Carrying the Colors : The Life and Legacy of Medal of Honor Recipient Andrew Jackson Smith

An Escaped Slave who Fought for the Union and Whose�Wartime Heroism was Finally�Recognized with�the Nation's Highest Honor for Military ValorIn 1862,�Andrew "Andy" Jackson Smith, son of a white�landowner and enslaved woman, es-caped�to Union troops�operating in Kentucky, made his way to the North, and�volunteered for the 55th Massachusetts, one of the newly�formed African�American regiments. The regiment was�deployed to South Carolina, and during a�desperate�assault on a Confederate battery, the color bearer was�killed.�Before the flag was lost, Smith quickly retrieved it�and under heavy fire�held the colors steady while the�decimated regiment withdrew. The regiment's�commanding officer pro-moted Smith to color sergeant and�wrote him a�commendation for both saving the regimental�flag and bravery under fire.�Honorably discharged, Smith�returned to Kentucky, where over the course of�the next�forty years he invested in land. In the early twentieth�century,�Burt G. Wilder, medical officer of the 55th,�contacted Smith about his�experiences for a book he was�writing. During their correspondence, Wilder�realized�Smith was eligible for the nation's highest�award. In 1916,�Wilder applied to the army, but his�request for Smith's medal was denied due�to the "absence�of records." At Smith's death in 1932, his daughter Caruth�received a box of his papers revealing the extent of her�father's heroism. Her nephew took up the cause and through long and painstaking research located the lost records. With the help of historians, local politicians, and others, Andrew Jackson Smith received his long overdue Medal of Honor in 2001. In�Carrying the Colors: The Life and Legacy of Medal of Honor Recipient Andrew Jackson Smith, the riveting journey from slavery to a White House ceremony is revealed, with the indomitable spirit of Smith-slave, soldier, landowner, father-mirrored by the dogged pursuit of his grandson and his allies in the quest to discover the truth about an American who dedicated his life to the service of his community and country.