George W. Reed

Captured by the Enemy—Then He Took Their Battle Flag George W. Reed was born in 1831 in Cambria County, Pennsylvania. The surviving historical record does not preserve extensive details about his childhood, education, or early occupation, but by the beginning of the American Civil War he was living in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. When the conflict divided the nation, Reed entered Union military service and became a member of Company E, 11th Pennsylvania Infantry. The 11th Pennsylvania was one of the veteran infantry organizations of the Army of the Potomac. The regiment developed a reputation for hard service and became known as the “Bloody Eleventh.” During the war it participated in numerous major campaigns in the eastern theater, enduring the heavy losses and demanding field conditions characteristic of Civil War infantry service. Reed initially served as a Private. His Medal of Honor action would take place while he held that rank, although he later advanced to Corporal, the highest verified rank of his military career. This distinction is important because the official Medal of Honor record identifies him specifically as Private George W. Reed of Company E, 11th Pennsylvania Infantry at the time of his heroic action. By August 1864, Union forces were engaged in the prolonged campaign around Petersburg, Virginia. Petersburg was strategically vital because several important railroads carried supplies into the city and onward to the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. One of the most important was the Weldon Railroad, which connected the Petersburg and Richmond area with Wilmington, North Carolina. Union commanders understood that controlling or destroying the Weldon Railroad would place additional pressure on General Robert E. Lee’s army by disrupting a major Confederate supply route. Major General Gouverneur K. Warren’s Fifth Corps of the Army of the Potomac was therefore sent against the railroad in August 1864. The 11th Pennsylvania Infantry formed part of this operation. On August 18, Union troops reached the railroad and began destroying the tracks. The fighting intensified as Confederate forces moved against Warren’s men in an effort to regain control of the route. Over the following days, the area around the railroad became the scene of repeated attacks, counterattacks, difficult movement through wooded terrain, and periods of heavy rain. On August 21, 1864, George W. Reed became involved in the action that would make his name part of Medal of Honor history. While moving through a heavily wooded area near the Weldon Railroad, Reed encountered a small group of Confederate soldiers from the 24th North Carolina Infantry. Among them was the regiment’s color bearer. Reed was initially at a serious disadvantage and was taken prisoner by the Confederate soldiers. The situation changed, however, when it became apparent that the Confederate group had become disoriented in the woods and was dangerously close to the Union lines. Reed recognized the opportunity. He persuaded the Confederates that continuing in their present direction could take them directly into Union forces. According to the historical account preserved by the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, he convinced them that surrendering to him offered them a safer way through the lines. The remarkable reversal succeeded. The Confederate soldiers who had initially captured Reed surrendered themselves to him. Reed took possession of their weapons and, most importantly for his later official recognition, captured the battle flag of the 24th North Carolina Infantry. He then brought the prisoners and the Confederate colors back into the Union position. Capturing an enemy regimental flag during the Civil War carried great military significance. Regimental colors were not merely ceremonial objects. On smoke-filled battlefields where verbal commands and visual communication could become extremely difficult, soldiers used their colors as important reference points for maintaining formation and identifying the location of their regiment. The loss of a flag could therefore represent both a practical disruption and a serious blow to a unit’s honor. Color bearers and the soldiers assigned to protect them frequently faced extraordinary danger, and attempts to seize enemy colors often took place during some of the fiercest moments of combat. Reed’s achievement was unusual because his success depended not only on courage but also on presence of mind. He transformed a situation in which he had been taken prisoner into one in which he returned to his own lines with Confederate prisoners and an enemy battle flag. The United States Army moved quickly to recognize what he had done. On September 6, 1864, only a little more than two weeks after the action at Weldon Railroad, George W. Reed was awarded the Medal of Honor. His official citation was characteristically brief: it recognized the capture of the flag of the 24th North Carolina Volunteers. Those few words preserved the central fact of an extraordinary battlefield episode in which a Union private overcame a dangerous situation and deprived an opposing regiment of its colors. The Army Medal of Honor itself had been authorized by Congress in 1862, during the Civil War. At the time, the United States Army did not possess the extensive hierarchy of personal valor decorations that would develop in later generations. The Medal of Honor therefore became the nation’s principal military decoration for exceptionally distinguished conduct. Reed’s decoration belongs to this earliest period in the history of the Army Medal of Honor. For the VictoriaCross.ca database, his verified award is represented as Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1864. No clasp, bar, star, oak leaf cluster, or other additional device has been verified for his award. Reed continued his military career after the Weldon Railroad action and eventually attained the rank of Corporal. His promotion provides an important distinction between the rank connected to his Medal of Honor citation and the highest rank he reached during his service: he was a Private during the August 21, 1864 action and later became a Corporal. After the war, Reed returned to civilian life. Compared with the detailed record of his Medal of Honor action, considerably less reliable information survives concerning his later occupation and personal activities. His military service, however, remained permanently linked with Johnstown and with the veterans of the Civil War. George W. Reed died on December 21, 1906, in Chicago, Illinois. His remains were returned to Pennsylvania, and he was buried in Grand View Cemetery in Johnstown, the community from which his Union Army service had been credited. His burial later became part of an unusual chapter in the preservation of his memory. The government-issued marker at his grave incorrectly identified his military allegiance and failed to properly reflect his Medal of Honor status. The mistake remained for many years before efforts were made to correct the historical record. On Veterans Day, November 11, 2006, approximately one hundred years after Reed’s death, a replacement grave marker was formally dedicated at Grand View Cemetery. The corrected memorial properly recognized his Union Army service and his status as a Medal of Honor recipient. George W. Reed’s military legacy is centered on one remarkable reversal of fortune at the Weldon Railroad. Beginning the encounter as a Union private confronted and captured by Confederate soldiers, he used judgment and determination to turn the situation around, return with enemy prisoners, and capture the colors of the 24th North Carolina Infantry. His Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1864 ensured that this extraordinary episode would remain permanently recorded in the history of the United States Army.