John Keough

He Captured a Battle Flag in the War’s Final Days

John Keough, also recorded in historical military sources under the name Thomas Shannahan, was an Irish-born Union soldier whose courage during the closing days of the American Civil War earned him the Medal of Honor. Serving as a Corporal in Company E, 67th Pennsylvania Infantry, Keough distinguished himself on April 6, 1865, during the desperate fighting at Sailor’s Creek, Virginia, only three days before General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House.

Keough was born in Ireland around 1835. Details of his early life remain limited, but by the time of the Civil War he had made his way to the United States and entered military service. Records associated with his Medal of Honor identify him as having entered service at Albany, New York, while his award was later accredited to Annapolis, Maryland.

His military history contains an unusual identity detail. Medal of Honor records recognize him as John Keough, while other historical material links him to the name Thomas Shannahan. The surviving evidence supports treating John Keough as the name under which his Medal of Honor was officially recorded, while Thomas Shannahan remains an important alternate identity associated with his service.

By 1865, Keough was serving as a Corporal in Company E of the 67th Pennsylvania Infantry.

The regiment had endured years of war before reaching the final campaign against Lee’s army. In the spring of 1865, Union forces pressed relentlessly westward after breaking the Confederate defenses around Petersburg and Richmond. Lee’s army began retreating toward the west, hoping to escape the pursuing Union forces and obtain supplies before continuing south.

That retreat led to Sailor’s Creek.

On April 6, 1865, large portions of the Confederate army became trapped and attacked by Union forces near Sailor’s Creek and Deatonsville, Virginia. The battle developed into a series of violent engagements as Union infantry and cavalry struck retreating Confederate formations from several directions.

The 67th Pennsylvania Infantry fought as part of the Union Sixth Corps during the action.

Amid this chaotic battlefield, Corporal John Keough performed the act that would define his military legacy.

He captured the battle flag of the 50th Georgia Infantry.

Regimental colors were far more than pieces of cloth during the Civil War. They served as visual rallying points that helped soldiers maintain direction and cohesion amid smoke, noise, confusion, and rapidly changing battlefield conditions. To seize an enemy battle flag generally required a soldier to penetrate into the immediate area of the opposing color guard, where resistance was often intense.

Capturing such a flag therefore carried both tactical and symbolic importance.

Keough succeeded in taking the Confederate colors during the fighting on April 6.

His achievement was documented shortly afterward in official Army of the Potomac records. Reports listing Confederate flags captured during the campaign specifically credited Corporal John Keough of Company E, 67th Pennsylvania Volunteers, with taking a flag during the April 6 fighting.

The captured flag was identified as belonging to the 50th Georgia Infantry.

The act placed Keough among a group of Union soldiers whose battlefield achievements during the final campaign were quickly brought forward for recognition.

His official Medal of Honor citation remained characteristically brief.

It recorded the essential fact: he captured the battle flag of the 50th Georgia Infantry.

Behind that short sentence was the reality of close combat during one of the Confederacy’s final major battlefield disasters.

Sailor’s Creek became devastating for Lee’s army. Thousands of Confederate soldiers were captured, including senior officers, while entire formations were broken apart. The losses further reduced Lee’s already exhausted force and made continued organized resistance increasingly difficult.

For Keough, the battle represented the defining moment of his service.

Three days later, on April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House.

Keough therefore earned his distinction at the very end of the campaign that effectively destroyed the Army of Northern Virginia.

Recognition came remarkably quickly.

His Medal of Honor was issued in May 1865, only weeks after the action at Sailor’s Creek. Historical records distinguish between the official issue date and the later presentation date, but both place the award in May 1865.

John Keough received the Medal of Honor for capturing the Confederate battle flag during the April 6 engagement.

No additional clasp, bar, star, or other device accompanied the decoration.

Keough held the rank of Corporal when he performed the action, and Corporal remains his highest verified military rank.

Unlike many Civil War Medal of Honor recipients whose decorations were approved decades after their service, Keough was recognized while the memory of the campaign was still immediate.

His award came from an action witnessed and recorded during the Army of the Potomac’s final pursuit of Lee.

Much of Keough’s later life remains uncertain.

His exact death date and burial location have not been reliably established, and surviving records leave gaps in the story of what happened to him after the war.

What remains firmly documented is the moment that brought his name into American military history.

On April 6, 1865, as Union troops closed around a collapsing Confederate army at Sailor’s Creek, Corporal John Keough fought with the 67th Pennsylvania Infantry and captured the battle flag of the 50th Georgia Infantry.

It was an act performed in the final days of a war that had already consumed four years and hundreds of thousands of lives.

For that battlefield achievement, John Keough received the Medal of Honor, preserving his place among the Union soldiers whose courage helped bring the Civil War’s final Virginia campaign to its conclusion.