John Frederick Hartranft

What kind of soldier stays on the battlefield after his term of service has already expired? John Frederick Hartranft did exactly that at the First Battle of Bull Run , and the decision would ultimately earn him the Medal of Honor. Yet Bull Run was only the beginning of an extraordinary career that carried Hartranft through some of the American Civil War's hardest fighting, the final defense of Petersburg, the imprisonment of Abraham Lincoln's assassination conspirators, and eventually the governorship of Pennsylvania.

Born on December 16, 1830, in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania , John Frederick Hartranft studied at Marshall College before attending Union College, where he trained in civil engineering and graduated in 1853. He initially worked as a railroad civil engineer, later served as deputy sheriff of Montgomery County, and was admitted to the bar in 1860. By the outbreak of the American Civil War, Hartranft had also risen to the rank of colonel in the local militia.

In April 1861, Hartranft raised a regiment of ninety-day Pennsylvania volunteers and became colonel of the 4th Pennsylvania Militia . Their enlistments expired just before the First Battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861. While the regiment departed, Hartranft made the decision that would define his military legacy. He remained with the Union Army and volunteered his services during the battle.

More than twenty-five years later, on August 26, 1886 , Hartranft received the Medal of Honor for what he had done that day. His official Medal of Honor citation records that he voluntarily served as an aide after his term of service had expired, took part in the battle, and distinguished himself by rallying several regiments that had fallen into confusion. The Congressional Medal of Honor Society records his rank for the action as Colonel, 4th Pennsylvania Militia, and identifies Bull Run, Virginia, as the place of action.

Hartranft could have allowed Bull Run to become the defining episode of his war. Instead, he returned to Pennsylvania and raised another command, the 51st Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry , beginning a combat career that would span multiple theaters of the Civil War. He fought at the Second Battle of Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Vicksburg, Campbell's Station, and Knoxville. He also participated in the Wilderness and Spotsylvania campaigns and in the operations against Richmond and Petersburg.

His rise through the ranks reflected increasingly important battlefield commands. Hartranft was promoted to brigadier general in May 1864 and commanded brigades and divisions during the closing stages of the war. His most celebrated later battlefield achievement came on March 25, 1865, at the Battle of Fort Stedman , during Robert E. Lee's final major offensive against the Union lines surrounding Petersburg. Hartranft's forces played a crucial role in defeating the Confederate attack. The National Archives records that he was subsequently brevetted major general for his actions at Fort Stedman.

But Hartranft's connection to one of the darkest chapters of American history came after the battlefield fighting had nearly ended.

Following the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in April 1865 , Hartranft was appointed Special Provost Marshal in Washington, D.C. He commanded the military prison at the Washington Arsenal where the accused Lincoln assassination conspirators were held during their trial. His responsibilities extended through the imprisonment and the execution of four convicted conspirators on July 7, 1865. Records relating to Hartranft's role survive in National Archives Record Group 393 and are held through the Pennsylvania State Archives.

Hartranft's public life did not end when he removed his wartime uniform. After leaving active military service, he entered Pennsylvania politics and government. He served as the Commonwealth's Auditor General , and in 1872 he was elected Governor of Pennsylvania . His years in state leadership coincided with serious economic and labor unrest, including the great railroad disturbances of 1877 and conflicts associated with the Molly Maguires in Pennsylvania's anthracite coal regions. Hartranft used state forces during periods of disorder, but after peace was restored he also advocated recognition of labor unions and arbitration as a means of resolving disputes. His administration supported education, municipal reform, banking regulation, industrial development, and the reorganization of Pennsylvania's military forces.

One institution remained especially important to him: the Pennsylvania National Guard . Hartranft had worked to strengthen and reorganize Pennsylvania's military establishment, and after his governorship he was appointed Major General commanding the Pennsylvania National Guard. Pennsylvania State Archives records preserve material concerning both his Civil War service and his later National Guard career.

The Medal of Honor finally recognized Hartranft's first great act of wartime courage in 1886. The award came twenty-five years after Bull Run, but its citation captured the quality that had followed him throughout his career: when his formal obligation ended, Hartranft chose to remain where he believed he was needed.

Brevet Major General John Frederick Hartranft died in Norristown, Pennsylvania, on October 17, 1889 , at the age of fifty-eight. By then his life had intersected with some of the defining events of nineteenth-century America. He had been a volunteer at Bull Run, a regimental commander at Antietam, a general in the Petersburg Campaign, a key figure during the detention of Lincoln's assassination conspirators, a Pennsylvania governor, and a commander of the Pennsylvania National Guard.

Hartranft's legacy, however, begins with a remarkably simple choice made on July 21, 1861. His enlistment had expired. He was free to leave. He stayed and fought. That decision placed John Frederick Hartranft among the Medal of Honor recipients of the American Civil War and began the remarkable public career of one of Pennsylvania's most distinguished citizen-soldiers.