BLANDFORD HISTORICAL SOCIETY PRESENTS…
DID YOU KNOW?
Charles A. Taggart (1843-1937)
Few wartime trophies have followed a path as unusual as the flag tied to Charles A. Taggart -- seized on a Virginia battlefield, preserved through his long life, and eventually returned to Blandford by a childhood friend who believed it belonged home.
Born in Blandford on January 17, 1843, Charles A. Taggart came of age in a family shaped by hardship. His father died early and his mother was in failing health. At 19, he enlisted in the Union Army, joining Company B of the 37th Massachusetts Infantry, one of the western Massachusetts regiments sent south as the Civil War intensified.
Wounded at Gettysburg and Beyond
Taggart’s service quickly placed him in some of the war’s fiercest fighting. Two years before earning the nation’s highest military honor, he was already facing heavy fire at the Battle of Gettysburg.
The 37th Massachusetts arrived near Little Round Top during the battle, where Confederate artillery struck advancing Union troops. Local historical records note that Taggart was among eight men in his company wounded there.
For nearly three years, Taggart fought with his regiment, enduring repeated wounds, as they pushed deeper into Confederate territory.
Heroism in the War’s Final Week
Taggart’s defining act came only three days before the end of the war.
During fierce fighting at the Battle of Sailor's Creek in Virginia, Taggart advanced under heavy fire, captured part of a Confederate battle flag, and brought it back to his commanding officer. At the time, battle flags were prized military symbols, marking regiments in combat and representing unit honor. Capturing one often required charging directly into enemy lines.
For that act of bravery, Taggart received the Medal of Honor, recognizing extraordinary courage during combat.
A Piece of History Kept by Taggart Finds Its Way Home
After the war, area officials wanted the flag back. According to local accounts, a deal was struck. The tassel and a patch from the captured flag was cut away and sewn onto a newly made Confederate flag for his personal collection. That unusual keepsake remained one of Taggart’s most treasured possessions for the rest of his life.
Taggart lived to the age of 94, outliving many of his fellow veterans. He had lost his wife early in marriage and spent his later years without close family nearby, eventually living in a veterans’ home in Dayton, Ohio not far from his final resting place.
When he died, a longtime friend from Albany, New York learned that no one had claimed his belongings. That friend gathered Taggart’s personal effects, and returned them to his hometown.
Today, at the Blandford Historical Society, visitors can still see his preserved collection -- including his Medal of Honor, the unusual Confederate flag, his mess kit, bayonet and more - a reminder that a young hilltown soldier carried Blandford’s name through some of the nation’s most defining moments, and why Blandford is a small town with a big history.
DID YOU KNOW?
Charles A. Taggart (1843-1937)
Few wartime trophies have followed a path as unusual as the flag tied to Charles A. Taggart -- seized on a Virginia battlefield, preserved through his long life, and eventually returned to Blandford by a childhood friend who believed it belonged home.
Born in Blandford on January 17, 1843, Charles A. Taggart came of age in a family shaped by hardship. His father died early and his mother was in failing health. At 19, he enlisted in the Union Army, joining Company B of the 37th Massachusetts Infantry, one of the western Massachusetts regiments sent south as the Civil War intensified.
Wounded at Gettysburg and Beyond
Taggart’s service quickly placed him in some of the war’s fiercest fighting. Two years before earning the nation’s highest military honor, he was already facing heavy fire at the Battle of Gettysburg.
The 37th Massachusetts arrived near Little Round Top during the battle, where Confederate artillery struck advancing Union troops. Local historical records note that Taggart was among eight men in his company wounded there.
For nearly three years, Taggart fought with his regiment, enduring repeated wounds, as they pushed deeper into Confederate territory.
Heroism in the War’s Final Week
Taggart’s defining act came only three days before the end of the war.
During fierce fighting at the Battle of Sailor's Creek in Virginia, Taggart advanced under heavy fire, captured part of a Confederate battle flag, and brought it back to his commanding officer. At the time, battle flags were prized military symbols, marking regiments in combat and representing unit honor. Capturing one often required charging directly into enemy lines.
For that act of bravery, Taggart received the Medal of Honor, recognizing extraordinary courage during combat.
A Piece of History Kept by Taggart Finds Its Way Home
After the war, area officials wanted the flag back. According to local accounts, a deal was struck. The tassel and a patch from the captured flag was cut away and sewn onto a newly made Confederate flag for his personal collection. That unusual keepsake remained one of Taggart’s most treasured possessions for the rest of his life.
Taggart lived to the age of 94, outliving many of his fellow veterans. He had lost his wife early in marriage and spent his later years without close family nearby, eventually living in a veterans’ home in Dayton, Ohio not far from his final resting place.
When he died, a longtime friend from Albany, New York learned that no one had claimed his belongings. That friend gathered Taggart’s personal effects, and returned them to his hometown.
Today, at the Blandford Historical Society, visitors can still see his preserved collection -- including his Medal of Honor, the unusual Confederate flag, his mess kit, bayonet and more - a reminder that a young hilltown soldier carried Blandford’s name through some of the nation’s most defining moments, and why Blandford is a small town with a big history.
