Henry Benedict Mattingly

Henry Benedict Mattingly was a Kentucky-born Union Army infantryman and Medal of Honor recipient whose military career was spent in the 10th Kentucky Volunteer Infantry during the American Civil War. Born on May 6, 1844, in Marion County, Kentucky, he came from the central Kentucky region that supplied many of the men who joined the Union cause despite Kentucky’s difficult position as a border state. When the war began, Mattingly was still only seventeen years old. In 1861, Mattingly entered Union service as a Private in Company B, 10th Kentucky Volunteer Infantry. The regiment was organized at Lebanon, Kentucky, and was mustered into federal service on November 21, 1861. Mattingly remained an enlisted infantryman throughout his verified military career, and Private was both his rank during the action that later earned him the Medal of Honor and his highest verified rank. The 10th Kentucky initially served with the Army of the Ohio and later became part of the Army of the Cumberland. During its wartime service, the regiment participated in a long series of operations across Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Georgia. Its service placed Mattingly within one of the principal Union field armies operating in the Western Theater. Early in 1862, the 10th Kentucky operated in the campaign around Mill Springs. The regiment subsequently moved through Louisville and Nashville and participated in the Union advance toward Corinth, Mississippi. After the siege of Corinth, the regiment continued campaigning through northern Alabama and Middle Tennessee. During the Confederate invasion of Kentucky in 1862, the 10th Kentucky moved north with Union forces opposing General Braxton Bragg’s army. The regiment later participated in the Battle of Perryville, one of the most important Civil War battles fought in Kentucky. The regiment remained active through the following year. In 1863, it served during the Tullahoma Campaign, an important Union maneuver campaign that forced Confederate forces out of much of Middle Tennessee. The 10th Kentucky then participated in the Chickamauga Campaign and served with the Army of the Cumberland during the Battle of Chickamauga. After the Union army withdrew into Chattanooga, the 10th Kentucky endured the Confederate pressure around the city and later participated in the Chattanooga-Ringgold Campaign. The regiment was involved in the operations at Orchard Knob and Missionary Ridge as Union forces broke the Confederate hold on Chattanooga in November 1863. By 1864, Mattingly and the 10th Kentucky had become experienced veterans. That spring, the regiment joined Major General William T. Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign. The campaign was a prolonged series of maneuvers and battles intended to drive Confederate forces southward through Georgia and capture Atlanta, one of the Confederacy’s most important transportation and industrial centers. The 10th Kentucky’s documented campaign service included operations around Rocky Face Ridge and Dalton, the Battle of Resaca, the movement toward Dallas, the fighting around New Hope Church and the Allatoona Hills, operations near Kennesaw Mountain, and the advance across the Chattahoochee River. The regiment later participated in operations around Peachtree Creek and the siege of Atlanta. By late August 1864, Sherman sought to break the remaining Confederate railroad connections south of Atlanta. Union forces maneuvered toward Jonesboro, Georgia, threatening the Macon & Western Railroad, one of the principal remaining supply routes into the city. The resulting Battle of Jonesboro was fought on August 31 and September 1, 1864. It was on September 1 that Private Henry Benedict Mattingly performed the action for which he would receive the Medal of Honor. The 10th Kentucky Infantry advanced against Confederate troops during the Union assault. Mattingly’s company was part of the regiment’s battle line as Union infantry closed rapidly with the Confederate defenses. The fighting became extremely close. During the attack, Mattingly captured the colors associated with the Confederate 6th and 7th Arkansas Infantry. The capture of an enemy flag carried enormous importance during the Civil War. Regimental colors were more than ceremonial objects. They identified a unit on the battlefield, provided a point around which soldiers could rally during confusion, and represented the collective honor of the regiment. Because the flag had to remain visible, its bearer was also highly exposed to enemy fire. Protecting one’s own colors and capturing those of the enemy were therefore among the most dangerous and prestigious acts an infantry soldier could perform. Mattingly’s official Medal of Honor citation is exceptionally concise. It recognizes him for the capture of the flags of the 6th and 7th Arkansas Infantry. That brief wording represents a much larger battlefield reality. To seize an enemy color in the middle of an infantry assault, a soldier generally had to advance directly into the area where resistance was strongest. The Confederate colors served as a rallying point for the Arkansas troops, and capturing them meant penetrating the enemy position closely enough to physically take possession of the flag during the collapse of the Confederate line. The Union success at Jonesboro had major strategic consequences. Confederate forces could no longer securely maintain Atlanta after the railroad south of the city was threatened and broken. On the night of September 1–2, Confederate troops evacuated Atlanta, and Union forces occupied the city shortly afterward. The fall of Atlanta became one of the most consequential Union victories of 1864. For Mattingly, Jonesboro became the defining action of his military life. His service with the 10th Kentucky continued only a few more months. After the Atlanta Campaign, the regiment moved northward through