John B. Maberry

He Crossed the Stone Wall and Took Their Flag

John B. Maberry was born on December 17, 1841, in Smyrna, Delaware. During the American Civil War, he entered Union service and became a Private in Company F of the 1st Delaware Infantry. His military career eventually brought him to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where an extraordinary act during the climactic fighting of July 3, 1863, earned him the Medal of Honor.

The 1st Delaware Infantry served with the Army of the Potomac and experienced some of the hardest fighting of the war. By the summer of 1863, Maberry and his regiment were moving north as Union forces attempted to stop General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia from carrying the war into Pennsylvania.

The two armies converged at Gettysburg at the beginning of July. After two days of severe fighting, the Union army held a defensive position extending across the high ground south of the town. The 1st Delaware Infantry occupied part of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge, where the regiment would face the massive Confederate assault launched on the third day of the battle.

On July 3, Confederate artillery opened an intense bombardment against the Union center. The cannonade was followed by a large infantry attack across the open ground toward Cemetery Ridge. The assault placed the defenders under tremendous pressure as Confederate formations advanced toward the stone walls and defensive positions held by Union infantry.

Private John B. Maberry was among the soldiers of the 1st Delaware waiting for the attack.

As the Confederate troops reached the Union position, the battle became a close-range struggle. Rifle fire, artillery, smoke, and confusion surrounded the soldiers fighting along the ridge. Regimental flags remained critical rallying points during such conditions. They helped soldiers identify their formations and represented the honor of the units carrying them.

Because battle flags were normally protected by dedicated color guards and positioned near the center of a regiment, capturing one required a soldier to approach some of the most heavily contested ground on the battlefield.

During the fighting, the Confederate assault began to break apart under Union resistance. Maberry left the protection of the Union position and moved forward as the attackers were being driven back.

He captured the battle flag of the 7th North Carolina Infantry.

The deed was dangerous and direct. Maberry was not a senior officer directing troops from behind the line. He was a Private who moved into the immediate aftermath of one of the most violent infantry clashes of the Civil War and seized an enemy regimental color.

His official Medal of Honor citation recorded the achievement simply: capture of flag.

The brevity of that citation does not convey the conditions surrounding the act. The Confederate assault on Cemetery Ridge represented the decisive moment of the Battle of Gettysburg. Thousands of soldiers had advanced across exposed ground toward the Union center, and the fighting near the stone walls became chaotic as units collided, formations dissolved, and prisoners and flags changed hands.

Maberry's capture took place during this critical phase of the battle.

The Confederate attack ultimately failed. Union forces maintained control of Cemetery Ridge, and Lee's army began withdrawing from Gettysburg after three days of combat. The Union victory ended the Confederate invasion of Pennsylvania and became one of the most important turning points of the Civil War.

For Maberry, July 3, 1863, became the defining day of his military service.

He continued serving after Gettysburg and advanced beyond the rank he had held during his Medal of Honor action. His service record shows that he was later promoted to Corporal and ultimately to Sergeant, the highest verified rank of his military career.

Those later promotions reflected continued service and growing responsibility, but the Medal of Honor recognized specifically what he had done while serving as a Private.

More than a year after Gettysburg, Maberry received the nation's highest military decoration. His Medal of Honor was presented on December 6, 1864. The award formally recognized the courage he had displayed in capturing the Confederate battle flag during the fighting on Cemetery Ridge.

The presentation came while the Civil War was still being fought. By December 1864, Union armies were engaged in major operations across several theaters, and the final end of the conflict was still months away. Yet Maberry's action at Gettysburg had already been identified as an example of exceptional battlefield gallantry.

His achievement also reflected the importance attached to captured colors during the Civil War. A regimental flag was more than a ceremonial object. Soldiers used it to locate their unit amid battlefield smoke and confusion, and losing it could represent a serious blow to a regiment's pride and organization. Capturing an enemy flag therefore carried both military and symbolic significance.

Maberry survived the war and returned to civilian life. He lived for more than half a century after the battle that made him a Medal of Honor recipient, witnessing the transformation of Gettysburg from an active battlefield into one of the nation's most important places of military remembrance.

As veterans aged, the events of the Civil War became increasingly preserved through monuments, histories, reunions, and official records. Maberry's Medal of Honor ensured that his individual role in the battle remained part of that record.

John B. Maberry died on December 17, 1922, in Dover, Delaware, on his eighty-first birthday. He was buried in Glenwood Cemetery in Smyrna, the community where his life had begun.

His legacy remains centered on July 3, 1863. During the decisive Confederate assault at Gettysburg, Private Maberry left the Union position, moved into the dangerous ground in front of Cemetery Ridge, and captured the battle flag of the 7th North Carolina Infantry.

The Medal of Honor permanently recorded that act of courage, preserving the story of a Delaware infantryman who faced one of the Civil War's most famous assaults and returned with an enemy flag.