Here’s an exciting update to our Civil War story about Blandford’s hometown hero, Charles A. Taggart.
Taggart earned the Medal of Honor for capturing an enemy flag at the Battle of Sailor’s Creek, Virginia, on April 6, 1865, three days before the end of the war. As previously recounted, small pieces of that original flag were later sewn onto a new Confederate flag--one of Taggart’s prized possessions--now displayed with his military artifacts in our Museum Collection at the Blandford Historical Society.
Finding A Match
Until recently, the fate of the captured flag itself remained a mystery. That changed when historian Del Thomasson of Georgia, discovered Taggart’s flag story in an online search and contacted the Society to learn more. A specialist in Civil War flags and color-bearers, Thomasson was finalizing an article on the 37th Massachusetts Infantry—and one of the Medal of Honor soldiers he was featuring was Taggart.
Intrigued, he began searching for the flag. He soon identified a strong candidate: a flag recorded as captured (assigned number 331) and turned over to the Union War Department, notably missing two cut-out pieces similar to the ones affixed to Taggart’s flag. It is now held in the collection of the American Civil War Museum in Richmond, Virginia. The flag was not originally linked to a specific regiment and had been cataloged for more than a century as “unknown.”
A Feat to Remember
In addition to confirming Taggart’s account and likely solving a long-standing mystery, we also learned more about what happened on the battlefield.
An account from Taggart’s commanding officer described the dramatic moment of capture in Deeds of Valor: How America’s Heroes Won the Medal of Honor, originally published in 1871:
“During a lull in the desperate hand to hand fighting during the memorable day, Private Charles A. Taggart, of Company B, Thirty Seventh Massachusetts Infantry, stepped out about twenty paces to the front of his regiment and up a slight rise of ground, from which place he saw a squad of about twenty rebels in a low protected spot firing on the men to his right. Taking shelter behind a tree nearby he fired several shots into their midst, when to his surprise he observed a rebel flag among them. Immediately he started for their color bearer, demanding the surrender of the flag, which he grasped, and in the struggle for the possession he found himself assisted by another Union man, who had also seen the colors and who was intent upon their capture. The two wrested them from the rebel, but Taggart’s comrade was shot down, while he, taking advantage of an opening, rushed back with the colors into the Union lines. Unfortunately, the Federals took him for a leader of a rebel charge, and it was miraculous that he escaped with but one slight wound on is right leg.”
Thomasson’s articles are available at https://www.lumpkinhistory.org/collections/uncommon-courage
Taggart earned the Medal of Honor for capturing an enemy flag at the Battle of Sailor’s Creek, Virginia, on April 6, 1865, three days before the end of the war. As previously recounted, small pieces of that original flag were later sewn onto a new Confederate flag--one of Taggart’s prized possessions--now displayed with his military artifacts in our Museum Collection at the Blandford Historical Society.
Finding A Match
Until recently, the fate of the captured flag itself remained a mystery. That changed when historian Del Thomasson of Georgia, discovered Taggart’s flag story in an online search and contacted the Society to learn more. A specialist in Civil War flags and color-bearers, Thomasson was finalizing an article on the 37th Massachusetts Infantry—and one of the Medal of Honor soldiers he was featuring was Taggart.
Intrigued, he began searching for the flag. He soon identified a strong candidate: a flag recorded as captured (assigned number 331) and turned over to the Union War Department, notably missing two cut-out pieces similar to the ones affixed to Taggart’s flag. It is now held in the collection of the American Civil War Museum in Richmond, Virginia. The flag was not originally linked to a specific regiment and had been cataloged for more than a century as “unknown.”
A Feat to Remember
In addition to confirming Taggart’s account and likely solving a long-standing mystery, we also learned more about what happened on the battlefield.
An account from Taggart’s commanding officer described the dramatic moment of capture in Deeds of Valor: How America’s Heroes Won the Medal of Honor, originally published in 1871:
“During a lull in the desperate hand to hand fighting during the memorable day, Private Charles A. Taggart, of Company B, Thirty Seventh Massachusetts Infantry, stepped out about twenty paces to the front of his regiment and up a slight rise of ground, from which place he saw a squad of about twenty rebels in a low protected spot firing on the men to his right. Taking shelter behind a tree nearby he fired several shots into their midst, when to his surprise he observed a rebel flag among them. Immediately he started for their color bearer, demanding the surrender of the flag, which he grasped, and in the struggle for the possession he found himself assisted by another Union man, who had also seen the colors and who was intent upon their capture. The two wrested them from the rebel, but Taggart’s comrade was shot down, while he, taking advantage of an opening, rushed back with the colors into the Union lines. Unfortunately, the Federals took him for a leader of a rebel charge, and it was miraculous that he escaped with but one slight wound on is right leg.”
Thomasson’s articles are available at https://www.lumpkinhistory.org/collections/uncommon-courage
Blandford 'Did You Know?' researched and written by Jane Rohman