Howell G. Trogden

Howell G. Trogden was born on October 24, 1840, at Cedar Falls in Randolph County, North Carolina. During the American Civil War he entered military service from St. Louis, Missouri, and joined the United States Army. He served as a Private in Company B of the 8th Missouri Infantry, a veteran Union regiment that became heavily engaged in operations throughout the Western Theater.

The 8th Missouri Infantry participated in some of the major campaigns that shaped the struggle for control of the Mississippi Valley. By 1863, Trogden and his regiment were serving in Major General Ulysses S. Grant's campaign against Vicksburg, Mississippi, one of the most strategically important Confederate strongholds of the war.

Vicksburg occupied commanding high ground overlooking the Mississippi River. Confederate control of the city allowed the South to maintain an important connection across the river between its eastern and western territories. For the Union, capturing Vicksburg was essential to securing the Mississippi and dividing the Confederacy geographically.

Grant's campaign brought Union forces across the Mississippi south of the city during the spring of 1863. After a rapid inland advance and a series of victories, Confederate troops withdrew into the fortified defenses surrounding Vicksburg.

Grant initially attempted to capture the city through direct assault rather than undertake a prolonged siege. The first major assault on May 19 failed against the powerful Confederate fortifications. Three days later, on May 22, Union commanders launched another coordinated attack along the defensive line.

The Confederate position known as the Stockade Redan stood near the Graveyard Road and presented a particularly difficult obstacle. Before the main infantry assault could succeed, soldiers were needed to cross exposed ground, reach the defensive ditch, and prepare a way for following troops to attack the fortifications.

A volunteer storming party of approximately 150 men was assembled for this exceptionally dangerous mission. Because of the extremely high probability of casualties, the group became associated with the name "Forlorn Hope," a traditional military expression for troops assigned to an undertaking with little expectation of safety or survival.

Private Howell G. Trogden volunteered for the storming party.

His responsibility was especially important because he carried the flag at the head of the advancing formation. Carrying colors in battle was both an honor and an extraordinary danger. A flag provided soldiers with a visible point around which they could rally, but the man carrying it was highly exposed and easily identified by enemy marksmen.

At approximately 10 a.m. on May 22, 1863, the volunteer storming party advanced toward the Confederate defenses under intense fire.

The soldiers had to cross hundreds of yards of exposed terrain while Confederate defenders fired from protected positions. Men carrying materials needed to cross the defensive obstacles moved forward with the assault, while Trogden advanced with the flag.

Despite the severe fire, the storming party reached the Confederate works. Trogden carried the flag forward to the enemy position, where the colors were placed on the parapet of the Stockade Redan.

The main Union assault, however, encountered devastating resistance. Confederate defenders maintained powerful fire from their fortifications, and many Federal troops were forced to seek whatever shelter they could find near the defensive works.

Trogden remained with the flag.

His Medal of Honor citation records an especially revealing detail about what happened next. Having carried his regiment's colors into the assault, Trogden attempted to borrow a firearm so that he could defend the flag.

The action demonstrated the extraordinary personal responsibility associated with carrying military colors. Trogden had reached a dangerously exposed position with the flag, and rather than abandoning it when the attack stalled, he attempted to arm himself so he could protect it.

His behavior represented both physical courage and determination. The flag was not merely ceremonial equipment. On a Civil War battlefield, losing colors to the enemy carried enormous symbolic significance and could damage the morale and reputation of the regiment or command that lost them.

Trogden's willingness to defend the colors after carrying them into the Confederate position became the defining act of his military career.

The May 22 assault ultimately failed to break the Vicksburg defenses. Union casualties were heavy, and Grant concluded that further direct attacks would cause unnecessary losses. He therefore shifted to siege operations.

Federal forces surrounded Vicksburg and steadily tightened their grip on the Confederate garrison. Artillery bombardment, shortages of food and supplies, and the inability of Confederate forces to break the encirclement gradually made continued resistance impossible.

On July 4, 1863, Vicksburg surrendered to Grant.

The victory was one of the most important strategic successes of the entire Civil War. Together with the subsequent fall of Port Hudson, it gave the Union effective control of the Mississippi River and divided the Confederacy.

Trogden survived the assault and the Vicksburg Campaign. His official military record continues to identify him as a Private, and no higher verified Army rank has been established for him.

The courage displayed by Trogden and the other members of the volunteer storming party became widely recognized after the war. Many soldiers who took part in the extraordinarily dangerous May 22 assault ultimately received the Medal of Honor.

For Howell G. Trogden, formal recognition came more than thirty years after the battle.

On August 3, 1894, the United States presented him with the Medal of Honor for his gallantry at Vicksburg on May 22, 1863.

His official citation specifically recognized his service in the charge of the volunteer storming party. It also preserved the two details that made his individual action distinctive: Trogden carried the flag during the assault and attempted to obtain a gun so that he could defend it.

The Medal of Honor had itself been created during the Civil War. Congress authorized the Army Medal of Honor in 1862 as a means of recognizing soldiers who distinguished themselves through exceptional courage and military conduct.

At that time, the United States did not possess the broad hierarchy of military valor decorations that would exist in later generations. The Medal of Honor therefore became the principal national recognition for extraordinary battlefield service.

Because Trogden's Medal of Honor was presented on August 3, 1894, the correct historical representation of his decoration is Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1894.

Although the decoration was not presented until 1894, the action for which it was awarded always remains May 22, 1863. The difference of more than three decades reflects the fact that many Civil War acts of valor were formally reviewed and recognized long after the war had ended.

No clasp, star, bar, oak leaf cluster, or other device has been verified with Trogden's Medal of Honor. His verified decoration therefore consists of one Medal of Honor without additional devices.

Trogden returned to civilian life after his military service and lived for more than four decades after the Civil War. Surviving authoritative military sources preserve much more information about his wartime heroism than about the details of his civilian occupation, so uncertain postwar claims should not be added to his biography without stronger documentation.

What is firmly established is that his life eventually took him westward. By the end of his life, he was living in California.

The physical Medal of Honor associated with Howell G. Trogden survived beyond his lifetime and became part of the collection of the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Its preservation provides a tangible connection to the extraordinary assault at Vicksburg for which he was honored.

Howell G. Trogden died on December 2, 1910. He was buried at Calvary Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.

His military legacy is inseparable from the assault on Vicksburg on May 22, 1863.

As a Private in Company B of the 8th Missouri Infantry, Trogden volunteered for one of the most dangerous assignments available to a Union soldier that day. He advanced as part of the storming party toward strongly defended Confederate fortifications while exposed to concentrated enemy fire.

He carried the flag forward with the attacking column, reached the enemy works, and when the assault became pinned down, attempted to obtain a firearm so that he could defend the colors.

The act captured the meaning of battlefield responsibility for a Civil War color bearer. Even when the larger attack had stalled and the situation had become extremely dangerous, Trogden remained focused on protecting the flag entrusted to him.

More than thirty-one years later, the United States formally recognized his gallantry by presenting him with the Medal of Honor on August 3, 1894.

Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1894 remains Howell G. Trogden's verified military decoration and the defining official recognition of his courage during the assault on Vicksburg.