John S. Durham

He Carried the Colors Between Two Lines of Fire

John S. Durham was born on June 8, 1843, in New York City. His early life took an unusual course. As a young boy he left home and was taken in by a showman, after which he was known for a time as Mark Cromwell. Years later, with the United States divided by civil war, Durham entered military service and began the chapter of his life for which he would ultimately be remembered.

Durham joined Company F of the 1st Wisconsin Infantry in August 1861, entering the Union Army from Wisconsin. Serving in an infantry regiment, he rose to the rank of sergeant as the war carried his unit into major campaigns in the western theater.

On October 8, 1862, the 1st Wisconsin Infantry entered the Battle of Perryville in Kentucky. The fighting developed into a violent struggle as Union and Confederate forces collided across difficult ground. Regimental colors were vital on Civil War battlefields, helping soldiers identify their unit and maintain formation amid smoke, noise, and confusion. Because of their importance, the men who carried and protected the colors were exposed to exceptional danger.

During the battle, the color sergeant of Durham's regiment was shot. Seeing the flag fall at a critical moment, Sergeant Durham seized the colors himself. Instead of remaining behind the line, he carried the flag forward under a storm of shot, shell, and bullets.

Durham continued advancing until he reached a position midway between the opposing lines. There, still holding the regiment's colors while exposed to enemy fire, he was finally ordered by his commanding officer to stop. His decision to take up the fallen flag and advance with it under such dangerous conditions became the defining act of his Civil War service.

Durham remained with the 1st Wisconsin Infantry through the following years of the war. He completed his service and was mustered out in October 1864 after more than three years in the Union Army.

Recognition for his actions at Perryville came many years later. On November 20, 1896, John S. Durham was presented with the Medal of Honor. The decoration formally honored the courage he had shown more than three decades earlier when he seized his regiment's fallen flag and advanced with it into the deadly space between the opposing battle lines.

In his later years, Durham eventually entered the Soldiers' Home at Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1902. There he lived among other veterans whose lives had also been shaped by military service during the Civil War.

John S. Durham died at Leavenworth on January 12, 1918, at the age of seventy-four. He was buried at Leavenworth National Cemetery in Kansas.

His legacy rests on a moment when his regiment's colors fell and immediate action was required. At Perryville on October 8, 1862, Sergeant Durham picked up the flag, carried it forward through intense enemy fire, and continued toward the opposing line until ordered to halt. More than thirty years later, that act of courage was recognized with the Medal of Honor.