the reserve line, he used the flag to rally a small group of men and continue the fight. For their actions during the battle, Fleetwood, Hilton, and Veale were each issued the Medal of Honor just over six months later, on April 6, 1865. Fleetwood's official Medal of Honor citation reads simply: "Seized the colors, after 2 color bearers had been shot down, and bore them nobly through the fight." The medal is now part of the collection of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. Fleetwood also won a General B. F. Butler Medal, presumably for his action in the same engagement. Although every officer of the regiment sent a petition for him to be commissioned an officer, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton did not recommend appointment. Fleetwood was honorably discharged from the Army on May 4, 1866. Fleetwood's 1864 service is in part detailed in a diary he wrote that year full of entries about his experiences during the war. Post-war life After the war, Fleetwood worked as a bookkeeper in Columbus, Ohio, until 1867, and in several minor government positions in the Freedmen's Bank and War Department in Washington, D.C. With his wife Sara Iredell, whom he married on November 16, 1869, he led an active social life. Sara Iredell's grandmother, Louisa Burr, was the sister of Philadelphia abolitionist John (Jean) Pierre Burr and daughter of U.S. vice president, Aaron Burr. Sara's maternal uncle, novelist Frank J. Webb, lived with the couple in Washington in 1870 while writing for Frederick Douglass' New Era. The Fleetwoods had one daughter, Edith. They were well acquainted with most of the prominent African Americans of the period, many who frequently visited their residence. Members of Washington's black elite society presented Fleetwood with a testimonial in 1889. In January 1881 Fleetwood was elected Captain of the Washington Colored National Guard, better known as Washington Cadets or Washington Cadet Corps (WCC, to not be confused with the Washington High School Cadets, in which Fleetwood later also became involved). At first, the WCC was organized as a single company and commanded by Captain George D. Graham on June 12, 1880, when Fleetwood joined the corps as a commissioned officer. The WCC expanded to a three-, then four-company-battalion and remained an all-black-unit including its commissioned officers. On on July 18, 1887, the WCC transformed into the 6th Battailon of the District of Columbia Army National