He received his nation's highest award for valor, the U.S. Medal of Honor, for his gallantry during the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, Virginia.

His conduct on the battlefields at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville was characterized by coolness and courage that plainly showed his capability to manage a large crowd.Frick was born in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, a fourth-generation descendant of Swiss immigrants.

[4][5] Jacob G. Frick became one of the early responders to President Abraham Lincoln's call for volunteers to help preserve his nation's union following the April 1861 fall of Fort Sumter to Confederate States Army.

The remainder of his men were then ordered to guard a Union ammunition train on August 30 near Centreville, where they came under brief, but heavy enemy artillery fire.

Attached to the brigade commanded by Union General E. B. Tyler beginning September 3, he continued to drill his men at their encampments at Fairfax Seminary and Fort Richardson.

According to historian Samuel Bates:[9] Shortly after noon of the 13th of December, the division crossed the Rappahannock, and proceeding through the town to a position in full view of the field, awaited the order to enter the fight.

It was not long delayed ... advancing by a main road, the brigade halted in low, open ground, where the men were ordered to lie down....[T]he enemy opened a destructive fire from his batteries [wounding many Union soldiers].... Moving to the left of the road, the division was shortly after formed in line of battle on the crest of the hill, the brigade in two lines, the One Hundred and Twenty-ninth on the left front.

Afterward Frick and his fellow Union officers were praised by Tyler as having "discharged their respective duties creditably and satisfactorily, their voices being frequently heard above the din of battle, urging on their men against the terrible shower of shot and shell, and the terrific musketry, as we approached the stone wall.

[11] Assigned to guard and occupation duties within and outside of Frederick for the next several days, Frick and his men then participated in the "Mud March" under Major-General Ambrose Burnside (January 1863).

Afterwards, Tyler praised Frick's men, noting that "no man ever saw cooler work on field drill than was done by this regiment", and adding, "Their firing was grand, by rank, by company, and by wing, in perfect order."

[19] In the midst of this, he was called upon to advise Col. Henry Pleasants regarding the placement of mines under Confederate entrenchments during the 1864 Siege of Petersburg, a process which culminated in the Battle of the Crater.

First published in 1864, it presented "a thinly disguised attack on the character and military ability of General Andrew A. Humphreys", according to Frederick B. Arner, who wrote the commentary for the book's 1999 re-release.