George Stokes (Medal of Honor)

George Stokes, also recorded in Medal of Honor records as Charles George Bishop, was an English-born Union Army soldier whose Civil War service culminated in an act of battlefield courage at Nashville, Tennessee, on December 16, 1864. Born in England on December 24, 1838, he later settled in Illinois and entered United States military service during the American Civil War. His verified service was with Company C, 122nd Illinois Infantry, and although his records show the rank of Corporal during his military career, he was serving as a Private when he performed the action for which he received the Medal of Honor. Stokes entered the 122nd Illinois Infantry during the regiment’s organization in 1862. Illinois Adjutant General records list him among the corporals of Company C and show that he was mustered into service on September 4, 1862. His residence was recorded as Kane, Illinois, and his military service was accredited to Jerseyville in Jersey County. At some point during his service he returned to the ranks, and by the time of the Battle of Nashville he was officially serving as a Private. This distinction is important: Private was his rank during the Medal of Honor action, while Corporal remains his highest verified rank. The 122nd Illinois Infantry was a three-year Union infantry regiment organized at Carlinville, Illinois. Soon after entering Federal service, the regiment moved south through Kentucky and Tennessee and became part of the Union forces operating in the Western Theater. Its soldiers experienced a very different kind of warfare from the large campaigns around Washington and Richmond. Their assignments included guarding important transportation routes, operating against Confederate forces in Tennessee and Mississippi, participating in expeditions, and eventually fighting in some of the decisive campaigns of the war’s final years. During Stokes’s period of service, the 122nd Illinois served in formations of the XVI Corps and participated in operations across Tennessee, Mississippi, Missouri, and neighboring areas. The regiment endured long marches, garrison duty, raids, and repeated exposure to Confederate forces. These experiences transformed it from a newly raised Illinois unit into a seasoned infantry regiment by the time it reached Nashville in late 1864. The strategic situation in Tennessee had become critical during the closing months of 1864. Confederate General John Bell Hood, commanding the Army of Tennessee, attempted to reverse Confederate fortunes by moving north after the fall of Atlanta. His army advanced into Tennessee, hoping to disrupt Union operations and possibly regain control of Nashville, which had become one of the Union’s most important logistical centers in the Western Theater. Hood’s army suffered devastating losses at the Battle of Franklin on November 30, 1864, but continued north toward Nashville. Major General George H. Thomas commanded the large Union force concentrated around the city. Thomas spent the first half of December preparing for a decisive attack while severe winter weather temporarily delayed operations. The 122nd Illinois Infantry arrived as part of the forces available to defend Nashville and was assigned within the Detachment of the Army of the Tennessee under Major General Andrew J. Smith. These troops formed an important part of Thomas’s striking force when the Union offensive began on December 15. The Battle of Nashville lasted two days, December 15 and 16, 1864. On the first day, Thomas launched coordinated attacks against Hood’s defensive positions south of the city. Union forces successfully turned much of the Confederate left flank, captured several defensive positions, and forced Hood to withdraw to a shorter line during the night. On December 16, the Confederates occupied a new defensive position centered around strongpoints including Shy’s Hill and Overton’s Hill. Thomas again pressed the attack. Fighting intensified throughout the afternoon as Union infantry assaulted Confederate positions across the battlefield. The 122nd Illinois participated in the fighting as part of the XVI Corps formation attacking Hood’s army. The regiment’s own battle record shows that it fought heavily at Nashville and captured Confederate artillery and a battle flag during the engagement. It was during this second day of battle that Private George Stokes performed the action that earned him the nation’s highest military decoration. His official Medal of Honor citation is extremely brief: “Capture of flag.” Although only three words, the citation describes an act that carried enormous military and symbolic significance in nineteenth-century warfare. Regimental and state flags were not merely ceremonial objects. They served as visual rallying points on battlefields where smoke, noise, terrain, and confusion frequently made verbal commands difficult to hear. Soldiers used their colors to locate their organizations and maintain formation during advances and retreats. Because of their importance, flags were normally protected by dedicated color guards. The men carrying and defending them were highly visible and frequently became targets during combat. Capturing an enemy flag therefore usually required a soldier to advance into extremely dangerous close-range fighting and overcome or drive away those protecting the colors. On December 16, 1864, George Stokes captured an enemy flag during the Battle of Nashville. The surviving official citation does not preserve a detailed step-by-step account of exactly how he seized it, so unsupported dramatic details should not be added to his story. What