Henry Clay Warfel

As Lee’s Army Fled, He Captured Virginia’s Colors

Henry Clay Warfel was born on September 14, 1844, in Mill Creek, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. He grew up in central Pennsylvania and was still a teenager when the American Civil War began. The conflict would shape the most important years of his early life and eventually carry Henry Clay Warfel from infantry service into cavalry operations during the final pursuit of General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.

Henry Clay Warfel first entered Union service with the 125th Pennsylvania Infantry in 1862. The regiment was raised largely from Blair and Huntingdon Counties and joined the Army of the Potomac during one of the most dangerous periods of the war. Henry Clay Warfel’s early service therefore placed him in a regiment that experienced major Eastern Theater combat before his later transfer to cavalry.

The 125th Pennsylvania fought at the Battle of Antietam in September 1862, one of the bloodiest single days of the Civil War. The regiment later served during the Chancellorsville Campaign before completing its original term of enlistment. Henry Clay Warfel’s wartime experience did not end there.

Henry Clay Warfel returned to military service and ultimately became associated with Company A of the 1st Pennsylvania Cavalry. By the time Henry Clay Warfel joined the cavalry, mounted Union forces had become increasingly important for reconnaissance, pursuit, screening, raids, and fast-moving attacks against Confederate troops and supply columns.

The 1st Pennsylvania Cavalry had already developed an extensive combat history. Its soldiers participated in major campaigns in Virginia and served through the prolonged operations around Petersburg. In the spring of 1865, the regiment joined the Appomattox Campaign, the final Union pursuit that forced Robert E. Lee’s army westward after the Confederate evacuation of Richmond and Petersburg.

The military situation changed rapidly after the Union breakthrough at Petersburg. Confederate troops, artillery, headquarters elements, and wagon trains moved west in an increasingly desperate attempt to reach supplies and escape the converging Union armies.

Union cavalry pressed the retreat relentlessly.

Henry Clay Warfel was serving as a Private in Company A, 1st Pennsylvania Cavalry, when the pursuit reached the area around Paine’s Crossroads, Virginia, on April 5, 1865.

The fighting there occurred during a chaotic phase of the Appomattox Campaign. Union cavalry encountered Confederate forces and wagon trains moving through Amelia County while Robert E. Lee’s army searched for food and a route of escape toward the west.

The battle was characterized by rapid cavalry movements, scattered resistance, captures of men and equipment, and attacks against Confederate formations that were increasingly struggling to maintain order.

It was during this action that Henry Clay Warfel performed the act that would earn him the Medal of Honor.

On April 5, 1865, Henry Clay Warfel captured Virginia State colors.

Battle flags carried enormous importance during the Civil War. They served as visible rallying points in the smoke and confusion of combat, allowing soldiers to locate their formation when spoken commands could not be heard. Colors also represented the identity and honor of a military organization.

For that reason, enemy flags were normally protected carefully. Capturing one often required a soldier to move directly into close combat and seize the standard from troops who understood its importance just as clearly as the attacker did.

The official Medal of Honor citation for Henry Clay Warfel is unusually brief. It records the essential achievement: the capture of Virginia State colors.

That short description should not make the act appear routine. Henry Clay Warfel was a Private in a cavalry regiment operating amid the violent pursuit of a retreating Confederate army. The colors Henry Clay Warfel captured represented an official symbol carried during active military operations.

Several Union cavalrymen received Medal of Honor recognition for flag captures during the fighting around Paine’s Crossroads. The number of such awards reflects the intensity and close-range character of the cavalry engagement rather than diminishing the individual significance of Henry Clay Warfel’s action.

The timing made the event even more remarkable.

Henry Clay Warfel captured the Virginia State colors on April 5, 1865.

The following day, April 6, large portions of Robert E. Lee’s army suffered a devastating defeat at Sailor’s Creek.

On April 9, only four days after Henry Clay Warfel’s action, Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House.

