The Medal of Honor

Valor Trail & the Power of Place

Born into slavery in tidewater Virginia in 1835, Edward Ratcliff traded a field hoe for a musket on New Year’s Day in 1864, enlisting in the Union Army as a private in the 38th regiment of United States Colored Troops.

Within a month, he had been promoted to first sergeant; a remarkable recognition of leadership potential for a man who spent decades with so little autonomy.

Ratcliff’s trial by fire came nine months later at the Battle of New Market Heights, outside Richmond on September 29, 1864, in a bloody assault where more than 450 Union soldiers in his 1,300-man brigade fell. When Ratcliff’s company commander was shot down, he took command, rallied his fellow soldiers and pressed on with the charge. As the Confederates fell back under the onslaught, Ratcliff was the first enlisted man to enter the enemy’s fortifications.

For his heroism, which was part of a larger offensive known as the Battle of Chaffin’s Farm, Ratcliff was awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award for valor. His extraordinary service more than 150 years ago still resonates among his proud descendants.

“It just shows what one can come from – coming from being a slave to being a Medal of Honor Recipient and leading generations of other Ratcliffes into service,” said great-greatgrandson Edward Radcliffe, a gunnery sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps. (Spelling of the last name had shifted slightly by the early 20th century.)

Brothers Edward and Damon Radcliffe, the latter a lieutenant in the nearby York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Department, reflected on their great-great-grandfather’s service as he toured the New Market Heights Battlefield with the American Battlefield Trust during the fall of 2021. More than half of all Medals of Honor awarded to Black men during the entire Civil War were earned on this battlefield. The Trust has preserved some 55,000 acres of hallowed ground across more than 150 sites in 25 states, including New Market Heights, where it placed the first permanent protections on lands associated with the USCT assault, naming all 14 Medal Recipients on their battlefield for the first time.

The Trust believes deeply in the power of place, the unique ability for landscapes to teach meaningful and compelling lessons to those who follow in the footsteps of history. And through an ongoing, multi-faceted collaboration with the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, the Trust is working to, quite literally, place valor on the map, connecting to the battlefields where Medal of Honor Recipients performed their acts above and beyond the call of duty, and sharing their remarkable stories of service.

The latest initiative within this partnership will be the Medal of Honor Valor Trail, a physical and digital manifestation of the places most deeply connected with Medal of Honor Recipients from the Civil War through the 21st century – battlefields, birth and burial places, namesake sites, monuments and museums. The goal is to connect powerful stories to tangible places, creating meaningful connections to the past.

“There is no higher honor than our country can bestow than the Medal of Honor,” said American Battlefield Trust g

President David Duncan. “This award really is synonymous with the best of who we are as Americans and the ideals of valor, patriotism and self-sacrifice. But the dramatic stories behind the awarding of many of these Medals are rarely told at the places where they unfolded. We aim to change that.”

Beyond its core land preservation mission, the Trust has also become a leader in the field of history education, with resources for classrooms and lifelong learners alike. Its multimedia-rich website welcomed some 11 million visits in 2021, and its extensive video library has racked up more than 35 million views, with innovative animated maps and virtual reality programs particularly popular. More than a score of GPS-enabled apps help history lovers explore battlefields in yet another example of free content made possible by the contributions of donors.

The Trust’s first foray into working with Medal of Honor Recipients as conduits for historic storytelling across eras came in a special edition of Hallowed Ground, its awardwinning membership magazine.

“When we talk about Civil War battles and the incredible things, both harrowing and inspiring, that happened in them, it can be hard for a modern audience to find a frame of reference,” said Mary Koik, the publication’s editor. “Our vision was to find parallel stories with living Medal of Honor Recipients, taking them to historic battlefields to reflect on their own experience and how it might relate to the experiences of the Recipients of long ago.”

The Trust took U.S. Marine Corporal Hershel “Woody” Williams, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his valor during World War II, to Gettysburg and captured experience on film. While there, he reflected on the Mears Party; both citations center on the Recipients having to eliminate an enemy in a concealed position from which they could inflict heavy casualties. “I think Chester Furman and the other five individuals that had the target of the cabin, knowing that the snipers were in there, they felt a great deal like I did on Iwo Jima: that we need to eliminate them so that we can move forward, protect our buddies.”

