Theodore L. Kramer

He Captured a Captain in the Assault

Theodore L. Kramer was born in 1847 in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. He came of age during the American Civil War, a conflict that transformed the nation and drew hundreds of thousands of men into military service. By 1864, Kramer was serving as a private in Company G of the 188th Pennsylvania Infantry, a Union regiment whose service would place him in operations against Confederate forces around Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia.

The 188th Pennsylvania Infantry was organized at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, in April 1864 from personnel associated with the 3rd Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery. Assigned to the Army of the James, the regiment quickly entered active campaigning. During 1864 it participated in operations south of the James River, fought in the Bermuda Hundred Campaign, served at Cold Harbor, and took part in the continuing siege operations against Petersburg and Richmond.

By late September, Union forces were preparing a major offensive north of the James River. The objective was to pressure the Confederate defenses protecting Richmond and potentially force General Robert E. Lee to divert troops from the Petersburg lines. The resulting fighting became known collectively as the Battle of Chaffin's Farm, with actions occurring around New Market Heights, Fort Harrison, and neighboring defensive positions.

On September 29, 1864, Kramer was serving with Company G when the 188th Pennsylvania Infantry became involved in the fighting at Chapin's Farm, Virginia. It was during this action that he performed the deed for which he would receive the Medal of Honor.

Kramer's official Medal of Honor citation is strikingly brief. It records that he took one of the first prisoners captured during the assault—and that the prisoner was a captain. Although the surviving citation provides few additional details, its simplicity should not obscure the circumstances in which the act occurred. Kramer was participating in an offensive against an entrenched enemy position during a major Union operation aimed at the defenses of Richmond.

Capturing an enemy officer during an active assault required Kramer to close with opposing troops while the battle was still developing. The fact that his prisoner was among the first taken indicates that Kramer was operating near the forward edge of the Union advance rather than after resistance had already collapsed. His action represented an immediate battlefield success during the opening stages of the engagement.

The wider fighting of September 29 produced an important Union breakthrough. Federal troops succeeded in capturing Fort Harrison, one of the major defensive works protecting Richmond. Elsewhere along the line, fierce fighting took place at New Market Heights and against additional Confederate fortifications. The engagements formed part of the continuing struggle to stretch and weaken the defenses of the Confederate capital.

Kramer's regiment remained in active service after the fighting at Chaffin's Farm. The 188th Pennsylvania Infantry continued operating in front of Richmond, later participating in the Battle of Fair Oaks in October 1864. During the final months of the war, the regiment remained connected to operations against Richmond before Union forces finally occupied the Confederate capital in April 1865.

Recognition of Kramer's conduct at Chapin's Farm came before the Civil War had formally ended. On April 6, 1865, he was presented with the Medal of Honor for his actions of September 29, 1864. He had performed the deed as a private of Company G, 188th Pennsylvania Infantry, and no higher military rank has been reliably established for his service.

The timing of the award placed it at a dramatic moment in the war. Only days after Kramer received the Medal of Honor, Confederate forces under Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House, effectively bringing the principal fighting in Virginia to an end. The decoration permanently connected Kramer's name with the Union assault near Richmond during the final year of the conflict.

After the war, Kramer lived for more than four decades. Unlike many Medal of Honor recipients whose recognition came years after their actions, he received his decoration while the conflict was still underway and was able to carry that distinction throughout his postwar life.

Theodore L. Kramer died on March 2, 1910, in Chicago, Illinois. He was buried at Arlington Cemetery in Elmhurst, Illinois.

His military record is remembered above all for a single documented moment at Chapin's Farm. Serving as a private in the 188th Pennsylvania Infantry, Kramer moved with the Union assault and captured one of its earliest prisoners, an opposing captain. The official record preserves the achievement without embellishment, and it was that action on September 29, 1864, that earned him the Medal of Honor and secured his place among the decorated soldiers of the American Civil War.