Georgia and Tennessee. The 10th Kentucky was then ordered back to Kentucky as the original enlistments of its soldiers neared completion. The regiment was mustered out on December 6, 1864. Mattingly therefore returned to civilian life before the final Confederate surrender in the spring of 1865, but formal recognition of his Jonesboro action came shortly afterward. On April 7, 1865, Henry B. Mattingly was awarded the Medal of Honor. The date is historically significant because it came only days before President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination and during the final collapse of the Confederacy. For database purposes, the distinction between the date of action and the date of award must remain clear. Mattingly’s heroic action occurred on September 1, 1864. His Medal of Honor was issued on April 7, 1865. Because the medal was issued within the original Army Medal of Honor period used by the project, the correct database designation is: Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1865. The Army Medal of Honor had been authorized by Congress in 1862, during the Civil War. At the time, the United States did not possess the extensive system of military valor decorations developed during the twentieth century. The Medal of Honor therefore became the principal national decoration for extraordinary conduct by Union soldiers. Mattingly’s award belongs to the earliest generation of Medal of Honor recipients. He received a single Medal of Honor. No additional bar, clasp, star, oak leaf cluster, or other device has been verified for his decoration. His Medal of Honor therefore remains a plain single award. The Army Civil War Campaign Medal is not included in his verified medal rack. That medal was created decades after the Civil War. Mattingly had already died before its establishment, and there is no recipient-specific record showing that he personally received or was issued such a campaign medal. Under the project’s evidence rules, Civil War service alone cannot be converted automatically into entitlement to a later campaign medal. His service unquestionably qualifies him as a Civil War veteran, but eligibility and documented personal issuance are not the same thing. His final verified medal rack therefore contains only: Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1865 — No device or clasp. After returning to Kentucky, Mattingly resumed civilian life. He returned to Marion County and later married Amanda Tucker in April 1867. The couple established a family in Kentucky and eventually moved westward into the Bullitt County area. By the early 1870s, the family was living around Pitts Point, a community located in territory that later became part of Fort Knox. Historical local records indicate that Mattingly worked as a farmer and was also connected with tanning work. Later, the family moved to Shepherdsville. There Mattingly continued earning his living through agricultural and local employment. Local historical accounts remembered him not only as a Civil War veteran but also as a talented fiddle player and an accomplished marksman. These community traditions provide an unusual glimpse of the private life of a soldier whose official federal record otherwise focuses almost entirely on his wartime service. Like many veterans of the Civil War, Mattingly experienced health problems during his later years. His postwar life was far removed from the battlefield, but his military service remained an important part of his identity. One point concerning the end of his life requires caution. Modern Medal of Honor Society data records his death as November 30, 1892, in Shepherdsville, Kentucky, while local Bullitt County historical material gives a death in 1893. Because those records conflict, the exact death date should not be treated as completely locked without stronger primary documentation. What is securely established is that he died in Shepherdsville in the early 1890s. Mattingly was originally buried in the Pitts Point area. Decades later, when that territory became associated with Fort Knox, his remains were relocated to Lebanon Junction Cemetery in Bullitt County, Kentucky, where he rests beside his wife Amanda. For many years, his grave did not adequately identify him as a Medal of Honor recipient. Local historians and descendants eventually worked to correct that omission. In the twenty-first century, efforts were made to secure an appropriate federal grave marker recognizing his Medal of Honor status. A historical marker was later placed at Lebanon Junction Cemetery to preserve his story for future generations. That modern recognition restored public attention to a man whose military fame had originated more than a century earlier on a Georgia battlefield. Henry Benedict Mattingly’s military career was not defined by high rank or command authority. He remained a Private. His distinction came from what he did in combat. As a young Kentucky infantryman, he served with the 10th Kentucky through years of campaigning in the Western Theater. His regiment marched through Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Georgia, endured major campaigns with the Army of the Cumberland, and took part in Sherman’s drive toward Atlanta. Then, on September 1, 1864, at Jonesboro, Mattingly advanced into close combat and captured the colors of the Confederate 6th and 7th Arkansas Infantry. That act became his permanent place in American military history. On April 7, 1865, the United States recognized him with the Medal of Honor. His final verified profile therefore records Henry Benedict Mattingly as a United States Army Private of Company B, 10th Kentucky Infantry, with Infantry as his Combat Achievement classification. His sole verified military decoration is Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1865, with no verified device or clasp. The Army Civil War Campaign Medal remains excluded from his published rack.