Wesley Gibbs

He Captured the Enemy Flag at Sailor’s Creek

Wesley Gibbs was born on July 24, 1842, in Sharon, Connecticut. He grew up in Litchfield County and was working as a farmer when the American Civil War transformed the lives of thousands of young men across the state. As the conflict continued and the Union expanded its armies, Gibbs entered military service and became a member of Company B, 2nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery.

The regiment had originally been organized as the 19th Connecticut Infantry before being redesignated as the 2nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery in November 1863. Despite its artillery designation, the regiment was ultimately employed as infantry in active field operations. It joined the Army of the Potomac’s VI Corps and became involved in some of the most demanding campaigns of the final year of the Civil War.

Gibbs served as a sergeant in Company B. His responsibilities placed him among the noncommissioned officers who helped maintain discipline and effectiveness within the ranks. By 1864 and 1865, the 2nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery was functioning as a battle-tested infantry regiment, taking part in operations in Virginia as Union forces pressed Confederate armies toward eventual defeat.

During the closing stages of the war, the regiment entered the Appomattox Campaign. After the breakthrough of the Confederate defenses around Petersburg on April 2, 1865, Union forces pursued General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia westward. The retreating Confederate army was under enormous pressure as Union infantry and cavalry attempted to block its escape and prevent it from reaching supplies farther west.

The pursuit produced a series of engagements that culminated in heavy fighting around Sailor’s Creek on April 6, 1865. The battle became one of the final disasters suffered by Lee’s army before the surrender at Appomattox Court House three days later.

During the fighting on April 6, Sergeant Wesley Gibbs captured a Confederate battle flag.

The surviving official recognition of his action is remarkably concise: “Capture of flag.” Yet the historical context gives the act its significance. Civil War battle flags were central to battlefield organization. Regiments used them as visible rallying points amid smoke, noise, and confusion, and they symbolized the identity and cohesion of the units that carried them. Capturing an enemy flag required reaching a point where the opposing formation was being directly contested, often under intense fire and at close range.

Gibbs’s capture occurred while the 2nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery was engaged during the final pursuit of Confederate forces. Reports associated with the regiment and its commanders identify his flag capture with the fighting of April 6 at Little Sailor’s Creek. His action was one of several notable acts performed by men of the regiment during the Appomattox Campaign.

The broader battle proved devastating to the Confederate army. Large numbers of Confederate troops were cut off and captured, including senior officers. The losses at Sailor’s Creek further weakened Lee’s ability to continue organized resistance. President Abraham Lincoln’s armies were closing rapidly around the remaining Confederate forces, and within days the war in Virginia would effectively end.

For Gibbs, however, the significance of April 6 was deeply personal. His capture of the enemy colors brought formal recognition from the United States government. He was awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military decoration, for his conduct in battle.

The Medal of Honor was presented to Wesley Gibbs on May 10, 1865, little more than a month after the action and shortly after the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia. His award recognized him specifically for the capture of a Confederate flag while serving as a sergeant in Company B of the 2nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery.

The timing of the award placed Gibbs among those Civil War soldiers whose acts of valor were recognized almost immediately after the conflict’s decisive final campaign. Unlike many recipients who waited decades for their actions to be reviewed and acknowledged, Gibbs received his Medal of Honor within weeks of the event.

His wartime story also reflects the unusual evolution of his regiment. The 2nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery had been organized for a role associated with the operation and defense of heavy guns, yet it became a frontline infantry regiment. Its soldiers fought in difficult field campaigns, and by April 1865 they were participating directly in the pursuit that ended Lee’s army.

After the war, Gibbs returned to civilian life in Connecticut. He lived for more than half a century after the events at Sailor’s Creek, carrying with him the distinction of being a Medal of Honor recipient from one of the Civil War’s final major engagements.

He died on May 29, 1917, in Winsted, Connecticut, at the age of seventy-four. He was buried at Forest View Cemetery in Winsted.

Wesley Gibbs’s legacy rests on a brief official citation but a significant battlefield achievement. As Union forces pursued a collapsing Confederate army through Virginia, he captured an enemy battle flag during the fighting at Little Sailor’s Creek on April 6, 1865. The act placed him among the soldiers recognized for exceptional courage during the final days of the Civil War.

His Medal of Honor preserved that moment permanently. Though the official citation contains only a few words, those words record an action performed at the heart of a battle that helped bring the Army of Northern Virginia to the brink of surrender. Sergeant Wesley Gibbs entered the final campaign as one soldier among thousands in the VI Corps; he emerged from it with an act of valor that secured his place in American military history.