Henry Clay Warfel’s defining act of battlefield courage therefore occurred during the final days of the war in Virginia, when Confederate military resistance was collapsing but combat remained extremely dangerous.

Recognition came quickly.

On May 3, 1865, less than one month after the action at Paine’s Crossroads, Henry Clay Warfel was presented with the Medal of Honor.

The Army Medal of Honor had been authorized by Congress in 1862. During the Civil War, the United States Army did not yet possess the extensive system of personal valor decorations that later generations would know. Awards such as the Distinguished Service Cross and Silver Star had not yet been established in their later forms.

The Medal of Honor therefore served as the principal national decoration for exceptional battlefield conduct by Union soldiers.

Henry Clay Warfel’s award belongs to this original Civil War generation of Medal of Honor recipients. Unlike many veterans whose wartime actions were not formally recognized until decades later, Henry Clay Warfel received his decoration while the war had only just ended.

For the VictoriaCross.ca database, Henry Clay Warfel’s verified decoration is represented as Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1865.

The 1865 date represents the year in which Henry Clay Warfel received the decoration. His Medal of Honor action itself occurred on April 5, 1865, at Paine’s Crossroads, Virginia.

No separate bar, clasp, star, oak leaf cluster, or other device has been verified for Henry Clay Warfel’s Medal of Honor. His verified decoration therefore remains Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1865 — No device or clasp.

Henry Clay Warfel continued with Union forces through the closing stage of the campaign. The 1st Pennsylvania Cavalry remained active through Appomattox and participated in the final operations surrounding the surrender of Robert E. Lee’s army.

In May 1865, Henry Clay Warfel also took part in the Grand Review of the Armies in Washington, D.C., the enormous public military procession that celebrated Union victory and honored the soldiers who had preserved the United States through four years of civil war.

Henry Clay Warfel was discharged from military service later that month, ending a wartime career that had taken him from infantry service as a teenager to a Medal of Honor action with Union cavalry during the final pursuit of the Confederacy’s most famous army.

After the war, Henry Clay Warfel returned to Pennsylvania and resumed civilian life. Henry Clay Warfel eventually settled in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, where he became a long-standing member of the community.

Henry Clay Warfel worked in the plumbing and tinning trade and established a business in Philipsburg. Over the following decades, Henry Clay Warfel also became involved in local public life rather than withdrawing entirely into private civilian work.

Henry Clay Warfel served his community in several positions, including postmaster, borough leadership, municipal service, and later as a justice of the peace. His public career made Henry Clay Warfel a familiar figure in Philipsburg long after his military service had ended.

Henry Clay Warfel also remained closely connected with Civil War veterans’ organizations. Like many Union veterans of his generation, Henry Clay Warfel participated in commemorative activities that preserved the memory of the conflict and honored soldiers who had fought in it.

The passage of time transformed Henry Clay Warfel from a young cavalry Private into one of the surviving links to the Civil War generation. By the early twentieth century, the campaigns of Antietam, Chancellorsville, Petersburg, and Appomattox had become national history rather than living events.

Henry Clay Warfel lived long enough to witness a dramatically different United States from the country he had entered military service to defend in 1862.

Henry Clay Warfel died on June 17, 1923, in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, at the age of seventy-eight.

Henry Clay Warfel was buried in Philipsburg Cemetery, where his grave preserves the memory of his Civil War service and Medal of Honor status.

The military legacy of Henry Clay Warfel ultimately centers on one moment during the collapse of Robert E. Lee’s retreat.

On April 5, 1865, with the Confederate army moving west and Union cavalry pressing forward, Henry Clay Warfel entered the fighting at Paine’s Crossroads as a Private of the 1st Pennsylvania Cavalry.

Henry Clay Warfel emerged with Virginia State colors in his possession.

Four days later, Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House.

Less than a month after the capture, the United States formally recognized Henry Clay Warfel’s action with the Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1865.

That captured flag ensured that Henry Clay Warfel’s name would remain permanently connected with the final dramatic days of the American Civil War.