Britt Slabinski, a Medal of Honor Recipient from the War on Terror, visited the Fredericksburg Battlefield to walk in the footsteps of George Maynard, who had also returned under heavy fire to retrieve a wounded comrade. Standing on that spot was a powerful moment: “I know exactly what George Maynard was going through. I wasn’t there with him, obviously, but it’s the same thing our soldiers feel today. That thought process, that internal spark that each of us has inside that says, ‘I’ve got to go do something,’ is unchanged.” g

Vietnam War Recipient Melvin Morris went to Morris Island in South Carolina to reflect on the courage of his spiritual ancestors, the Black soldiers of the 54th Massachusetts in their bloody frontal assault at Fort Wagner. Depicted in the movie Glory, the charge earned William Carney the first Medal of Honor for a Black Recipient.

“Being here on Morris Island, my mind is constantly racing, trying to relive the whole event. Relive the charge, relive what it was like,” he said. “I’m trying to imagine in my head the screams, the crying, the hollering, the barrage of bullets, the artillery. You gotta put all of that into perspective.”

The preservation of a battlefield makes that visualization and understanding possible on a far deeper level than even the best documentaries or books. Descriptions of troop movements make far more sense judged against the topography of the battlefield than the landscape of the mind. And placing powerful personal stories, such as those of Medal of Honor Recipients, into that context furthers the impact.

The Trust believes that a battlefield, if well preserved and interpreted, can be a living memorial. It is a pilgrim place, where honor and respect are paid to those who sacrificed on our behalf. Nor is such memory confined to the singular place of action underfoot.

“When you stand on the village green in Lexington, Mass., where America’s extraordinary Revolution began, or at Gettysburg, Pa., where the fate of that nation’s hung in the balance, you naturally reflect on the continuum of American history” said Trust president Duncan. “Few Americans will have the opportunity to visit Omaha Beach or the mountains of Afghanistan, but those who sacrificed in such remote places will nonetheless be in their thoughts on the battlefields that are accessible to them.”

That feeling of connection, of a brotherhood of service, is felt throughout the military. And the presence of historic landscapes enhances the ability to experience that transcendence.

“The bond between brothers-in-arms has remained unchanged across centuries,” said Slabinski. “Standing on hallowed ground, I feel a connection to every one of those historic soldiers.”

Williams echoed the sentiment: “Being at a battlefield where you know that individuals sacrificed their lives is a profound experience. We need these places to keep reminding us of those who gave more than any of us…. We, as a country, can’t forget. We should never forget what their sacrifices have made possible.”

Recognizing that inherent connection between story and place, the Trust worked with the Congressional Medal of Honor Society in 2019 to create a unique online database of all 1,500-plus Civil War citations. The Medal of Honor Database available on the Trust’s website, www.battlefields.org, indicates the location of each relevant battlefield, tied to biographical information – sometimes scant for these earliest awards – about the Recipients. As part of the Medal of Honor Valor Trail, this database will be expanded to include all Medal of Honor Recipients.

“In many ways, the Medal of Honor Valor Trail is a natural growth of that earlier collaboration,” said Jim Campi, the Trust’s Chief Policy and Communication Officer. “It’s a marriage of story and place for the full lineage of the Medal. With America’s semiquincentennial celebration only a few years away, there is no better time to reacquaint Americans hungry for history with these authentic stories of valor”

Although the Trust’s core land preservation mission centers on sites from the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and Civil War, the Valor Trail will include sites representing conflicts and actions up until the 21st century. And it is envisioned to include far more than battlefields, recognizing that many other sites connected to the lives and legacies of Recipients. Plaques or signs – as well as entries on a digital trail – could be appropriate at birthplaces or in hometowns, at statues, cemeteries or namesake sites – even in museums with relevant exhibits and collections.

Although the Valor Trail is still in its infancy, it has tremendous potential to help modern Americans connect with true heroes of the past. Communities may rediscover native sons worthy of emulation and families uncover ancestors with incredible stories to share.

“When you stand in the shadow of history, you gain a new understanding of the significance of those events and a more deeply held appreciation for the very real and human people who lived through them,” said Duncan. “The Medal of Honor represents the very best of what we as Americans aspire to be and marrying those incredible stories to the places where we can feel closest to them, we hope to inspire a new generation to live up to our highest promise and purpose.”

Learn more at www.valortrail.org.