Harrison Collins

He Charged the Flag—and Shattered the Enemy Rally

Harrison Collins was born on March 10, 1836, in Hawkins County, Tennessee. He came of age in a region that would become deeply divided when the American Civil War began. East Tennessee contained a strong Unionist population despite Tennessee joining the Confederacy, and men from the region ultimately formed several Union regiments. Harrison Collins became one of those Tennesseans who entered United States service and fought on the Union side.

Harrison Collins served in Company A of the 1st Tennessee Cavalry, United States Army. The regiment was composed largely of loyal Tennesseans and developed into an experienced mounted force operating across Tennessee and other parts of the Western Theater. Cavalry service required soldiers to perform reconnaissance, screening, pursuit, raiding, and direct combat, sometimes fighting mounted and sometimes dismounting to engage as conventional soldiers.

During his military career Harrison Collins advanced through the enlisted ranks. The rank associated with his Medal of Honor action was Corporal, while later federal veterans records identify Harrison Collins as a Sergeant, making Sergeant his highest verified rank.

By late 1864, the military situation in Tennessee had reached a decisive stage. Confederate General John Bell Hood had moved north into Tennessee in an attempt to reverse Union gains in the Western Theater. After bloody operations culminating in the Battle of Nashville on December 15 and 16, Hood's Army of Tennessee suffered a major defeat and began withdrawing southward.

Union cavalry was ordered to pursue aggressively. The object was not merely to follow the retreating Confederates but to prevent them from reorganizing, destroy their remaining military effectiveness, capture equipment and prisoners, and maintain constant pressure on the retreat.

The 1st Tennessee Cavalry served in Brigadier General John T. Croxton's brigade during this pursuit. By December 24, 1864, the Union cavalry had reached the area around Richland Creek, Tennessee. Confederate cavalry forces connected with Major General James R. Chalmers were attempting to cover the retreat and slow the Federal advance.

The fighting on December 24 developed into a running cavalry engagement. Croxton's brigade skirmished with Confederate troops throughout much of the day and eventually drove elements of the enemy across Richland Creek. It was during this confused and rapidly moving battle that Harrison Collins encountered the situation that would define his military career.

A Confederate standard bearer was holding a battle flag while a Confederate major attempted to rally retreating soldiers around it.

In Civil War combat, a battle flag had enormous tactical as well as symbolic importance. Smoke, noise, terrain, and the confusion of combat could make spoken commands difficult to hear, so soldiers often looked toward their colors to determine where their unit was forming, advancing, or making a stand. A flag could therefore become the center around which scattered troops attempted to reorganize.

Harrison Collins recognized what was happening. Rather than allowing the Confederate officer to complete the rally, Harrison Collins moved directly against the position.

Brigadier General John T. Croxton recorded the event immediately afterward. According to Croxton's official report, Harrison Collins saw the Confederate standard bearer under the direction of a major who was trying to rally his men. Harrison Collins determined to take the flag, led a charge against the position, killed the major, routed the soldiers around him, and secured the Confederate battle flag.

The significance of the act went beyond possession of an enemy standard. Harrison Collins struck directly at an attempt to restore order among retreating Confederate troops. By attacking the rallying point and capturing the colors, Harrison Collins helped disrupt the formation at precisely the moment its officers were trying to reorganize it.

The battle flag was identified in the official record as belonging to Chalmers' Confederate division. Croxton considered the capture important enough that, on December 25, 1864, he formally forwarded the captured flag and reported Harrison Collins's conduct to the cavalry corps headquarters.

The action occurred during one of the final stages of Hood's disastrous Tennessee Campaign. After the defeat at Nashville, Union cavalry kept the Confederate army under pressure as it withdrew south. The December 24 fighting around Richland Creek was part of that continuing pursuit, and Harrison Collins's capture of the Confederate colors became one of the individually recognized acts of valor from the operation.

Recognition came remarkably quickly.

On February 24, 1865, only two months after the Richland Creek action and while the Civil War was still being fought, Harrison Collins received the Medal of Honor.

The Medal of Honor had been established during the Civil War, with Congress authorizing the Army version in 1862. At that time the United States Army did not possess the broad hierarchy of valor decorations that would emerge in later generations. Awards such as the Distinguished Service Cross and Silver Star did not yet exist in their later forms. The Medal of Honor therefore served as the principal national military decoration for extraordinary acts performed by Union soldiers.

Harrison Collins's official Medal of Honor recognition centered on a concise achievement: the capture of the flag of Chalmers' Confederate division at Richland Creek, Tennessee, on December 24, 1864.

For the VictoriaCross.ca database, Harrison Collins's verified decoration is represented as Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1865. The 1865 date represents the year in which the decoration was presented, while the heroic action itself occurred on December 24, 1864.

No additional bar, clasp, star, oak leaf cluster, or other device has been verified for Harrison Collins's Medal of Honor. His verified decoration therefore remains Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1865 — No device or clasp.

Harrison Collins continued to be identified with the 1st Tennessee Cavalry through the closing period of the war. The conflict ended only a few months after his Medal of Honor presentation, bringing to a close a military struggle in which Unionist Tennesseans such as Harrison Collins had faced the unusual reality of fighting a civil war not only between regions but within their own state.

After military service, Harrison Collins eventually settled in Missouri. The surviving official record provides much stronger documentation for Harrison Collins's wartime service than for the details of his later civilian employment, so uncertain aspects of his postwar life should not be expanded beyond the available evidence.

Harrison Collins lived for more than twenty-five years after the end of the Civil War. He died on December 25, 1890, in Isabella, Missouri, one day after the twenty-sixth anniversary of the Richland Creek action that had earned him the Medal of Honor.

Harrison Collins is buried at Springfield National Cemetery in Springfield, Missouri. Federal cemetery records preserve Harrison Collins as a Sergeant and Medal of Honor recipient, maintaining the distinction between the Corporal who performed the heroic action in 1864 and the higher rank Harrison Collins later attained.

The military legacy of Harrison Collins ultimately rests on a brief but dramatic battlefield decision. On Christmas Eve 1864, Confederate soldiers were retreating while an officer attempted to rally them around their colors. Harrison Collins saw the flag, recognized the rally forming around it, and attacked.

Harrison Collins led the charge, broke the rally, and carried away the Confederate flag.

Two months later, the United States formally recognized that action with the Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1865, preserving Harrison Collins's place in American military history as a Union cavalryman whose attack on an enemy standard became one of the defining acts of courage during the final phase of the Civil War in Tennessee.