User:LexReview/Christian Abraham Fleetwood

Early life
Fleetwood was born in Baltimore on July 21, 1840, the son of Charles and Anna Maria Fleetwood; both were free persons of color. He established and published The Lyceum Observer, said to be the first newspaper in the Upper South to be owned and operated by an African American.

Education
He received his early education in the home of a wealthy sugar merchant and chairman of Baltimore's Chamber of Commerce, John C. Brunes, and his wife. The latter treated Fleetwood like her son and taught him to read and write. He continued his education at the Maryland State Colonization Society, went briefly to Liberia and Sierra Leone, and graduated in 1860 from Ashmun Institute (later known as Lincoln University) in Oxford, Pennsylvania.

Enlistment
When the American Civil War disrupted travel by ship to Liberia, Fleetwood went to Baltimore's Camp Birney formerly called Camp Belger and enlisted into Company G of the 4th Regiment United States Colored Infantry, Union Army, on August 11 or August 17, 1863.

Battle of Chaffin's Farm and Medal of Honor
Sergeant Major Fleetwood's Medal of Honor was donated by his daughter Edith Fleetwood in 1948.

National Guard
The Butler Zouaves was disassembled by Albert Ordway, a leader of the National Guard, because of his displeasure towards the black regiments. He was unsuccessful at disbanding any other black units.

Medal of Honor citation
The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Sergeant Major Christian A. Fleetwood, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism on September 29, 1864, while serving with 4th U.S. Colored Infantry, in action at Chapin's Farm, Virginia.

The President presented Sergeant Major Fleetwood the Medal of Honor because of his fearlessness during the Chapin's Farm, Virginia battle among his men in the 4th U.S. Colored Infantry. Fleetwood had seized the two Color Bearer's colors after they were shot down. He wore them honorably throughout the rest of the fight.