Harry Davis

Harry Clay Davis was a Union soldier of the American Civil War and a recipient of the United States Medal of Honor. He was born on 5 February 1841 in Franklin County, Ohio, and was later accredited to Columbus, Ohio for his Medal of Honor service.

When the Civil War broke out, Davis enlisted in the Union Army and served with Company G, 46th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. At the time of his Medal of Honor action he held the rank of Private, though the Congressional Medal of Honor Society records his highest rank as Corporal.

Davis’s regiment served in some of the hardest western campaigns of the war. The 46th Ohio fought through major operations including Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chattanooga, Missionary Ridge, the Atlanta Campaign, Sherman’s March to the Sea, and the Carolinas Campaign. By 1864 the regiment was part of the veteran Union force advancing on Atlanta, and many of its men had re-enlisted as veterans.

On 28 July 1864, during fighting at Atlanta, Georgia, Davis distinguished himself by capturing the battle flag of the 30th Louisiana Infantry, Confederate States Army. His official Medal of Honor citation is brief but clear: “Capture of flag of 30th Louisiana Infantry (C.S.A.).” He received the Medal of Honor on 2 December 1864.

The action is often associated with the Battle of Ezra Church, one of the major engagements during the struggle for Atlanta. In Civil War combat, capturing an enemy regiment’s colors was a highly dangerous and symbolically important act, since the flag marked the unit’s position and served as a rallying point under fire. Davis’s award should therefore be treated as a single-event battlefield gallantry award, not a long-service or political award.

After the war, Davis lived long enough to see the Medal of Honor become far more formally defined than it had been during the Civil War era. He died on 9 July 1929 in Pomona, California, at the age of 88, and was buried in Pomona Cemetery, Pomona, California.