During the September 29, 1864 assault on Fort Harrison, men of the blue column responded to their officers' call, poured over the edge of the ditch into the dry moat, scrambled up the bank by hand, by bayonets thrust into the clay, and on each other's shoulders, mounted the parapet under a fierce blaze of musketry, and pushed across the parade ground. Captain Cecil Clay commanded the 58th Pennsylvania Infantry in the assault. Seizing a flag, the 22-year-old Clay scaled the wall of Fort Harrison and stood atop the parapet waving the banner until he was felled by severe wounds. For his extreme gallantry at Fort Harrison, Clay received the Medal of Honor in 1892.