George Crawford Platt

George Crawford Platt was born on February 17, 1842, in Ireland. He later came to the United States and became closely associated with Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the city to which his Medal of Honor service was officially accredited. When the American Civil War began, Platt entered the United States Army and became a soldier in Troop H of the 6th United States Cavalry, one of the Regular Army cavalry regiments that served with the Army of the Potomac. The 6th U.S. Cavalry had been organized in 1861 as the Federal government rapidly expanded the Regular Army for the Civil War. Unlike state volunteer cavalry regiments, its soldiers belonged to the Regular Army. The regiment initially served in the defenses of Washington before joining field operations with the Army of the Potomac. As a cavalryman, Platt belonged to a branch responsible for reconnaissance, screening, communications, security, mounted combat, and operations against enemy cavalry and supply lines. During the early years of the war, the 6th Cavalry participated in demanding operations connected with the Peninsula Campaign and subsequent fighting in Virginia. The regiment later became part of the organized Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac. The creation of a more unified cavalry organization transformed Union mounted forces from scattered reconnaissance units into increasingly effective battlefield formations capable of challenging Confederate cavalry directly. By 1863 the regiment was assigned to the Cavalry Corps during a period of intensive operations preceding the Gettysburg Campaign. The 6th U.S. Cavalry participated in the Battle of Brandy Station on June 9, 1863, one of the largest cavalry engagements of the Civil War. In the weeks that followed, the regiment also took part in cavalry operations around Middleburg and Upperville as Union and Confederate mounted forces fought for information and control of the approaches into Pennsylvania. When General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia moved north during the Gettysburg Campaign, the 6th U.S. Cavalry followed as part of the Union cavalry screen. On July 3, 1863, while the main armies were fighting the final day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Platt’s regiment was operating several miles southwest of the principal battlefield near Fairfield, Pennsylvania. The mission near Fairfield brought the 6th U.S. Cavalry into direct contact with Confederate cavalry protecting important roads and wagon movements behind Lee’s army. The Union regulars encountered a strong Confederate mounted force, and the resulting Battle of Fairfield quickly developed into a violent cavalry engagement. Confederate Brigadier General William E. Jones later reported that his command encountered the 6th U.S. Regular Cavalry while the Union regiment was moving toward Confederate cavalry division trains. The terrain complicated the fighting. Roads, fields, gates, and strong rail fences restricted mounted movement and forced the opposing cavalrymen into extremely close combat. Charges, carbine fire, pistols, and sabers turned portions of the engagement into a brutal hand-to-hand struggle. The 6th Cavalry faced a difficult tactical situation against a larger Confederate force and suffered severely during the fighting. George Crawford Platt was serving as a Private in Troop H when his defining moment occurred. During the close fighting, the soldier carrying the regiment’s standard was killed. The regimental flag was in immediate danger of being captured by Confederate cavalrymen. Military colors held exceptional importance during the Civil War. A regimental flag was not merely ceremonial. On a battlefield filled with smoke, noise, dust, confusion, and rapidly shifting formations, colors helped soldiers identify their unit and rally around its position. The capture of a regiment’s colors by an enemy was therefore both a practical loss and a serious blow to military honor. When the standard bearer fell, Platt seized the regimental flag himself. He held onto the colors during the hand-to-hand fighting and prevented them from falling into Confederate hands. His action preserved one of the regiment’s most important symbols at precisely the moment when the 6th Cavalry was under severe pressure. The official Medal of Honor citation later summarized his deed in direct terms: he seized the regimental flag after the death of the standard bearer during hand-to-hand fighting and prevented its capture by the enemy. The brevity of that citation reflects the style of many Civil War Medal of Honor records, but the circumstances reveal why the action was considered extraordinary. Platt had taken responsibility for the colors in the middle of a violent mounted engagement while his regiment was fighting for survival. The Battle of Fairfield became an important episode in the Gettysburg Campaign even though it occurred away from the principal battlefield. The 6th U.S. Cavalry was badly damaged, but its resistance occupied Confederate cavalry that might otherwise have been available for operations