William A. Clark

Sixteen Men Faced 125 Cavalry—and Held the Line

William A. Clark was born on July 24, 1828, in Pennsylvania. By the opening years of the American Civil War, he had made his home in Minnesota and entered United States military service with Company H of the 2nd Minnesota Infantry. His wartime career would eventually carry him to the rank of sergeant, but it was an extraordinary defensive action while serving as a corporal that secured his place in American military history.

The 2nd Minnesota Infantry was organized for Union service early in the war and became involved in campaigns across the western theater. Its soldiers operated in a military environment where infantry units were frequently required not only to fight in major battles but also to guard roads, escort supplies, protect communications, and conduct foraging operations needed to sustain armies in the field.

On February 15, 1863, Clark was serving as a corporal when he joined a small detachment of sixteen men from Company H on duty near Nolensville, Tennessee. Their assignment involved a wagon train connected with a foraging operation. Such missions were essential to Civil War armies, which depended on enormous quantities of food, animal feed, and other supplies to remain operational.

The routine assignment suddenly became a serious combat situation when the small Union detachment was confronted by a much larger Confederate cavalry force. According to the official Medal of Honor citation, Clark was one of sixteen soldiers who defended the wagon train against an attack by 125 cavalrymen.

The disparity in numbers was enormous. The Union soldiers were outnumbered nearly eight to one, yet abandoning the position would have meant losing the wagon train and the supplies it carried. The detachment instead prepared to defend itself.

The fighting took place around a farmyard near Nolensville. The Union soldiers made use of available buildings and other cover while the Confederate cavalry attempted to overwhelm the position. Local historical accounts describe the attackers approaching through a confined lane, while Clark and his comrades used the farm structures to strengthen their defense.

Despite the numerical advantage held by the Confederate force, the sixteen Union soldiers maintained their position. Their resistance stopped the cavalry attack, protected the wagons, and prevented the train from being captured.

Clark’s official Medal of Honor citation summarized the achievement clearly: he was one of a detachment of sixteen men who heroically defended a wagon train against an attack by 125 cavalry, repulsed the attack, and saved the train.

The citation is brief, but the significance of the action is evident. Clark’s recognition was based not on an isolated act performed away from his comrades, but on his participation in a small-unit defense in which every soldier’s determination contributed to the survival of the detachment and the preservation of an important military resource.

The men involved in the Nolensville defense were recognized in military reports following the encounter. Their actions remained part of the history of Company H and the 2nd Minnesota Infantry even though formal recognition with the nation’s highest military decoration would not come for many years.

Clark continued his Union Army service after Nolensville. His wartime advancement eventually brought him to the rank of sergeant, the highest verified rank of his military career. The promotion reflected a progression from the corporal who had stood with the sixteen-man detachment in Tennessee to a more senior enlisted position before his service ended.

More than three decades passed before Clark’s conduct near Nolensville received the Medal of Honor. On September 11, 1897, he was presented with the decoration for his actions of February 15, 1863.

The long delay was not unusual among Civil War Medal of Honor recipients. Many soldiers whose battlefield actions had been documented during the war received formal recognition years or even decades afterward. In Clark’s case, the award ensured that the defense of the wagon train and the extraordinary stand made by the small detachment would remain part of the official history of the Medal of Honor.

The decoration also preserved an unusual example of Civil War heroism. Clark’s action was not a famous charge across an open battlefield or the capture of an enemy flag. Instead, it was a determined defensive stand by sixteen infantrymen tasked with protecting a supply train. Faced with 125 enemy cavalrymen, they refused to abandon their responsibility and successfully prevented the larger force from taking the wagons.

After the war, Clark lived for decades in Minnesota. His later life extended well into the twentieth century, allowing him to witness a period in which the Civil War passed from living national conflict into commemorated history and surviving veterans increasingly became the final personal links to the generation that had fought it.

William A. Clark died on January 9, 1916, in Mankato, Minnesota, at the age of eighty-seven. He was buried at Hebron Cemetery in Nicollet County, Minnesota.

Clark’s military legacy rests on the events near Nolensville more than half a century before his death. As a corporal of Company H, 2nd Minnesota Infantry, he stood among sixteen soldiers confronted by a force of 125 Confederate cavalrymen. Together they repelled the attack and saved their wagon train.

For that action, William A. Clark received the Medal of Honor. His story remains a striking example of how discipline, courage, and collective resistance by a very small group of soldiers could overcome overwhelming numerical odds during the American Civil War.