Henry Harrison Taylor

Henry Harrison Taylor was a Union Army infantryman, regimental color bearer, and Medal of Honor recipient whose most famous act occurred during the siege of Vicksburg in 1863. He was born on July 4, 1841, near Galena in Jo Daviess County, Illinois. He grew up in the Galena area at a time when northwestern Illinois was closely connected with the lead-mining industry, and that regional identity later became strongly associated with the regiment in which he served. When the American Civil War began, Taylor entered Union service from Galena. Illinois military records show him joining Company C of the 45th Illinois Infantry as a Private in 1861. The regiment was organized largely from communities in northwestern Illinois and became widely known as the “Washburne Lead Mine Regiment,” reflecting the mining background of many of its soldiers. The 45th Illinois was officially mustered into United States service at Camp Douglas in Chicago in December 1861. Soon afterward, the regiment was sent south and became part of the Union armies campaigning along the Mississippi Valley. Taylor’s regiment first experienced major combat during the operations against Fort Donelson in Tennessee. The Union victory there in February 1862 was one of the earliest major successes of the war and brought national attention to Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant. Only a few weeks later, the 45th Illinois fought at Shiloh. At Shiloh on April 6 and 7, 1862, the regiment endured extremely severe combat as Confederate forces launched a surprise attack against Grant’s army near Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee. The 45th suffered heavily during the battle, but remained an active formation in the Army of the Tennessee afterward. Taylor survived these early campaigns and continued serving as his regiment moved through operations around Corinth and the Mississippi Valley. During this period, he advanced from Private to Sergeant and became associated with the regiment’s colors. The duty of a color bearer was among the most dangerous assignments in Civil War infantry service. Regimental colors served as a visual center for the unit. In the confusion of smoke, gunfire, broken terrain, and rapidly changing battle lines, soldiers used their flags to determine where their regiment was located and where they were expected to move. Officers also used the colors as rallying points when formations became disorganized. Because the colors had to remain visible, the men carrying them were deliberately exposed. Enemy soldiers frequently fired at color bearers, and the loss of a flag could have both tactical and symbolic consequences. A soldier entrusted with the colors therefore occupied a position of extraordinary responsibility. By 1863, Taylor and the 45th Illinois were veterans of the Western Theater. That year they joined Grant’s campaign against Vicksburg, Mississippi. Vicksburg was one of the Confederacy’s most strategically important strongholds. Located on commanding heights overlooking the Mississippi River, the city controlled one of the last major sections of the river still in Confederate hands. Its capture would allow the Union to dominate the Mississippi and divide the Confederacy geographically. Grant’s forces crossed the Mississippi south of Vicksburg and conducted a remarkable inland campaign during the spring of 1863. The Army of the Tennessee fought a rapid series of battles that drove Confederate forces back toward Vicksburg. The 45th Illinois participated in the Vicksburg Campaign as part of the XVII Corps. It fought at Raymond and Champion Hill and took part in the operations that forced Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton’s Confederate army inside the defenses of Vicksburg. The Union army then surrounded the city. Two major direct assaults against the Confederate fortifications on May 19 and May 22 failed. Grant therefore began formal siege operations, constructing trenches and approaches ever closer to the Confederate defensive line. The 45th Illinois occupied a sector opposite the Third Louisiana Redan, an important Confederate fortification guarding the Jackson Road approach into Vicksburg. Union soldiers gradually dug an approach trench toward the redan and eventually tunneled underneath it. By June 24, Union miners had extended their tunnel approximately forty feet beneath the Confederate position. The mine was packed with about 2,200 pounds of black powder. On June 25, 1863, preparations were completed to detonate it. At approximately 3:30 in the afternoon, the explosives were fired. The blast tore open the Confederate earthworks and created a massive crater. The explosion was immediately followed by intense Union artillery and infantry fire along the surrounding line. The 45th Illinois was selected to spearhead the assault into the breach. Sergeant Henry Harrison Taylor was with the regiment as it surged forward. The fighting quickly became extremely violent. The explosion had damaged the Confederate position but had not destroyed the defenders. Confederate troops established themselves behind the damaged works and poured fire into the Union soldiers attempting to exploit the breach. The 45th Illinois pushed into the crater and toward the shattered fortification. Taylor carried the Union colors forward. Despite the intense Confederate fire, he reached the enemy works and planted the Union flag upon them. This was the specific act later recognized by the United States with the Medal of Honor. His official citation is remarkably brief: “Was the first to plant the Union colors upon the enemy’s works.” The simplicity of the citation does not convey the full danger of the action. Taylor had advanced while carrying one of the most visible objects on the battlefield, directly toward a fortified Confederate position whose defenders were firing into the assaulting troops at close range. Reaching the works required him to remain exposed as the attack moved into the crater and against the defensive earthworks. The flag he carried also had enormous symbolic importance. By placing the Union colors on the Confederate position, Taylor provided a visible rallying point for the attacking soldiers and demonstrated that members of the 45th Illinois had physically reached the enemy fortifications. The assault nevertheless failed to achieve a decisive breakthrough. The