John Henry Hays

He Seized a Confederate Standard in the War’s Final Days

John Henry Hays was born on August 4, 1844, in Jefferson County, Ohio. As the United States descended into civil war, he entered the Union Army and served as a Private in Company F of the 4th Iowa Cavalry. His military career would eventually carry him deep into the South and into one of the final major engagements of the Civil War, where a dramatic act on the battlefield earned him the Medal of Honor.

The 4th Iowa Cavalry spent much of the war operating in the Western Theater, where cavalry units were used for reconnaissance, raids, mounted combat, pursuit, and attacks against Confederate communications and supply networks. By 1865, Union cavalry forces were moving aggressively through the Deep South as Confederate military resistance weakened.

Hays remained a Private during his wartime service.

In the spring of 1865, he was serving with the forces participating in Major General James H. Wilson’s cavalry campaign through Alabama and Georgia. Wilson’s command moved rapidly against Confederate military and industrial targets, striking transportation centers, arsenals, factories, and defensive positions.

The campaign eventually brought Union cavalry toward Columbus, Georgia.

By April 1865, the wider war was approaching its conclusion. General Robert E. Lee had surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox on April 9, but Confederate forces remained in the field elsewhere, and fighting continued in several regions.

Columbus was still defended.

On April 16, 1865, Union cavalry attacked the Confederate positions around the city.

The engagement developed into one of the last significant land battles of the Civil War. Union soldiers had to overcome defended approaches and cross into positions held by Confederate troops. As cavalrymen fought through the defenses, the battle became close, confused, and dangerous.

Private John Henry Hays distinguished himself during that fighting.

In the midst of the action, he captured a Confederate standard and its bearer.

The exact historical identity of the captured flag has been described differently in later records, but the essential fact remains clear: Hays seized an enemy standard during the fighting at Columbus while also taking the man carrying it.

Capturing an enemy flag during the Civil War was an act of exceptional battlefield significance.

Regimental and battery standards served as rallying points for troops. In smoke, noise, and confusion, soldiers could look to their colors to locate their formation and maintain cohesion. The men who carried those flags were therefore highly visible and often placed in extreme danger.

To capture an enemy standard usually required reaching the center of an opposing formation.

Hays succeeded in doing exactly that.

His action occurred during a battle fought only days after Appomattox, when the larger conflict was rapidly collapsing but combat remained deadly for the soldiers still engaged in the field.

The war was nearly over.

The danger was not.

Hays’s conduct at Columbus was formally recognized by the United States Army. On June 17, 1865, he received the Medal of Honor for his actions during the battle.

His official citation recorded the capture of an enemy flag and its bearer.

No additional clasp, bar, star, or other device accompanied his Medal of Honor.

For Hays, the decoration represented the defining military achievement of his service. He had entered the Army as a young man and remained a Private, but rank did not determine the significance of what he accomplished on April 16, 1865.

His Medal of Honor recognized individual courage in the immediate violence of close combat.

After the Civil War, Hays returned to civilian life and eventually moved west.

He later settled in Idaho, where he became associated with the community of Troy. His public service did not end with his military career. In later life, Hays served as the town marshal of Troy, taking on a new responsibility for maintaining law and public order.

That role placed him once again in a position where personal courage could carry real consequences.

On January 27, 1904, John Henry Hays died in Troy, Idaho, while serving as town marshal.

He was buried at Moscow Cemetery in Moscow, Idaho.

His life therefore connected two very different forms of public service.

As a young Union cavalryman, he fought through the closing campaigns of the Civil War and earned the Medal of Honor by capturing an enemy standard and its bearer at Columbus.

Decades later, he continued serving his community in civilian law enforcement.

The preserved story of John Henry Hays is ultimately defined by the events of April 16, 1865.

The Civil War was in its final days. Major Confederate armies had already begun surrendering, yet soldiers at Columbus were still fighting, and the risks facing the men on the battlefield remained immediate.

In that final phase of the conflict, Private John Henry Hays advanced into the fighting and seized a Confederate standard.

The act earned him the Medal of Honor and secured his place among the soldiers whose courage was formally recognized by the United States during the closing chapter of the American Civil War.