with Company A as Union infantry attacked heavily fortified Confederate positions. The men had to cross exposed ground and penetrate defensive works that had been strengthened during months of siege warfare. During the assault, Fesq entered the Confederate defensive position and confronted the colors of the 18th North Carolina Infantry. Regimental flags were of enormous importance in Civil War combat. They served as rallying points, helped commanders identify the location of units amid smoke and confusion, and represented the honor and identity of the regiment. Because color bearers carried these flags prominently in battle, both the flags and the men defending them were frequently at the center of extremely dangerous fighting. Inside the Confederate works, Fesq succeeded in capturing the battle flag of the 18th North Carolina Infantry. His official Medal of Honor citation is remarkably brief, recording that he captured the flag of the 18th North Carolina within the enemy’s works. The simplicity of the citation should not obscure the danger involved. Fesq had advanced into an actively defended Confederate position during the final Union assault and personally secured an enemy regimental flag. The captured flag itself had considerable historical significance. The 18th North Carolina Infantry was a veteran Confederate regiment with a long record of campaigning in the Army of Northern Virginia. Its colors represented a unit that had participated in numerous major engagements. The capture of those colors during the collapse of the Petersburg defenses symbolized the rapidly deteriorating military situation facing Lee’s army. The Union breakthrough on April 2 proved decisive. Confederate lines around Petersburg could no longer be maintained, and that night Lee ordered the evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond. The Army of Northern Virginia began retreating westward while Grant’s forces pursued. Only seven days after Fesq captured the Confederate flag, Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. Fesq’s bravery received unusually rapid official recognition. On May 10, 1865, only a little more than a month after his action at Petersburg, he was awarded the Medal of Honor. Many Civil War Medal of Honor recipients waited years or even decades before their actions were formally recognized, but Fesq received his decoration almost immediately after the conclusion of the principal fighting in Virginia. The Medal of Honor had been authorized for the United States Army in 1862 during the Civil War. At that time the United States did not yet possess the extensive system of individual military decorations that developed during the twentieth century. The Medal of Honor therefore became the principal national award for extraordinary battlefield conduct and distinguished military service. Fesq received the Civil War-era Army Medal of Honor associated with the 1862–1895 period. His decoration carried no additional clasp, star, or other device. It recognized one specific act: the capture of the colors of the 18th North Carolina Infantry inside the Confederate works at Petersburg on April 2, 1865. The historical record of the captured Confederate flag reinforces the Medal of Honor citation. Postwar documentation concerning Confederate flags identified the colors of the 18th North Carolina as having been captured near Petersburg on April 2, 1865, by Private Frank Fesq of Company A, 40th New Jersey Infantry. This provides an important additional link between Fesq’s personal award and the physical battlefield trophy he secured. Following the Confederate surrender, the 40th New Jersey remained in Federal service for a short period. Like many Union regiments whose combat role ended with the collapse of the Confederacy, it performed occupation and postwar duties while the Army began the enormous process of demobilization. The regiment was eventually mustered out at Hall’s Hill, Virginia, in July 1865. Fesq therefore returned to civilian life after having served through the final phase of the war and participated directly in the breakthrough that forced the abandonment of Petersburg and Richmond. Throughout his verified military record, Fesq’s rank remained Private. No reliable military documentation establishes a later promotion during his service with the 40th New Jersey, so Private is both his rank at the Medal of Honor action and his highest verified rank. The Medal of Honor is also the only decoration that can presently be placed in Fesq’s final verified medal record with recipient-specific confidence. Because he served during the Civil War and survived until 1920, the later Army Civil War Campaign Medal might appear potentially applicable. However, wartime service and survival into the period when a later campaign medal existed do not by themselves prove that an individual veteran actually received or was specifically issued that medal. For that reason, the Army Civil War Campaign Medal is not included in Fesq’s verified ribbon rack without direct recipient-specific entitlement or issuance documentation. His final verified decoration remains the Medal of Honor alone. This distinction is important because a historically accurate medal record must separate confirmed awards from medals for which a veteran may merely appear eligible. Fesq lived for more than fifty years after the Civil War. Surviving authoritative military sources preserve much more information about his wartime heroism than about the details of his later civilian occupation and family life. Rather than filling those gaps with assumptions, his later life is best described only through facts that can be securely established. He remained connected with New Jersey and died on May 6, 1920, at the age of eighty. He was buried at Rosedale Cemetery in Orange, New Jersey. His grave commemorates his service in Company A of the 40th New Jersey Infantry and his status as a Medal of Honor recipient. Frank E. Fesq’s military service was comparatively brief when measured against veterans who fought through all four years of the Civil War, but his place in American military history was secured during a single decisive assault. As a Private in the last infantry regiment raised by New Jersey for the war, he advanced into the Confederate works at Petersburg on April 2, 1865 and captured the battle flag of the veteran 18th North Carolina Infantry. That action occurred at one of the decisive turning points of the conflict. The Petersburg defenses collapsed, Richmond was evacuated, and within days Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia surrendered. Fesq’s Medal of Honor, awarded on May 10, 1865, permanently connected his name with those final operations and preserved the story of an enlisted infantryman whose personal courage was displayed at the moment the principal Confederate defense of Virginia was breaking apart.