John Preston Donaldson

He Took the Enemy Flag on the War’s Final Day

John Preston Donaldson was born on August 14, 1842, in Butler County, Pennsylvania. When the American Civil War divided the United States, he entered Union service and became part of the 4th Pennsylvania Cavalry, a regiment that served with the Army of the Potomac through some of the war’s most demanding campaigns.

Donaldson served in Company L. By the closing period of the conflict, he held the rank of sergeant and was still in active service as Union forces pressed General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia westward through Virginia.

The spring of 1865 brought the Confederacy increasingly close to collapse.

After the fall of Petersburg and the evacuation of Richmond, Lee’s army attempted to retreat toward supplies and a possible route south. Union infantry and cavalry pursued aggressively, seeking to prevent the Confederate columns from escaping.

That pursuit reached its decisive conclusion at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.

For Sergeant John Preston Donaldson, that day became the defining moment of his military career.

Union cavalry played a critical role in closing the roads around Appomattox. Confederate troops were attempting to break through the Federal lines when they discovered that increasingly powerful Union forces were converging on their position.

During the fighting, Donaldson captured the flag of the 4th Virginia Cavalry.

His Medal of Honor citation would later preserve the achievement in direct terms: capture of the flag of the 4th Virginia Cavalry, Confederate States Army.

In Civil War combat, capturing an enemy flag was an extraordinary accomplishment.

Regimental colors were not simply ceremonial objects. In the smoke, noise, and confusion of battle, soldiers used their flags to locate their units and maintain formation. The colors represented the regiment itself and were normally defended by designated color bearers and nearby soldiers.

To seize an opposing unit’s flag usually required a soldier to reach the center of dangerous close-range fighting.

Donaldson succeeded in doing exactly that.

His action occurred on April 9, one of the most historic days of the Civil War. As fighting continued around Appomattox Court House, Lee recognized that his army was effectively surrounded and requested a meeting with Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant.

Later that day, Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia.

The surrender did not instantly end every military operation across the country, but Appomattox became the defining symbol of the Confederacy’s military collapse and the approaching end of the war.

Donaldson’s capture of the Confederate cavalry flag therefore came at an extraordinary moment: during the final combat surrounding one of the most consequential surrenders in American history.

His courage was recognized quickly.

On May 3, 1865, less than a month after the action at Appomattox, John Preston Donaldson was awarded the Medal of Honor.

At the time, the Medal of Honor was still a relatively new military decoration. Created during the Civil War, it had become the highest national recognition available for extraordinary military conduct.

Donaldson’s award honored a clear battlefield achievement—the capture of an enemy cavalry flag during the fighting at Appomattox Court House.

His service did not end with the rank he held during that action. Donaldson later attained the rank of Commissary Sergeant, the highest verified rank associated with his military career.

That distinction is important when considering his wartime record. He performed the action for which he received the Medal of Honor as a sergeant in Company L of the 4th Pennsylvania Cavalry, while his later advancement reflected his continued service and greater responsibilities.

Donaldson’s broader Union Army service was also represented by the Civil War Campaign Medal, a decoration established decades after the conflict to recognize qualifying military service during the war.

He lived long enough to see the Civil War become a distant memory and to witness the surviving veterans of both armies increasingly honored as part of the nation’s historical record.

The Civil War Campaign Medal represented that wider period of service, while the Medal of Honor preserved the single action that placed Donaldson among the most highly decorated soldiers of the conflict.

The two decorations therefore reflected different parts of his military story.

One recognized his participation in the Union war effort.

The other recognized the moment when he captured the colors of the 4th Virginia Cavalry on the day Lee surrendered at Appomattox.

Donaldson survived the war and lived for more than half a century afterward.

His later life eventually took him west from Pennsylvania. He spent his final years in Iowa, carrying with him the legacy of a cavalryman who had fought through the closing phase of the Civil War and whose courage had been recognized almost immediately after the conflict.

John Preston Donaldson died on January 7, 1920, in Dubuque, Iowa.

He was buried at Mars Hill Cemetery in Iowa.

By then, nearly fifty-five years had passed since the fighting at Appomattox Court House.

Yet the moment that defined his place in military history remained April 9, 1865.

As Union and Confederate cavalry fought during the final struggle around Appomattox, Sergeant John Preston Donaldson captured the flag of the 4th Virginia Cavalry.

Within weeks, he received the Medal of Honor.

His action occurred at the edge of the Civil War’s end, transforming a cavalry sergeant from Pennsylvania into one of the soldiers permanently associated with the final battlefield chapter of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.