John C. Ewing

He Took the Enemy Flag in Petersburg’s Final Assault

John C. Ewing was born on March 4, 1843, in the Ligonier Valley of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. During the final year of the American Civil War, he entered Union service and joined Company E of the 211th Pennsylvania Infantry. He served as a Private, and it was in that enlisted rank that he performed the act of courage for which he would receive the Medal of Honor.

Ewing entered military service in September 1864, at a time when the Civil War had already lasted more than three years. Union armies were pressing Confederate forces on several fronts, and in Virginia the Army of the Potomac and associated Federal forces had settled into the long campaign against Petersburg.

Petersburg was strategically vital because several railroads supplying Richmond passed through or near the city. General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia depended heavily on those transportation routes. For months, Union forces gradually extended their lines around Petersburg, attacking Confederate positions and cutting the rail connections that sustained Lee’s army.

The 211th Pennsylvania Infantry became part of these operations.

By the spring of 1865, Confederate defenses around Petersburg were under increasing pressure. Union forces had gained important advantages, and the final phase of the campaign was approaching.

On April 2, 1865, Federal troops launched a major assault against the Confederate lines.

Private John C. Ewing went forward with the 211th Pennsylvania Infantry.

The attack formed part of the breakthrough that finally shattered important sections of the Petersburg defenses. Union soldiers advanced against fortified Confederate positions while exposed to rifle and artillery fire. Once the defensive line began to give way, the fighting became a confused struggle as Federal troops entered positions that Confederate forces had held for months.

During this assault, Ewing captured an enemy battle flag.

His official Medal of Honor citation recorded the achievement simply as the “capture of flag.”

The short wording does not fully convey what such an act meant during Civil War combat. Regimental colors were among the most important objects carried on a battlefield. They marked the position of a unit, helped soldiers maintain formation amid smoke and confusion, and represented the honor and identity of the regiment.

Because battle flags were normally carried near the center of a formation and guarded closely, capturing one often required a soldier to enter the most dangerous part of the fighting.

Ewing succeeded in taking Confederate colors during the assault at Petersburg.

The action occurred at a decisive moment in the war.

The Union breakthrough on April 2 made the Confederate position at Petersburg increasingly impossible to maintain. Lee informed the Confederate government that Richmond and Petersburg would have to be evacuated.

That night, Confederate forces began withdrawing.

The fall of Petersburg directly contributed to the evacuation of Richmond, the Confederate capital. Lee’s army moved westward, attempting to escape Union pursuit and reach supplies that might allow it to continue fighting.

Only one week later, on April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House.

Ewing’s Medal of Honor action therefore occurred during the final major breakthrough that helped bring the principal fighting in Virginia to an end.

At the time, he was still a Private.

No higher verified military rank has been established for his service. His place in Medal of Honor history came from the personal courage of an enlisted infantryman who moved forward during an assault and captured an enemy flag.

Recognition followed quickly.

On May 20, 1865, less than two months after the action at Petersburg, John C. Ewing was presented with the Medal of Honor.

The decoration formally recognized what he had accomplished on April 2.

Unlike many Civil War recipients whose awards were issued decades after their actions, Ewing received his Medal of Honor while the events of the war were still recent. The Confederate military collapse had only just occurred, and Union forces were beginning the process of mustering out thousands of soldiers.

Ewing remained with Company E until the 211th Pennsylvania Infantry completed its wartime service. He was mustered out with his company in June 1865.

His military career had been relatively short compared with those who had served from the opening years of the war, but his service placed him at one of its most decisive moments.

He had entered the Army during the final year of the conflict and participated in the campaign that broke the defenses of Petersburg, forced the evacuation of Richmond, and helped bring Lee’s army toward surrender.

The Medal of Honor preserved his individual role in that larger military achievement.

After the war, Ewing returned to civilian life and lived for more than half a century. During those decades, the battlefields where he had fought became places of national memory, and the veterans of the Civil War gradually became representatives of a fading generation.

John C. Ewing died on May 23, 1918, in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. He was buried in Ligonier Valley Cemetery in Pennsylvania.

His military legacy remains centered on April 2, 1865.

During the final Union assault at Petersburg, Private Ewing advanced with the 211th Pennsylvania Infantry and captured an enemy battle flag as Confederate defenses were breaking apart.

The action earned him the Medal of Honor and permanently connected his name to the breakthrough that helped end the long struggle for Petersburg and accelerated the collapse of the Confederacy in Virginia.