Confederates maintained their position behind the damaged redan, and Union troops were unable to advance beyond the crater. Fighting around the position continued for hours, but the attackers eventually recognized that further efforts would produce heavy casualties without sufficient tactical advantage. Grant therefore continued the siege rather than ordering another large frontal attack. Only nine days later, on July 4, 1863, the Confederate army at Vicksburg surrendered. The victory gave Union forces control of the Mississippi River and became one of the most strategically important successes of the Civil War. Taylor had therefore participated directly in one of the campaigns that transformed the military situation in the Western Theater. His wartime service did not end immediately after Vicksburg. He remained with Company C, 45th Illinois Infantry until September 8, 1864, when he was mustered out after completing his period of service. His verified highest military rank was Sergeant. Unlike officers who later received brevet promotions or transferred into other commands, no higher rank has been established for Taylor. Sergeant was therefore both his rank during the Medal of Honor action and his highest verified rank. Taylor returned to civilian life after leaving the Army. He went back to the Jo Daviess County region and later married Marjory Turner. They established a family and had five children. His later life eventually took him west to Kansas. Although the surviving official military record preserves far more detail about his Civil War service than about his civilian career, Taylor remained identified throughout his later life with his wartime service and his role at Vicksburg. For three decades after the battle, however, he did not possess the Medal of Honor. The decoration was awarded much later. On September 1, 1893, Henry Harrison Taylor was officially issued the Medal of Honor for his actions at Vicksburg on June 25, 1863. This distinction between action date and award date is important. Taylor performed the heroic act in 1863, but the United States did not formally issue the decoration to him until 1893. For that reason, the correct database designation is: Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1893. The Army Medal of Honor had been authorized by Congress in 1862 during the Civil War. At the time, the United States had no large system of military valor decorations comparable with those developed during the twentieth century. There was no Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star, or modern hierarchy of combat awards. The Medal of Honor therefore became the principal federal decoration for extraordinary military conduct. Many Civil War recipients were decorated during the conflict, but numerous others were recognized decades later after military reports, recommendations, witness testimony, and surviving service records were reviewed. Taylor belonged to this later group. His award was made during his lifetime and was not posthumous. No additional clasp, bar, star, oak leaf cluster, or other device has been verified for Taylor’s Medal of Honor. His final rack should therefore contain a single Medal of Honor without any attachment. A later 1904-design Medal of Honor inscribed with Taylor’s name, his status as Color Sergeant of Company C, 45th Illinois Infantry, and the Vicksburg action is preserved in the collections associated with Vicksburg National Military Park. The surviving medal provides a tangible connection between Taylor and the battlefield where he earned the decoration decades earlier. The Army Civil War Campaign Medal is not included in Taylor’s final verified medal rack. Taylor remained alive until 1909, meaning he survived into the period when the Army’s later Civil War campaign medal existed. His Civil War service was unquestionably extensive, and his participation in the conflict is fully documented. However, under the project’s evidence standard, qualifying wartime service does not automatically prove that an individual personally received or was issued a particular campaign medal. No sufficiently strong recipient-specific issuance record has been verified showing that Henry Harrison Taylor personally received the Army Civil War Campaign Medal. It must therefore remain HOLD / DO NOT ADD. His final verified medal record remains: Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1893 — No device or clasp. Taylor lived for almost sixteen years after receiving the Medal of Honor. He died on May 3, 1909, in Leavenworth, Kansas, at the age of sixty-seven. He was buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Clay Center, Kansas. His connection with his birthplace remained important long after he left Illinois. In the Galena and Guilford Township area, local memory preserved his status as a Civil War hero and Medal of Honor recipient. A rural school in Guilford Township was named Taylor School in recognition of him. More than a century after his death, efforts were made to give his story greater public visibility in his home region. In 2023, a bronze bust honoring Sergeant Henry H. Taylor was dedicated in Grant Park in Galena, Illinois. The memorial was supported by local veterans’ organizations and community groups and permanently linked Taylor’s name with the region from which he had entered military service. His enduring legacy, however, remains the afternoon of June 25, 1863. As Union engineers detonated a mine beneath the Third Louisiana Redan, the 45th Illinois Infantry surged into the shattered Confederate position. Sergeant Henry Harrison Taylor moved forward with the colors under intense enemy fire and became the first Union soldier to plant them upon the enemy works. The assault did not capture the redan that afternoon, but Taylor’s action became a permanent part of the history of the Vicksburg Campaign. Thirty years later, the United States formally recognized that act with the Medal of Honor. Henry Harrison Taylor’s final verified military profile therefore records him as a United States Army Sergeant of Company C, 45th Illinois Infantry, with Infantry as his Combat Achievement classification. His sole verified decoration is Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1893, with no verified device or clasp. The Army Civil War Campaign Medal remains excluded from the final rack because recipient-specific entitlement has not been established.