author
Christian A. (Christian Abraham) Fleetwood
1840–1914
A Civil War hero whose life reached far beyond the battlefield, he earned the Medal of Honor and went on to serve as a musician, editor, public official, and civic leader in Washington, D.C.
1 Audiobook
The Negro as a soldier
by Christian A. (Christian Abraham) Fleetwood
About the author
Born in Baltimore in 1840 to free Black parents, Christian Abraham Fleetwood was educated at the Ashmun Institute, later Lincoln University. During the Civil War, he joined the 4th United States Colored Infantry and became a sergeant major, the highest-ranking Black noncommissioned officer in the regiment.
Fleetwood received the Medal of Honor for his bravery at the Battle of Chaffin's Farm in 1864, where he took up the fallen colors and carried them forward under intense fire. After the war, he continued a remarkably wide-ranging public life as a member of the D.C. National Guard, a government employee, an editor, and a musician.
He died in 1914, remembered not only for wartime courage but also for decades of leadership in Black civic and cultural life. His papers and legacy remain an important record of African American military service and public achievement in the 19th century.