Football players and owners are being hailed as heroes after that disgrace this past weekend. But here is a story about a real hero. Sergeant William H. Carney received the nation’s highest honor during the Civil War for rescuing the American flag and carrying it reverently in the midst of impossible odds while being shot multiple times by the enemy. His act of “defiance” while an entire Confederate battalion mowed down his fellow Union soldiers consisted in not letting the flag touch the ground – this, even after being wounded in the head.
“As the color-bearer became disabled I threw away my gun and seized the colors [the flag],” his account of the Battle of Fort Wagner states. “When we finally reached [my regiment] the men cheered me and the flag. My reply was, ‘Boys, I only did my duty; the old flag never touched the ground!’”
Taking bullets for the flag, rather than a knee, Sergeant William H. Carney, was the first black man to win the Congressional Medal of Honor for refusing to allow the flag to touch the ground.
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