George H. Littlefield

George H. Littlefield was born on May 2, 1842, in Skowhegan, Maine. He grew up during a period when the United States was moving rapidly toward the political and sectional crisis that eventually produced the American Civil War. When war came, Littlefield entered Union military service and became one of the many Maine soldiers who served in the Army of the United States during the struggle to preserve the Union.

Littlefield ultimately served as a Corporal in Company G of the 1st Maine Veteran Infantry. His verified military branch was the United States Army, and Corporal is the highest securely established rank associated with his Medal of Honor service. It was also the rank he held during the action that became the defining event of his military career.

The 1st Maine Veteran Infantry was organized in August 1864 from veterans of the 5th, 6th, and 7th Maine Volunteer Infantry regiments. The new regiment was assigned to the VI Corps and served in both the Shenandoah Valley and the Army of the Potomac. Its veterans were experienced soldiers who had already endured extensive wartime service before being consolidated into the new organization.

During the latter part of 1864, the 1st Maine Veteran Infantry participated in operations associated with the Shenandoah Valley Campaign before moving toward Petersburg, Virginia. By December the regiment was serving in the long Siege of Petersburg, where Union and Confederate armies had constructed extensive lines of earthworks, forts, trenches, and defensive positions around the strategically important city.

Petersburg was essential to the Confederate defense of Richmond. Railroads passing through the city supplied General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, and Union forces spent months attempting to stretch, weaken, and eventually break the Confederate defensive system. By March 1865, Lee's army was under increasing pressure as manpower and supplies declined.

On March 25, 1865, Confederate forces launched a major attack against Fort Stedman in an attempt to disrupt the Union siege lines. The fighting spread across the Petersburg front, producing intense combat at several fortified positions. The 1st Maine Veteran Infantry was involved in the operations around Fort Fisher at Petersburg during this period.

The Fort Fisher associated with George H. Littlefield's Medal of Honor action was a Union defensive position near Petersburg, Virginia. It should not be confused with Fort Fisher in North Carolina, the Confederate coastal fortress captured by Union forces earlier in 1865.

During the fighting at Fort Fisher on March 25, 1865, Corporal Littlefield was advancing with his regiment as part of a charging column. Regimental colors were among the most important objects carried onto a Civil War battlefield. The flag marked the location of the regiment, provided a visible rallying point amid smoke and confusion, and symbolized the unit's identity and honor.

Because of their visibility, color bearers faced extraordinary danger. Enemy soldiers often deliberately targeted them, knowing that the loss of a regiment's colors could create confusion and damage morale. Carrying the flag therefore demanded unusual courage, particularly during an assault.

As Littlefield's unit advanced, the color sergeant carrying the regimental flag was wounded. At that critical moment, Littlefield stepped forward, picked up the fallen colors, and carried them toward the front of the charging column.

His action had an immediate effect on the men around him. The official Medal of Honor citation later emphasized that Littlefield bore the flag to the front "to the great encouragement of the charging column." His heroism therefore involved more than simply preserving the physical flag. By taking responsibility for the colors and carrying them forward under fire, he provided a visible symbol around which the advancing soldiers could continue their attack.

This was particularly significant in Civil War combat. Infantry formations depended on cohesion, and a charging line could quickly lose organization when exposed to artillery and rifle fire. Soldiers looked toward their colors to identify the location and direction of their regiment. A color bearer moving forward could therefore become a powerful rallying point during moments of extreme danger.

Littlefield's Medal of Honor action was a clear example of battlefield initiative. He did not receive the decoration for holding a senior command position or directing a large formation. He was an enlisted Corporal who recognized that the regiment's flag had fallen when its designated bearer was wounded and immediately assumed the dangerous responsibility of carrying it forward.

Only a short time remained in the Civil War. The Siege of Petersburg was approaching its conclusion, and on April 2, 1865, Union forces broke through the Confederate defensive lines. Petersburg and Richmond were evacuated, and Lee's army began its retreat westward.

The 1st Maine Veteran Infantry participated in the operations that followed the fall of Petersburg, including the final Appomattox Campaign. The regiment's recorded service included the pursuit of Confederate forces toward Appomattox Court House, where Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865.

Littlefield survived the war. His act of courage at Fort Fisher, however, was not immediately rewarded with the Medal of Honor. Like many Civil War soldiers whose cases were reviewed after the conflict, he waited years before receiving formal national recognition.

On June 22, 1885, George H. Littlefield was presented with the Medal of Honor for his conduct at Fort Fisher on March 25, 1865. Twenty years had passed since the battlefield action. The award was made during his lifetime and was therefore not posthumous.

The Medal of Honor itself originated during the American Civil War. Congress authorized the Army Medal of Honor in 1862, at a time when the United States had very few formal military decorations. It became the principal national award recognizing extraordinary military conduct by Union soldiers.

Because Littlefield's Medal of Honor was issued in 1885, the correct historical database representation is Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1885. The 1862–1895 designation identifies the historical Army Medal of Honor period applicable when his decoration was issued. It does not indicate that his heroic action occurred throughout that date range; his actual Medal of Honor action remained March 25, 1865.

Littlefield received a single Medal of Honor. No separate star, clasp, bar, oak leaf cluster, or other additional device has been verified for the decoration. His Medal of Honor entry should therefore remain plain.

A separate Army Civil War Campaign Medal has not been included in his final verified medal rack. Littlefield unquestionably served during the Civil War, and his participation in the conflict is firmly established by his military record and Medal of Honor action. However, Civil War service alone does not prove recipient-specific entitlement to the later Civil War Campaign Medal.

That campaign medal was created decades after the conflict. Under the project's evidence standard, the medal should only be added when recipient-specific evidence establishes that the individual was actually issued or otherwise specifically entitled to it. No sufficiently strong individual issue record, medal roll, named surviving medal, or comparable documentation has been established for George H. Littlefield.

For this reason, his final verified medal history remains intentionally limited to the Medal of Honor. The Civil War Campaign Medal remains excluded rather than being added solely because his service appears eligible.

After the war, Littlefield returned to civilian life in Maine. The surviving Medal of Honor records preserve his wartime act in far greater detail than many aspects of his later civilian career, and uncertain postwar details should not be expanded beyond what reliable documentation supports.

Littlefield lived for more than five decades after the end of the Civil War. During his lifetime, the United States changed dramatically, and the small Civil War-era Army evolved into the military force that participated in conflicts at the end of the nineteenth century and eventually in the First World War.

George H. Littlefield died on December 25, 1919, in Richmond, Maine, at the age of seventy-seven. He was buried in Cotton Cemetery in Richmond, where his burial preserves the connection between his later life in Maine and his status as a Medal of Honor recipient.

His military legacy rests on a single decisive battlefield moment. On March 25, 1865, while serving as a Corporal in Company G of the 1st Maine Veteran Infantry during the fighting at Fort Fisher near Petersburg, Virginia, Littlefield saw the regiment's color sergeant wounded. He immediately took possession of the flag and carried it to the front of the charging column.

By doing so, he preserved the regiment's visible rallying point and encouraged the soldiers advancing with him. Twenty years later, the United States formally recognized that courage with the Medal of Honor.

George H. Littlefield is therefore remembered as a United States Army Corporal, a Maine infantryman, a veteran of the American Civil War, a soldier of the 1st Maine Veteran Infantry, and a Medal of Honor recipient whose willingness to take up the fallen colors and carry them forward under fire became the defining act of his military service.

His final verified award record remains Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1885 — No device or clasp.