Jacob Cart

Jacob Cart was born in 1843 in Carlisle, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. The surviving authoritative record preserves relatively little about his childhood or civilian life before the American Civil War, but his military identity is clear: he entered the United States Army and served in Company A, 7th Pennsylvania Reserve Corps. His hometown connection remained Carlisle, the community to which his Medal of Honor service was officially accredited. Congressional Medal of Honor Society When Cart entered military service, he joined a Pennsylvania Reserve regiment that would experience some of the hardest fighting of the Civil War. At the beginning of the action for which he became famous, Cart was still a Private. His later military record, however, identifies Sergeant as the highest rank he attained. This distinction is important for his final profile: the database correctly displays Sergeant as his highest verified rank, while his Medal of Honor action must always identify him as Private Jacob Cart. Congressional Medal of Honor Society The defining event of Cart’s military career occurred during the Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia, on December 13, 1862. The battle was one of the Union Army’s most costly and frustrating operations of the war. Federal forces crossed the Rappahannock River and launched repeated attacks against well-prepared Confederate positions. While much of the battle is remembered for the disastrous Union assaults against Marye’s Heights, heavy fighting also took place farther south, where the Pennsylvania Reserves attacked Confederate positions as part of the larger Federal offensive. Cart’s regiment entered this violent battlefield as infantry. During the fighting, the Union and Confederate lines came into extremely close contact. Regimental flags were critically important in Civil War combat. In an era before reliable battlefield radio communications, colors helped soldiers locate their regiment amid smoke, noise, terrain, and confusion. The flag also represented the honor and identity of the unit. For that reason, color bearers were highly visible targets, and the capture of an enemy flag was regarded as an exceptional battlefield achievement. It was during this fighting that Private Jacob Cart carried out the action that permanently connected his name with Fredericksburg. According to the official United States Army Medal of Honor record, Cart captured the flag of the 19th Georgia Infantry, taking it directly from the Confederate color bearer. The official citation records the essential fact simply and forcefully: he seized the enemy colors by wresting them from the hands of the man carrying them. Army Such an act required Cart to reach the immediate position of the opposing regiment’s colors. A Civil War color guard normally operated in the center of a formation and was protected because of the flag’s military and symbolic importance. Capturing colors therefore generally meant entering one of the most dangerous parts of the battlefield, often at extremely close range. Cart survived the action, and the capture became the central event of his military legacy. The Battle of Fredericksburg did not produce the Union victory Federal commanders had hoped for. Confederate forces retained the field, and the Army of the Potomac eventually withdrew across the Rappahannock. Yet individual acts of courage during the battle were remembered and later formally recognized. Cart’s capture of the Confederate flag became one of those actions. After Fredericksburg, Cart continued his Army service and eventually reached the rank of Sergeant. The surviving Medal of Honor records do not provide enough recipient-specific detail to safely assign every subsequent campaign of the 7th Pennsylvania Reserves directly to him, so his biography should not automatically claim personal participation in every later engagement fought by the regiment. What can be stated with confidence is that he advanced from Private at Fredericksburg to the highest verified rank of Sergeant. Congressional Medal of Honor Society Medal of Honor The decoration that defines Jacob Cart’s military record is the Medal of Honor, the highest military decoration of the United States. The Army Medal of Honor had been created during the Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln approved the Army award in 1862, initially providing national recognition for enlisted soldiers and noncommissioned officers who distinguished themselves through exceptional gallantry and military conduct. Because many of the later American valor decorations did not yet exist, the Medal of Honor occupied a particularly important place in Civil War-era military recognition. Cart did not receive the medal immediately after the Battle of Fredericksburg. His heroic action occurred on: December 13, 1862 — Fredericksburg, Virginia His Medal of Honor was issued on: November 25, 1864 Thus, nearly two years separated the battlefield action from the formal award. The United States Army’s official Medal of Honor record confirms both the action date and the 1864 issue date. Army For the current VictoriaCross.ca database, Cart’s decoration is correctly represented as: Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1864 — No device or clasp No service star, clasp, bar, oak leaf cluster, or other device has been verified for his Medal of Honor. He received the decoration once, so his final ribbon remains plain. The Medal of Honor also preserves Cart’s action-time rank. Although he later became a Sergeant, the official citation identifies him as: Private, Company A, 7th Pennsylvania Reserve Corps This is why his biography must preserve both ranks separately: Rank at Medal of Honor Action: Private Highest Verified Rank: Sergeant Civil War Campaign Medal A later Army Civil War Campaign Medal has not been added to Jacob Cart’s verified ribbon rack. Cart unquestionably performed Civil War Army service, but the Civil War Campaign Medal was created decades after the conflict. More importantly, Cart died in 1882, long before the Army established that later campaign medal. No recipient-specific issue or entitlement record has been established for him. Under the project’s evidence standard, qualifying service by itself is not sufficient to place a medal in the published ribbon rack. His verified medal history therefore remains limited to the award directly documented in his personal record: Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1864 — No device or clasp. Later Life Jacob Cart survived the Civil War and eventually returned to his native Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, the principal surviving military and Medal of Honor sources preserve far more about his wartime action than about his postwar occupation, family life, or other civilian activities. Those undocumented areas should not be expanded through assumption. What is firmly established is that Cart remained connected to Carlisle for the rest of his life. He died there on April 24, 1882, still a comparatively young man. The Congressional Medal of Honor Society records both Carlisle as his place of death and Ashland Cemetery as his burial location. Congressional Medal of Honor Society Cart was buried in the Ashland Cemetery Soldiers’ Lot in Carlisle. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs National Cemetery Administration recognizes him there as Sergeant Jacob Cart, Medal of Honor recipient, and records his grave at Section 22, Row D, Site 24. Veterans Affairs His burial place carries particular historical significance. Ashland Cemetery’s soldiers’ lot contains Civil War dead associated with Carlisle and is preserved as part of the national system of military burial sites. Cart’s grave provides a permanent physical connection between his hometown and the action at Fredericksburg for which the nation honored him. Jacob Cart’s military legacy is therefore centered on a remarkably direct act of battlefield courage. He entered the Battle of Fredericksburg as a Private infantryman of Company A, 7th Pennsylvania Reserve Corps. During the fighting on December 13, 1862, he reached the Confederate colors of the 19th Georgia Infantry and seized the flag from its color bearer. Two years later, on November 25, 1864, the United States formally recognized that action with the Medal of Honor. He subsequently attained the rank of Sergeant, survived the Civil War, returned to Carlisle, and lived until 1882. His final verified ribbon rack contains only one decoration, but that decoration represents the highest level of American military recognition: Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1864 — No device or clasp. Jacob Cart is remembered not because he held senior command or accumulated numerous decorations, but because during the chaos of Fredericksburg he closed with the enemy, captured a Confederate regimental flag, and performed an act that the United States Army later judged worthy of the Medal of Honor.