James Monroe Seitzinger

He Seized the Fallen Colors and Carried Them Forward

James Monroe Seitzinger served in the United States Army during the American Civil War as a member of Company G, 116th Pennsylvania Infantry. His military career placed him in one of the most demanding periods of the conflict, and his name became permanently associated with the Battle of Cold Harbor, where he performed the act of courage that later earned him the Medal of Honor.

The 116th Pennsylvania Infantry was part of the Army of the Potomac and fought through some of the most difficult campaigning in Virginia. By 1864, the Union Army was engaged in Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant’s Overland Campaign, a relentless series of battles intended to keep pressure on General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. The campaign brought the opposing armies through the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, and eventually to Cold Harbor.

By the beginning of June 1864, the armies faced each other near Cold Harbor, Virginia. Confederate troops had developed strong defensive positions, and Union forces prepared for attacks intended to break those lines. The fighting was severe, and soldiers advancing across the battlefield faced concentrated rifle and artillery fire.

On June 3, 1864, Private James Monroe Seitzinger entered that battle with Company G of the 116th Pennsylvania Infantry.

During the charge, the regiment’s color bearer was shot down.

The regimental colors were far more than ceremonial objects on a Civil War battlefield. In the confusion created by smoke, noise, broken formations, and changing terrain, the flags helped soldiers identify the location and direction of their regiment. They also carried immense symbolic importance. A fallen set of colors could create disorder, while keeping the flag visible helped a unit maintain cohesion during an advance.

When the color bearer fell, Seitzinger responded immediately.

He seized the fallen colors and carried them forward during the charge.

The act exposed him to the same intense battlefield danger that had already brought down the man carrying the flag. Yet instead of leaving the colors on the ground, Seitzinger took responsibility for them and continued with the advancing soldiers.

His Medal of Honor citation later preserved the essential facts of the action. The official recognition focused on his decision to take up the colors after the color bearer had been shot and to carry them forward in the assault at Cold Harbor.

That action became the defining moment of Seitzinger’s military service.

Cold Harbor was one of the most costly and difficult engagements of the Overland Campaign. The battlefield demonstrated the growing power of prepared defensive positions and the extraordinary danger faced by troops ordered to advance against them. Within that setting, Seitzinger’s decision to recover the flag represented both personal courage and a determination to preserve the visible symbol around which his fellow soldiers could rally.

He was serving as a Private when he performed the deed. His later military record shows that he eventually attained the rank of Sergeant, marking advancement beyond the enlisted rank he held during the Cold Harbor action.

For many Civil War soldiers, recognition for acts of bravery did not come immediately. Seitzinger was one of those whose heroism was formally acknowledged decades after the event.

On March 1, 1906, James Monroe Seitzinger received the Medal of Honor for his actions at Cold Harbor.

More than forty years had passed since the battle.

The Medal of Honor had been established during the Civil War and became the highest military decoration of the United States. In Seitzinger’s case, the award recognized a clearly defined battlefield act: after the regiment’s color bearer was shot down during the charge, he picked up the colors and carried them forward.

His award therefore represented more than simple possession of a flag. It commemorated an act performed at a dangerous moment when carrying the colors made a soldier highly visible and exposed. By taking them up after another man had already fallen, Seitzinger accepted a role that placed him directly in the path of enemy fire.

His Civil War service was also represented by the Army Civil War Campaign Medal. Established by the War Department in 1907, the medal recognized qualifying Army service during the Civil War. Unlike the Medal of Honor, which honored one specific act of exceptional courage, the Army Civil War Campaign Medal commemorated participation in the broader military struggle fought between 1861 and 1865.

Together, the two medals represent different dimensions of Seitzinger’s service.

The Medal of Honor recalls the single moment at Cold Harbor when he seized the fallen regimental colors and carried them through the charge. The Army Civil War Campaign Medal represents his wider service as a Union soldier during the conflict itself.

Seitzinger’s story also reflects the central importance of regimental colors in Civil War combat. Color bearers were frequently placed in extreme danger because the flags served as visible reference points for both friendly soldiers and the enemy. When one color bearer fell, another soldier sometimes had to step forward immediately to keep the flag from disappearing or being captured.

At Cold Harbor, that responsibility fell to Seitzinger.

He did not begin the attack as the man assigned to carry the colors. He became their bearer because the soldier holding them was shot down and the regiment still needed its flag carried forward.

Decades later, the United States formally recognized the significance of that decision.

James Monroe Seitzinger’s legacy rests on a moment of battlefield responsibility under fire. On June 3, 1864, while serving as a Private in Company G of the 116th Pennsylvania Infantry, he saw the regimental colors fall and chose to take them up.

He carried them forward through the charge.

That act earned him the Medal of Honor and secured his place in the history of the American Civil War. His story remains a powerful example of courage expressed not through command or rank, but through the willingness of an individual soldier to assume a dangerous responsibility at the exact moment it was needed most.