Young Arthur MacArthur

1st Lt. Arthur MacArthur Jr., 18-year-old adjutant of the 24th Wisconsin and future father of Gen. Douglas MacArthur grabbed his regiment’s national flag on the ridge’s slope when the color bearer fell exhausted. Captain Howard Green of Company B and 1st Lt. Robert J. Chivas of Company I lay dead, with both officers of Company A wounded. Shouting “On, Wisconsin!” to his momentarily stunned comrades, the beardless youth carried the flag to the crest. “[I] had the honor of planting the colors of the 24th Wisconsin immediately in front of Bragg’s old headquarters,” he wrote the next day. I showed the old flag to General Sheridan immediately upon his arrival on top of the ridge … While I was carrying the flag a whole dose of cannister went through it, tearing it in a frightful manner. I only received one scratch and that through the rim of my hat.”

Less than six weeks later MacArthur was promoted to major. He finished the war in command of the regiment, received lieutenant colonel and colonel brevets, and in 1890 was given the Medal of Honor for bravery at Missionary Ridge.

“On Wisconsin”

Acknowledgement: Baumgartner and Strayer, “Echoes of Battle”, Blue Acorn Press, 1996