Richard Taylor

He Captured the Enemy Flag at Cedar Creek

Richard Taylor was born in 1834 in Madison County, Alabama. During the American Civil War, he entered Union service and became a private in Company E of the 18th Indiana Infantry, a regiment that would campaign across several major theaters of the conflict.

Taylor enlisted in 1861, during the first year of the war. Like thousands of other Union volunteers, he entered military service at a time when neither side yet knew how long or destructive the conflict would become.

The 18th Indiana Infantry developed into an experienced fighting regiment. Its soldiers served through demanding campaigns in the western and trans-Mississippi theaters before later operations brought the regiment east.

Taylor remained with the Army through years of campaigning and eventually reenlisted, extending his service beyond his original term.

By the autumn of 1864, he was serving in Virginia during the Union campaign through the Shenandoah Valley.

The valley was strategically important because it served as an agricultural region, transportation corridor, and invasion route between Virginia and the North. In 1864, Union forces under Major General Philip Sheridan conducted operations designed to defeat Confederate forces in the valley and prevent the region from continuing to support the Confederate war effort.

On October 19, 1864, the two armies clashed at Cedar Creek.

The battle began with a powerful Confederate surprise attack that drove much of the Union army from its positions. During the morning, Federal units were forced back as Confederate troops captured ground, artillery, and supplies.

The situation changed later in the day.

Union forces reorganized and launched a major counterattack. What had begun as a Confederate success turned into a Union victory as Sheridan's troops advanced across the battlefield and forced their opponents into retreat.

Private Richard Taylor distinguished himself during this fighting.

In the midst of the Battle of Cedar Creek, Taylor captured an enemy flag.

His official Medal of Honor citation records the achievement in only a few words: “Capture of flag.”

The brevity of the citation does not lessen the danger represented by the act.

During the Civil War, regimental colors were among the most important objects carried onto a battlefield. Soldiers used them to locate their units through smoke, confusion, and rapidly changing formations. The colors also represented the identity and honor of the regiment carrying them.

For that reason, flags were normally protected by a color guard and defended fiercely. Capturing an enemy standard often required a soldier to advance directly into the most dangerous part of an opposing formation.

Taylor succeeded in taking one during the fighting at Cedar Creek.

The surviving authoritative Medal of Honor record does not securely identify the exact Confederate regiment to which the captured flag belonged. What is certain is that Taylor's act occurred during one of the decisive moments of a battle that ended with a major Union victory.

Recognition followed rapidly.

On November 21, 1864, just over a month after Cedar Creek, Richard Taylor received the Medal of Honor for his battlefield conduct.

Unlike many Civil War veterans whose decorations were approved decades after the events for which they were cited, Taylor's Medal of Honor came while the war was still being fought.

His military service did not end with the award.

Taylor continued serving until the closing months of the conflict and remained in uniform after the principal Confederate armies had surrendered. He was finally mustered out on August 28, 1865.

He returned to civilian life after completing approximately four years of wartime service.

Taylor spent his later years in Indiana. The details of much of his postwar life are less extensively preserved than the record of his military service, but the distinction he earned at Cedar Creek remained permanently associated with his name.

He died on February 23, 1890, in Washington, Indiana.

He was buried in St. John's Cemetery in Washington, an area later incorporated into Pioneer Park.

Richard Taylor's Medal of Honor legacy rests on a direct and unmistakable battlefield achievement. During the Battle of Cedar Creek on October 19, 1864, while serving as a private in Company E of the 18th Indiana Infantry, he captured an enemy flag in the midst of one of the most dramatic battles of the Shenandoah Valley campaign.

For that action, Richard Taylor received the Medal of Honor and earned a lasting place among the decorated infantrymen of the American Civil War.