Nathaniel C. Barker

He Carried Two Flags Through the Fire of Spotsylvania

Nathaniel C. Barker (September 28, 1836 – March 7, 1904) was an American Civil War soldier and Medal of Honor recipient who distinguished himself during the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House in Virginia. Serving as a sergeant in Company E of the 11th New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry, he voluntarily carried both of his regiment's battle flags after successive color bearers had fallen under enemy fire on May 12, 1864. His actions earned him the Medal of Honor in 1897, more than three decades after the battle.

Barker was born in Piermont, Grafton County, New Hampshire, the son of Samuel Barker, a carpenter, and Sarah Jackson Barker. He grew up in New Hampshire and received his early education in local schools. At approximately sixteen years of age, he moved to Manchester, where he found employment in the cotton mills. His family also maintained connections with Manchester during the years preceding the American Civil War.

When the conflict began in 1861, Barker was living in New Hampshire. On August 21, 1862, he enlisted in the Union Army and was mustered into Company E of the 11th New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry on August 29, receiving the rank of corporal.

The 11th New Hampshire was organized during the summer of 1862 and entered federal service as Union military operations expanded across the Eastern and Western Theaters. During its service, the regiment participated in major campaigns in Virginia, Mississippi, and Tennessee, including the Battle of Fredericksburg, operations around Vicksburg, and the Knoxville Campaign.

Barker's military career advanced during this period. On August 30, 1863, he was promoted to sergeant, assuming greater responsibility within Company E. By the spring of 1864, his regiment had returned to Virginia and joined the Army of the Potomac during Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign against General Robert E. Lee's Confederate army.

The campaign began with severe fighting in the Wilderness in early May 1864. Union and Confederate forces subsequently moved toward Spotsylvania Court House, where Lee's army occupied a fortified defensive line. The Confederate positions included extensive earthworks, trenches, and a prominent projecting section known as the Mule Shoe Salient.

On May 12, Union forces launched a major assault against the Confederate defenses. The attack initially achieved a breakthrough but developed into prolonged fighting as Confederate troops attempted to recover their positions. The struggle became especially intense near the portion of the battlefield later known as the Bloody Angle.

The 11th New Hampshire Infantry participated in the fighting that day. As the regiment advanced and exchanged fire with Confederate troops, its color bearers suffered repeated casualties. The national and state colors were important identifying symbols carried near the center of the regiment's formation, and the soldiers responsible for them were exposed to danger during the engagement.

Sergeant Barker witnessed the national color bearer fall after being struck during the fighting. He stepped forward and picked up the fallen flag, assuming responsibility for carrying it while the battle continued.

Shortly afterward, the soldier carrying the regiment's state colors was also shot down. Barker recovered that flag as well, leaving him responsible for both standards.

Despite the continuing danger, Barker carried the national and state colors through the remainder of the engagement. His actions preserved both flags during a period when successive color bearers had been struck by enemy fire.

The official Medal of Honor citation recorded that six color bearers had been killed before Barker voluntarily assumed responsibility for the flags. Contemporary War Department correspondence described the earlier casualties as killed or wounded, a distinction that appears in the surviving historical accounts. Both records confirm Barker's decision to take up and carry the two flags during the battle.

In a later newspaper interview, Barker described how he had recovered the national colors before seeing the bearer of the second flag fall. He explained that he carried both standards for the remainder of the fighting and surrendered them to newly appointed color bearers the following day.

Barker continued serving with the 11th New Hampshire after Spotsylvania. During the fighting around Cold Harbor, Virginia, on June 7, 1864, he was wounded by a rifle ball that struck his hip.

Following his injury, Barker received medical treatment at a field hospital before being transferred to a military hospital in Washington, D.C. His wound interrupted his active service, and he eventually returned to New Hampshire. He was formally discharged from the Union Army on May 25, 1865.

After the war, Barker resumed civilian life in New Hampshire. He worked for approximately eighteen months as a turnkey at the Hillsborough County Jail, a position involving responsibility for prisoners and the supervision of jail facilities.

Barker married Wealtha Ann Melvin, and the couple had a son, Edgar C. Barker, born in 1867. By 1870, the family was living in Piermont, where census records identified Barker as a merchant.

Later that year, Barker moved with his family to Somerville, Massachusetts. He became associated with the city's fire service, joining a hook-and-ladder company and eventually attaining the position of assistant chief in the Somerville Fire Department. His later municipal responsibilities also included work connected with the city's street-watering department.

Barker maintained connections with fellow Civil War veterans through the Grand Army of the Republic. He was associated with Willard C. Kinsley Post No. 139 in Somerville, an organization that brought together former Union servicemen.

More than thirty-three years after the Battle of Spotsylvania, Barker received formal recognition for his wartime gallantry. On September 23, 1897, the Medal of Honor was recorded as awarded to him for voluntarily taking both regimental flags and carrying them through the remainder of the battle on May 12, 1864.

His recognition was also marked by a presentation ceremony in Boston in October 1897, organized under the auspices of the Massachusetts Association of New Hampshire Veterans. Fellow veterans, family members, and invited guests attended the gathering, where Barker received his decoration in recognition of his conduct at Spotsylvania.

Barker continued living in Somerville during his later years. He died there on March 7, 1904, at the age of sixty-seven.

His remains were returned to New Hampshire for burial at Last Rest Cemetery in Merrimack, where he was interred in Section B, Lot 17. His wife, Wealtha, who died in 1908, was also buried in the cemetery.

Nathaniel C. Barker's documented military distinction rests upon his actions at Spotsylvania on May 12, 1864. His Medal of Honor, contemporary accounts of the battle, and his own recollections preserve the circumstances in which he voluntarily carried the national and state colors of the 11th New Hampshire Infantry after their previous bearers had fallen.