According to the Military Times Hall of Valor, on 30 July 1863, while serving with Company A, 45th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment, in action at Petersburg, Virginia, the 45th charged into the huge crater caused by Union forces exploding tons of gunpowder under Confederate lines. In A. P. Hill's counterattack, the color-bearer of the 6th Virginia Infantry attempted to plant the regiment's battleflag at the top of the crater's parapet. Corporal Hogan shot him down and seized[2] the colors of the 6th Virginia in Mahone's Virginia Brigade in Anderson's Division in Hill's III Corps.[3]
The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Corporal Franklin Hogan, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism on 30 July 1864, while serving with Company A, 45th Pennsylvania Infantry, in action at Petersburg, Virginia, for capture of flag of 6th Virginia Infantry (Confederate States of America).[1][2][4][5][6]
Franklin Hogan received his medal on October 1, 1864. Hogan honorably mustered out when his enlistment expired twenty days later on October 20, 1864.
Post war
Franklin Hogan returned to York and married Elizabeth Patterson. They had two sons who were both born in Pennsylvania: Edward A Hogan (1872–1929) and Harry D Hogan (1878–1943). At some time after the war, the family moved to Hutchinson, Kansas where Hogan had a farm and worked for the Kansas Salt Company.
Roberts, Agatha Louise (1964). As They Remembered: The Story of the Forty-Fifth Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteer Infantry Regiment, 1861-1865. New York, NY: William-Frederick Press. p. 181. hdl:2027/mdp.39015008621099. OCLC560010517.
Subcommittee on Veterans' Affairs, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Labor and Public Welfare (1968). Edward M Kennedy, Chairman (ed.). Medal of Honor, 1863-1968 : "In the Name of the Congress of the United States". Committee print (United States. Congress), 90th Congress, 2nd session. Washington DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 1087. OCLC1049691780.