When Private James Flanagan saw over 125 Confederate cavalry soldiers charging his supply wagon train, he probably wondered if he should have stayed on his parents St. Lawrence County farm in Louisville.

Outnumbered and cut off, the Civil War veteran of numerous battles like Shiloh in Tennessee and Perryville in Kentucky knew his fellow soldiers were depending on him even though the odds were against them as the rebels horsemen attacked.

Flanagan’s actions that day on Feb. 15, 1863 earned him and seven other soldiers from his unit the Medal of Honor, America’s highest military honor for gallantry and personal acts of valor above and beyond the call of duty.

During the Civil War, a total of 15 soldiers, sailors and marines from St. Lawrence County earned the Medal of Honor for their personal bravery.

Today, more than 150 years later, few are aware of the deeds of those who answered the call of duty like Flanagan, a farmer from Louisville, who was honored by the President of the United States for his heroism in the face of the enemy.

Flanagan’s parents, James and Catherine (Fury) Flanagan, had originally traveled across the ocean from Queens County, Ireland to Montreal, Canada to raise a family in the New World. But the Irish immigrants eventually decided to cross the St. Lawrence River to purchase a farm in St. Lawrence County after young James was born.

After being educated in Louisville’s country schools, the young Flanagan left his family and moved west to seek his fortune.

When the Southern states launched their rebellion, the 28-year-old Flanagan responded to Lincoln’s call to save the union by enlisting in the Second Minnesota Volunteer Infantry regiment, serving in major battles like Shiloh, Tennessee and Perryville, Kentucky before finding himself back in Tennessee.

Deep inside enemy territory just outside Nolensville, Tennessee, Flanagan and the 15 members of his unit had been assigned the dangerous duty of searching the rebel countryside for supplies to feed the Union livestock that Major General Ulysses S. Grant ‘s army depended upon for its survival.

With four wagons and a mule team, the sixteen soldiers had discovered a supply of corn inside a barn when mounted rebel scouts detected them.

The Union soldiers had been loading their wagons with rebel corn when over 125 Confederate soldiers attacked on horseback.

Flanagan and the members of his unit knew their fellow members of the Second Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment were depending on them to bring back the forage they had discovered to help keep the Union forces in the field.

The members of Company H were part of a 10-wagon supply train that had been sent out to search the Confederate countryside.

Despite being heavily outnumbered more than eight to one, the small band of Yankee infantrymen refused to surrender. The soldiers took shelter inside a cabin where they fought off the attackers, members of Confederate General Earl Van Dorn’s cavalry force.

Battling from inside the cabin, the Union soldiers managed to keep the Confederates from capturing their wagons or livestock.

Their gunfire eventually alerted the Union forces who soon counter attacked the Confederate cavalry force to relieve the outnumbered defenders.

In his report on the incident written at Concord Church, Brig. Gen. James Steedman stated that he had sent out a forage train of 10 wagons escorted by two companies of infantry to search the Tennessee countryside for feed for his livestock.

“Four wagons, guarded by 13 privates, under command of a sergeant, were being loaded, one and a half miles from Nolensville” when they were attacked by 150 rebel cavalry, General Steedman wrote. “The sergeant immediately formed his men, took shelter in a cabin close to the wagons, and repulsed them, wounding five.”

The small detachment managed to capture three Confederate cavalry, killing four horses, capturing three horses, seven saddles, and three guns, he recorded. “Two of our men were slightly wounded.”

Hearing the sound of gunfire, General Steedman sent his First East Tennessee Cavalry, a union force under the command of Lt. Col. James P. Brownlow, to relieve the outnumbered wagon train defenders and pursue the Confederate attackers.

Flanagan continued to serve with his unit at major battles like Missionary Ridge, Chickamaugua, the Chatanooga campaign and with General George Sherman’s “March to the Sea.” He reenlisted in 1864 and served until the end of the war.

After the war, Flanagan returned to his family’s 80-acre dairy farm in Louisville. He married Kate Mallen of Waddington. They were the parents of four children: Frederick James, Agnes, Thomas and John.

In 1897, Flanagan and seven other members of the detachment who fought at Nolensville were presented with the Medal of Honor for their heroic act.

He died Oct. 4, 1905 at the age of 72.

James Flannigan