Joseph B. Chambers was a private in Company F of the 199th Pennsylvania Infantry, nicknamed “the Round Heads,” who received the Congressional Medal of Honor for capturing the Confederate battle flag of the 1st Virginia Infantry at the Battle of Petersburg, Virginia, on March 25, 1865 — weeks before the war’s end. He was awarded the medal on July 27, 1871, at age 38.[1]
Discovery by Kiriakou
John Kiriakou discovered Chambers’s grave at Oak Park Cemetery in New Castle, Pennsylvania, at age eight or nine while searching for salamanders. The marker’s inscription — noting the capture of Confederate colors — led Kiriakou and his mother to research Chambers’s story at the local library, an episode Kiriakou credits with sparking his lifelong interest in history.[2]
Later life
After the war, Chambers returned to the village of Eastbrook just outside New Castle, where he farmed until his quiet death in 1908.[3]