William Henry Freeman

When the Color Bearer Fell, He Stepped Forward

William Henry Freeman was born on May 10, 1844, in Troy, New York. He came of age as the United States was being torn apart by the Civil War, and in 1862 he entered Union service as a private in Company B of the 169th New York Infantry. The regiment, recruited largely from communities around Troy and Rensselaer County, became known as the Troy Regiment and entered federal service for a three-year term.

During Freeman’s years in uniform, the 169th served across a remarkably wide geographic area. The regiment performed duty in the defenses of Washington, campaigned in Virginia, operated along the South Carolina coast, served in Florida, and later returned to Virginia for the hard fighting of 1864. It participated in operations connected with Bermuda Hundred, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, and other major actions before being selected for the expedition against Fort Fisher in North Carolina.

By January 1865, Fort Fisher had become one of the most important remaining Confederate coastal strongholds. It guarded the approaches to Wilmington, North Carolina, a vital port still used by blockade runners carrying supplies into the Confederacy. Union forces had failed to capture the fort in December 1864, but a second expedition returned in January with a renewed naval bombardment and a large ground assault.

Freeman was serving as a private and acting as the orderly of Colonel Alonzo Alden during the second attack. Alden was then commanding a brigade involved in the assault on the fort. On January 15, Union troops pressed into Fort Fisher’s defenses in fierce close combat as the position began to give way.

During this critical stage of the battle, the brigade flag required a new bearer after the man carrying it was wounded. Freeman volunteered to take the colors. His official Medal of Honor citation later reduced the deed to a single direct sentence: he volunteered to carry the brigade flag after the bearer was wounded.

Carrying a military flag in Civil War combat was far more than a ceremonial responsibility. Colors helped soldiers identify their formations through smoke, confusion, and broken lines, while also serving as visible rallying points during advances. The men who carried them were especially exposed because the flags made their position obvious on the battlefield. Freeman stepped into that role during the assault on one of the Confederacy’s strongest remaining fortifications.

Colonel Alden later remembered the moment as one of particular courage. As Union troops pushed through the fort, Alden called for someone to take the brigade colors, and Freeman, his orderly, volunteered. The action placed the young private in a conspicuous and dangerous position while the battle was still underway.

The fall of Fort Fisher was a major Union victory. With the fort captured, Confederate control of the Cape Fear River approaches was broken, placing Wilmington in an increasingly untenable position. For the 169th New York, however, the victory brought further tragedy. On January 16, the day after the successful assault, a magazine inside the fort exploded, killing and wounding numerous Union soldiers.

Colonel Alden was among those badly injured in the explosion. Freeman’s service to his commander did not end with the fighting. He remained with the wounded colonel during the difficult period that followed, helping care for him while he was delirious and severely injured. Freeman stayed with Alden through several days in a temporary field hospital and accompanied him during the journey north toward New York.

The 169th New York continued in service after Fort Fisher. The regiment advanced with Union forces toward Wilmington and later remained in North Carolina as the war drew to a close. It was finally mustered out at Raleigh on July 19, 1865. Freeman left the Army still holding the rank of Private, the same formal rank he had held when he carried the brigade colors at Fort Fisher.

After returning home, Freeman resumed civilian life in Troy. He worked as a brass molder and later was employed at the Post Office. Like many Civil War veterans, he lived for decades after the conflict before the battlefield deed for which he became best known received formal national recognition.

On May 27, 1905, more than forty years after the assault on Fort Fisher, William Henry Freeman received the Medal of Honor. He was still alive when the decoration was presented. The award recognized specifically what he had done on January 15, 1865: volunteering to carry the brigade flag after its bearer was wounded.

The Medal of Honor had originated during the Civil War as the United States developed a national system for recognizing extraordinary military conduct. In Freeman’s case, the long interval between the battle and the award did not alter the basis for recognition. The decoration honored one clearly identified act during combat at Fort Fisher rather than his service record as a whole.

Freeman lived for another six years after receiving the Medal of Honor. He died on August 26, 1911, in Troy, New York, and was buried in Oakwood Cemetery, the same city in which his life had begun.

His connection to Fort Fisher continued long after his death. In 2011, members of his family donated his Medal of Honor, a wartime tintype photograph, and other personal items to the Fort Fisher State Historic Site Museum in North Carolina. The collection preserved both the decoration and an authentic image of the soldier whose courage had become part of the fort’s history.

William Henry Freeman’s legacy rests on a simple but dangerous decision. When the brigade colors needed another bearer during the final assault on Fort Fisher, a private from Troy stepped forward and took them. Four decades later, the United States formally recognized that moment with the Medal of Honor, ensuring that his act during the closing months of the Civil War would not be forgotten.