An African American non-commissioned officer in the US Army, a commissioned officer in the D.C. National Guard, an editor, a musician, and a government official, Christian Fleetwood was born on July 21, 1840, and died on September 28, 1914. For his actions during the American Civil War, he was awarded the Medal of Honor. “The Negro As a Soldier” was written by him for the Negro Congress during the Cotton States and International Exposition in November 1895 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Christian Fleetwood Biography
Charles and Anna Maria Fleetwood, both free people of color, were the parents of Fleetwood, who was born in Baltimore on July 21, 1840. He founded and published The Lyceum Observer, which is regarded as the first African American-owned and operated newspaper in the Upper South.
He was educated in the home of John C. Brunes, a wealthy sugar trader and chairman of the Baltimore Chamber of Commerce, and his spouse. The latter taught Fleetwood to read and write and pampered him as if he were her son. After a brief stay in Liberia and Sierra Leone, he completed his education at the Maryland State Colonization Society before earning his degree from Ashmun Institute (later known as Lincoln University) in Oxford, Pennsylvania, in 1860.
Civil War fFlag Bearer
On August 11 or August 17, 1863, Christian Fleetwood went to Baltimore’s Camp Birney, formerly known as Camp Belger, and enlisted in Company G of the 4th Regiment United States Colored Infantry, Union Army, after the American Civil War interrupted ship transit to Liberia. Fleetwood’s educational background earned him the rank of sergeant upon enrollment, and on August 19, he was elevated to sergeant major. Assigned to the 3rd Division, his regiment served alongside the 10th, 18th, and 25th Army Corps throughout engagements in North Carolina and Virginia, including the Battle of Petersburg on July 16, 1864, and the Battle of Chaffin’s Farm on September 29–30, 1864.
Christian Fleetwood Medal of Honor
Fleetwood’s regiment and the 3rd Division took part in the Battle of Chaffin’s Farm on the outskirts of Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital, on September 29, 1864. Christian Fleetwood oversaw the left flank of the 4th Regiment during its assault on the opposing defenses. Sergeant Alfred B. Hilton, carrying two flags, one of which had been taken from a wounded sergeant, was one of the soldiers who charged. Before the colors could reach the ground, Fleetwood and another soldier, Charles Veale, each took a flag from Hilton after he was hurt. Christian Fleetwood, now flying the American flag, kept moving forward despite intense fire until it was evident that the unit was unable to breach the enemy’s fortifications.
He retreated to the reserve line, where he rallied a few troops and carried on the battle with the flag. Just over six months later, on April 6, 1865, Fleetwood, Hilton, and Veale were each awarded the Medal of Honor for their services during the engagement. The official citation for Fleetwood’s Medal of Honor is as follows: “Seized the colors, after two color bearers had been shot down, and bore them nobly through the fight.” The National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian now owns the medal. In 1948, his daughter Edith Fleetwood donated Sergeant Major Fleetwood’s Medal of Honor. Presumably for his actions in the same engagement, Fleetwood was also awarded the General B. F. Butler Medal.
Secretary of War Edwin Stanton did not approve an appointment, despite the fact that all of the regiment’s officers sent a petition asking him to be commissioned as an officer. On May 4, 1866, Fleetwood received an honorable discharge from the Army. Part of Fleetwood’s 1864 duty is described; he kept a diary that year, filled with writings about his wartime adventures.
Post-war life
Following the war, Christian Fleetwood held a number of low-level government jobs at the Freedmen’s Bank and War Department in Washington, D.C., before working as a bookkeeper in Columbus, Ohio, until 1867. He had an active social life with his wife, Sara Iredell, whom he married on November 16, 1869. Sara Iredell’s grandmother, Louisa Burr, was the daughter of Aaron Burr, the vice president of the United States, and the sister of Philadelphia abolitionist John (Jean) Pierre Burr. In 1870, while working for Frederick Douglass’ New Era, Sara’s maternal uncle, novelist Frank J. Webb, stayed with the couple in Washington. Edith was the only daughter of the Fleetwoods. They knew most of the leading African Americans of the day, and many of them came to their home regularly. In 1889, Fleetwood was given a testimonial by members of the black upper society in Washington.
National Guard
The Washington Colored National Guard, also known as the Washington Cadets or Washington Cadet Corps (WCC, not to be confused with the Washington High School Cadets, in whom Christian Fleetwood later got associated), elected Fleetwood as its captain in January 1881. When Fleetwood entered the corps as a commissioned officer on June 12, 1880, the WCC was first set up as a single company under the command of Captain George D. Graham. The WCC continued to be an all-black unit, including its commissioned officers, and grew to a three-, then four-company-battalion.
The WCC became the 6th Battalion of the District of Columbia Army National Guard (DCNG) on July 18, 1887. After forming that unit, Fleetwood rose to the rank of major and served as its commanding officer. The DCNG included seven battalions, including the Capital City Guards (1882), the Washington Cadet Corps (1880), and the Butler Zouaves (1863), three of which were “black” and four of which were composed of white soldiers. The two surviving black battalions were limited to two companies each and combined into the newly established First Separate Battalion in 1891, while the Butler Zouaves was dissolved in 1888. Because of his animosity against the black regiments, National Guard leader Albert Ordway dismantled the Butler Zouaves.
Ordway tried to dissolve the other two black troops but failed. Fleetwood resigned soon after, in 1892, feeling overshadowed by Frederick C. Revells, the new commander of the Capital City Guards.
In the meantime, Christian Fleetwood and Major Charles B. Fisher, who had led the Fifth Battalion (Butler Zouaves), played a key role in setting up the District of Columbia’s Colored High School Cadet Corps in 1888. The corps’ first company was recruited at M Street High (later to become Dunbar High School) and was also known as the Washington High School Cadets (see above). Fleetwood was the corps’s initial instructor until 1897, when Major Arthur Brooks took over. Some of the young blacks men in Washington joined the military as a result of these two officers, while others received commissions at the blacks Officers Training Camp in Fort Des Moines, Iowa.
Death and Legacy
At the age of 74, he passed away unexpectedly from heart failure in Washington, D.C., on September 28, 1914. At St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, funeral services were conducted. The burial took place in Washington, D.C., at Columbian Harmony Cemetery. His funeral was escorted by the D.C. National Guard’s First Separate Battalion. Major Arthur Brooks and notable Washingtonians Daniel Murray, Whitefield McKinlay, and Judge Robert H. Terrell were among the honorary pallbearers. The National Guard’s involvement, and Arthur Brooks’s in particular, was a fitting acknowledgement of Fleetwood’s most important professional moments. When Columbia Harmony Cemetery closed in 1959, his remains were relocated to National Harmony Memorial Park.
Medal of Honor Citation
Organization and rank: 4th U.S. Colored Troops, Sergeant Major
Date and location: September 29, 1864, at Chapin’s Farm, Virginia.
Entered service at an unspecified time. Birthplace: Baltimore, Maryland.
Issue date: April 6, 1865.
His citation are as follows:
The President presented Sergeant Major Fleetwood the Medal of Honor because of his fearlessness during the Chapin’s Farm, Virginia battle among his men in the 4th U.S. Colored Infantry. Fleetwood had seized the two Color Bearer’s colors after they were shot down. He wore them honorably throughout the rest of the fight.