is established beyond doubt is that the United States Army considered his action exceptional enough to merit the Medal of Honor. The capture occurred during one of the most decisive phases of the battle. By late afternoon on December 16, Union attacks were breaking through the Confederate line. The position around Shy’s Hill collapsed, other portions of Hood’s defenses gave way, and Confederate troops began retreating southward. What had begun as an attempt by Hood to threaten Nashville ended with the destruction of the Army of Tennessee as an effective offensive force. Stokes’s Medal of Honor recognition came rapidly. His heroic action occurred on December 16, 1864, and he was formally presented with the Medal of Honor on February 24, 1865, only a little more than two months later. He received the award during his lifetime and was not a posthumous recipient. The Medal of Honor itself had only recently been created. Congress authorized the Navy Medal of Honor in December 1861 and established the Army Medal of Honor in 1862. During the Civil War, the United States did not yet possess the extensive hierarchy of personal military decorations that would develop in the twentieth century. The Medal of Honor therefore served as the principal national award for extraordinary battlefield conduct. Stokes’s award belongs to the original Civil War-era Army Medal of Honor period. Because his decoration was presented on February 24, 1865, the correct database classification is Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1865. The year is based on the verified award and presentation date rather than simply the date of the battlefield action. No additional bar, clasp, star, oak leaf cluster, or other device has been verified for his Medal of Honor. His final verified decoration is therefore one Medal of Honor with no additional attachment. The Army Civil War Campaign Medal is not included in Stokes’s verified medal rack. Unlike several Civil War veterans who died before the medal’s early twentieth-century authorization, Stokes lived until 1919 and therefore survived well into the period when such recognition existed. However, survival into the eligibility era does not itself prove that an individual received the medal. No recipient-specific medal roll, issuance record, named surviving medal, service-file annotation, or comparable authoritative evidence has been established showing that George Stokes personally received the Civil War Campaign Medal. Under the project’s evidence standard, it therefore remains excluded rather than being added by assumption. After the victory at Nashville, the 122nd Illinois remained on active service. Union forces pursued Hood’s defeated army southward, and the regiment later became part of operations directed toward the Gulf Coast. In early 1865 its command moved through the lower Mississippi region and eventually participated in the campaign against Mobile, Alabama. The regiment later took part in the operations around Fort Blakely, one of the final major engagements of the Civil War. By this point the Confederacy was collapsing rapidly. Richmond and Petersburg fell in early April, General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox on April 9, and organized Confederate resistance progressively disappeared. The 122nd Illinois subsequently performed occupation and garrison duties in Alabama. Stokes remained on the regiment’s rolls until the end of its active service. Illinois military records show that he was mustered out at Mobile, Alabama, on July 15, 1865. His final muster status was Private, even though Corporal was the highest rank recorded during his military career. His service therefore extended across nearly three years of the Civil War, from the organization of the 122nd Illinois in 1862 through the final Union victory in 1865. The Battle of Nashville remained the defining moment of that service because it was there, as a Private in Company C, that he captured an enemy flag and earned the Medal of Honor. After leaving the Army, Stokes returned to civilian life. Far less authoritative documentation survives concerning his postwar activities than exists for his military career, and uncertain personal details should not be expanded beyond the surviving evidence. What is securely established is that he lived for more than half a century after the Civil War and remained one of the surviving veterans of a generation whose battlefield service had preserved the Union. George Stokes died at Riverdale, Illinois, on March 25, 1919, at the age of eighty. He was buried at Oakland Memory Lanes Cemetery in Dolton, Illinois. By the time of his death, the Civil War had ended more than fifty years earlier, and the Medal of Honor had evolved into the United States’ most prestigious military decoration. His legacy rests primarily on the events of December 16, 1864. As the Union Army broke John Bell Hood’s Confederate defenses at Nashville, Private George Stokes of Company C, 122nd Illinois Infantry captured an enemy flag in the midst of battle. The act represented both direct battlefield courage and the symbolic defeat of an opposing military organization. For that action he received the Medal of Honor on February 24, 1865. His highest verified rank was Corporal, while his rank during the Medal of Honor action was Private. His final verified medal record consists of Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1865, with no verified device or clasp. No additional campaign medal has been added without recipient-specific entitlement evidence, leaving his Medal of Honor as the sole decoration securely established for publication.