Texas native and former slave earns Medal of Honor in Union Army

On this day in 1864, Milton Holland, of the Fifth United States Colored Troops, earned the Medal of Honor for action at Chaffin's Farm and New Market Heights, Virginia. He was born a slave in either Carthage or Austin, Texas, in 1844. After enlisting in the United States Army in 1863, he rose to the rank of regimental sergeant major and led his regiment after all its white officers were either wounded or killed. He received the Medal of Honor on April 6, 1865, and was mustered out of the service on September 20 of that year.