elsewhere. National Park Service records identify the 6th U.S. Cavalry as the Federal unit engaged in the action at Fairfield on July 3. Platt survived the engagement and remained in Army service. The 6th U.S. Cavalry continued campaigning after Gettysburg, participating in further cavalry operations as the Army of the Potomac pursued Lee’s withdrawing forces and later resumed operations in Virginia. The regiment continued to play an active role in the increasingly mobile cavalry warfare that characterized the final years of the Civil War. During his military career, Platt eventually advanced from Private to Sergeant. This distinction is important when recording his service. His rank during the Medal of Honor action at Fairfield was Private, while Sergeant was the highest rank he later attained. Platt did not receive the Medal of Honor immediately after the Battle of Fairfield. More than three decades passed before his action was formally recognized with the nation’s highest military decoration. Such delays were not unusual among Civil War recipients, because many awards were considered and approved years after the actions occurred as veterans, officers, military organizations, and the War Department reviewed wartime records. On July 12, 1895, George Crawford Platt was presented with the Medal of Honor for his actions of July 3, 1863. The award was not posthumous; Platt was alive to receive the recognition personally. His citation permanently connected his name with the preservation of the 6th U.S. Cavalry’s regimental flag during the Battle of Fairfield. The Medal of Honor itself had originated during the Civil War. Congress first authorized the Navy Medal of Honor in 1861, followed by the Army Medal of Honor in 1862. At the time, the United States did not possess the broad system of individual combat decorations that developed during the twentieth century. The Medal of Honor therefore became the principal Federal decoration used to recognize extraordinary military conduct. Because Platt’s Medal of Honor was presented in 1895, his database representation falls within the Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army period. This is significant because the appearance of the Army Medal of Honor and its ribbon changed during later periods. His 1895 presentation came immediately before the Army introduced a revised ribbon in 1896, making the 1862–1895 Army version the appropriate historical database selection for his award. No additional device, clasp, star, or other attachment has been verified for Platt’s Medal of Honor. His verified decoration therefore represents one Medal of Honor for his courage at Fairfield. Platt’s Civil War service also creates a potential question concerning the later Army Civil War Campaign Medal. He survived until 1912, several years after that campaign medal was established. However, surviving long enough to meet a general eligibility period and having documented Civil War service do not automatically prove that a particular veteran personally received or was individually entitled to the medal under the required administrative process. No sufficient recipient-specific evidence has been verified establishing that the Army Civil War Campaign Medal was actually issued to George Crawford Platt. It is therefore not included in his verified medal rack. His final verified decoration record consists only of the Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army, presented in 1895, without any additional device or clasp. After completing his military service, Platt returned to civilian life and remained associated with Pennsylvania. He lived for nearly half a century after the end of the Civil War and for almost seventeen years after receiving the Medal of Honor. The official historical record preserves his battlefield service and Medal of Honor action more clearly than many details of his later civilian life, so uncertain postwar information should not be expanded beyond reliable evidence. George Crawford Platt died on June 20, 1912, at the age of seventy. He was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Yeadon, Pennsylvania. His grave preserves the memory of an Irish-born American soldier whose Civil War service became permanently associated with the Regular Army cavalry and the Gettysburg Campaign. Platt’s military legacy rests on one critical moment during the desperate fighting at Fairfield. He entered that engagement as a Private in Troop H, 6th U.S. Cavalry. When the regiment’s standard bearer was killed during hand-to-hand combat, Platt took possession of the flag and prevented its capture. He survived the battle, later rose to Sergeant, and continued his life long enough to see his courage formally recognized. Thirty-two years after the action, the Medal of Honor made that battlefield decision part of the permanent record of the United States Army. George Crawford Platt is therefore remembered not simply as a cavalryman who fought during the Gettysburg Campaign, but as the soldier who protected his regiment’s colors in the middle of a violent cavalry battle and refused to allow them to fall into enemy hands.