Jacob G. Frick (1825–1902)

Colonel of the 129th Pennsylvania Infantry who twice saved his regiment’s colors under fire, eight months apart. Markers: ★ verified · ✔ confirmed · ✎ corrects a common error · ⚑ open/caution.

Jacob G. Frick earned the Medal of Honor for two acts of color-bearing courage — seizing his regiment’s flag and leading the command forward through “a terrible fire of cannon and musketry” at Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862, and recovering the regiment’s captured colors in a hand-to-hand fight at Chancellorsville on May 3, 1863. ★ Both actions are named in the one citation; the medal was issued on June 7, 1892. ★

Frick enrolled at Pottsville in September 1861 as lieutenant colonel of the 96th Pennsylvania Infantry, then left in 1862 to command the nine-month 129th Pennsylvania Infantry through its Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville service. ★ When the 129th mustered out in 1863, he raised and led the 27th Pennsylvania Emergency Militia during the Gettysburg campaign, helping hold the Susquehanna crossing at Columbia–Wrightsville as Confederate forces advanced in late June 1863. ✔

He spent his later life in Pottsville and died there on March 5, 1902. ★ ✎ His year of birth is sometimes given as 1838; his grave marker and Wikidata record both give January 23, 1825, in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania.

Honored on: Congressional Medal of Honor Memorial.

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Sources

• Congressional Medal of Honor Society — Jacob G. Frick
  License: reference

  Authoritative Medal of Honor recipient roster; facts here are summarized from the listed sources, not reproduced.

• Wikidata: Jacob G. Frick (Q6118660)
  License: CC0
• Congressional Medal of Honor Memorial, Pottsville (Historical Marker Database)
  License: reference
• Wikipedia: Jacob Gellert Frick
  License: CC-BY-SA-4.0

  Supplemental source for the post-Chancellorsville service: command of the 27th Pennsylvania Emergency Militia in the 1863 Gettysburg campaign and the burning of the Columbia–Wrightsville bridge.

Frequently asked

What did Jacob G. Frick do to earn the Medal of Honor?

A single Medal of Honor recognized two separate actions. At Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862, Frick seized his regiment's colors and led the command forward through heavy fire; in hand-to-hand fighting at Chancellorsville on May 3, 1863, he recovered the regiment's captured colors. The medal was issued on June 7, 1892.

Was Jacob G. Frick from Schuylkill County?

Frick was born in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, but made his life and career in Pottsville, where he enrolled for service, and where he died in 1902. He is named on the Congressional Medal of Honor Memorial in Pottsville.