During the fighting on Lookout Mountain, an action General Grant had originally intended as a diversion while General Tecumseh Sherman prepared to attack the north end of Missionary Ridge, four men of the 149th New York Infantry received the Medal of Honor for extraordinary valor. Henry Alanson Barnum, who had joined the U.S. army as a captain in 1861, been badly wounded at Malvern Hill, become colonel of the 149th New York Infantry, left for medical treatment, and rejoined the regiment at Wauhatchie two weeks before the battle, was still scarcely able to march from the effects of unhealed wounds, yet insisted on leading from the front until a musket ball passed through his right forearm and completely disabled him from going farther. Sergeant John Kiggins, flag bearer for Company D, stood on a stump and held his flag above the thick fog after the regiment found itself shelled by Federal artillery, stopping the shelling but drawing Confederate fire; his clothing was pierced by nine bullet holes, his head was grazed, and a bullet entered his thigh, but he survived. First Sergeant Norman F. Potter of Company E captured a Confederate battle flag from the sergeant carrying it, disarmed him, and sent him to the rear as a prisoner before being severely wounded. Private Peter Kappesser captured a Confederate battle flag while rescuing a wounded comrade, wore it around his neck as a scarf in the cold that night, continued to do so through the battle at Missionary Ridge, and then gave it to his regimental commander, after which Colonel Brannon carried the captured trophies to Washington.