Stephen Potter Corliss

He Carried the Fallen Colors Into the Enemy Works

Stephen Potter Corliss was born on July 26, 1842, in Albany, New York. During the American Civil War, he entered the United States Army and began a military career that would take him from artillery service to battlefield command, captivity, promotion, and ultimately the Medal of Honor.

Corliss enlisted on August 12, 1862, and initially served with the 11th New York Light Artillery. As the war continued, his responsibilities increased. On June 26, 1864, he received a commission as a second lieutenant in the 4th New York Heavy Artillery, a regiment that, despite its designation, was frequently employed in an infantry role during some of the hardest fighting of the war.

His service soon brought him into serious danger. On August 25, 1864, during the Second Battle of Ream’s Station in Virginia, Corliss was captured by Confederate forces. He remained a prisoner of war for several months before returning to Union lines near the end of December.

After his return, his military career continued. He advanced to first lieutenant and resumed duty with the 4th New York Heavy Artillery. By the spring of 1865, the Confederacy’s position around Petersburg and Richmond was rapidly deteriorating, and Union forces were pressing aggressively against the remaining defensive lines.

On April 2, 1865, Corliss and his regiment were engaged in fighting near the South Side Railroad in Virginia, in the area associated with the Battle of Sutherland’s Station. The railroad was strategically important because it served as one of the principal supply and escape routes available to Confederate forces around Petersburg.

Union troops launched repeated attacks against Confederate positions. The fighting was intense, and earlier assaults had failed to carry the defenses.

During the advance, the color sergeant of Corliss’s regiment was killed.

The regimental colors fell.

Corliss immediately picked them up.

Carrying the flag himself, he moved ahead of his troops and advanced toward the Confederate works. Instead of remaining behind the line and directing others forward, he placed himself at the front of the assault.

With the colors in his hands, Corliss pressed toward the enemy position and succeeded in planting the flag on the Confederate works.

His action gave the men around him a visible point to rally toward. The regimental colors were more than ceremonial objects during the Civil War. They helped soldiers identify their unit, maintain direction in confusion, and preserve cohesion when formations broke apart under fire. To carry them at the front of an assault meant becoming an obvious target.

Corliss accepted that danger and continued forward.

His Medal of Honor recognition later focused precisely on that act: taking up the colors after the color bearer had fallen, advancing ahead of the troops, and placing the flag upon the enemy works.

The action came at a critical moment in the final phase of the war. Union forces were breaking through the Confederate defensive system around Petersburg, forcing General Robert E. Lee’s army to abandon both Petersburg and Richmond. Only days later, the retreat would end at Appomattox Court House.

Corliss survived the battle and continued his service. His wartime record eventually carried him to the brevet rank of colonel, the highest verified rank associated with his military career. The brevet reflected recognition of his service, while his substantive rank at the time of his Medal of Honor action remained first lieutenant.

Nearly thirty years passed before his conduct on April 2, 1865, received the nation’s highest military decoration.

On January 17, 1895, Stephen Potter Corliss was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions near the South Side Railroad. The award recognized the moment when he seized the fallen colors, moved forward in front of his men, and planted them on the enemy defenses.

The Medal of Honor had been created during the Civil War, and many soldiers received recognition only years or decades after the actions for which they were honored. Corliss became one of those veterans whose battlefield courage was formally acknowledged long after the conflict had ended.

After the war, he returned to civilian life. His later years were far removed from the battlefield where he had carried the colors forward, but his military service remained permanently recorded through his regiment, his wartime rank, and the Medal of Honor.

Corliss died on May 9, 1904, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He was buried in Albany Rural Cemetery in Albany, New York.

His legacy is closely tied to the meaning of a regimental flag in Civil War combat. When the color bearer fell and the flag dropped, Corliss did not allow it to remain on the ground. He picked it up and carried it forward himself.

He did not merely preserve the colors.

He used them to lead.

By advancing ahead of his troops and planting the flag on the Confederate works, Stephen Potter Corliss turned a moment of loss into a rallying point for the men around him. That act of battlefield leadership became the defining moment of his military career and ultimately earned him the Medal of Honor.