(suspenseful music) - [Narrator] Andrew Bowman has something to prove, his history matters.

- My grandfather was Andrew Jackson Smith, and he was a runaway slave who fought in the Civil War.

He fought for the Union Army.

- [Narrator] Bowman began looking into his family history trying to find an identity that he felt was lost.

He was raised in Detroit.

It was a struggle for many families in the area.

- My mother had three kids, and her husband wasn't around very much.

He was really not doing a very good job of being a father.

- [Narrator] Andrew was given away at birth to a neighboring family so they could receive more welfare.

- The Bowmans did not have any children.

They needed to have some additional funds because they were starving to death almost.

- [Narrator] Growing up, Andrew didn't know his neighbor was actually his biological mother.

- This was one of the things that hurt very deeply.

I have been deceived.

Now, here's a battle scene.

- [Narrator] But what would start out as disappointment would soon become motivation to learn more about his family.

His search uncovered more than he could have imagined.

- [Richard] Sergeant Andrew Jackson Smith, a man who was born into slavery in Kentucky in 1843.

Smith escaped by foot to freedom, and he joined the 55th Massachusetts Colored Volunteers.

- [Narrator] He traced his grandfather's path all the way to the Battle of Honey Hill.

In this battle, over 100 men were killed, including the color-bearer.

- They charged into a slaughter.

The color-bearer was trying to carry the flag into the fort.

When he was hit with a exploding shell, his body was blown to pieces.

- [Narrator] During this battle, Andrew's grandfather would save the colors while under fire.

- Andy Smith grabbed his flag and continued to carry his flag.

- [Richard] Sergeant Andrew Jackson Smith picked up the colors and carried them through the rest of the battle.

- [Narrator] In 1916, Andrew Jackson Smith was nominated for the Medal of Honor.

The award was denied by the War Department.

Over 100 years later, Bowman would find firsthand accounts of the battle in the Library of Congress.

- The Medal of Honor is our highest military declaration.

- [Andrew] President Clinton was able to see that Andrew Jackson Smith deserved the Medal of Honor.

- [Announcer] President Clinton presented the medal to Sergeant Smith's family.

(audience applauds) - The 55th was one of several units that tried to take a 25-foot rise called Honey Hill.

The commanding officer, Colonel Alfred Hartwell, wrote: "The leading brigade had been driven back when I was ordered in with mine.

I was hit first in the hand just before making a charge.

Then my horse was killed under me, and I was hit afterward several times.

One of my aides was killed, and another was blown from his horse.

During the furious fight, the color-bearer was shot and killed, and it was Corporal Andrew Jackson Smith who would retrieve and save both the state and federal flags.

- It was the longest delayed medal in the United States history.

Throughout the years, we finally got it right.

(audience applauds) I had something of value.

I had a history of my own.

But of all the things I want you to remember, the Black man fought for his own freedom.

Nobody gave it to us.

We broke those chains with our own hands, blood, sweat, and tears, along with our rifles.

We've got to believe in our children, and we gotta believe in their future.

So we gotta share ourselves with our children.

We gotta give them something to be proud of, their dignity and their history.

- [Announcer] Find more stories at wfyi.org/acrossindiana.