(MILITARY CIVIL WAR) MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENT Christian Abr

Sale 2308 - Lot 423

Unsold

Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 5,000

(MILITARY--CIVIL WAR.) MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENT. Christian Abraham Fleetwood. (supplied title.) Large cabinet card by Foster of Boston; 5-5/8 x 3-7/8 inches (image size.) Boston, circa 1880

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A rare image of an African American medal of honor recipient, possibly Christian A. Fleetwood (1840-1914), Sergeant Major Fourth U.S. Colored Infantry. Fleetwood was awarded the Medal of Honor for bravery at the battle of Chapin's Farm, 29 September 1864. Fleetwood seized the colors after two other color bearers had been shot. Born free in Baltimore, Fleetwood traveled to Liberia as a youth and graduated from the Ashmun Institute (later Lincoln University). Fleetwood was an able musician and editor. Following the war, he remained involved with the military and organized a battalion of National Guard in the District of Columbia in 1887. Fleetwood died just as World War I began. Daniel Murray, African American Librarian of Congress was among his pallbearers. Of the nearly 250,000 African American recruits who fought in the Civil War, only eighteen soldiers and seven sailors were recipients of the Medal of Honor. It is difficult to be certain about the identification of the soldier in this photograph, given that it was taken nearly twenty years after the War. It bears the closest resemblance to the only other existing image of Fleetwood taken circa 1865, and no resemblance to any other known image of other medal of honor recipients.