Daily Blog

Try to image the terror and panic of 6.400 hoofs charging you and your comrades in battle!

4/29/2018

And what if 1/4 of them also carried a warrior with a lance some 15' long. At its business end and pointing directly at you was an eleven inch blade. To say nothing of the momentum and 1,200 pounds of horse flesh about to pounce on you and your fellow soldiers.

Chilling indeed!

That's what this guy tried to do in the US Civil and he wasn't even an American. His name was Arthur Rankin (shown above) and he was Montreal born. Google his name to read of his adventures including being a member of Parliament for the PROVINCE of Canada, in the CANADA WEST portion back in 1861. He'd obtained permission from President Lincoln to raise a regiment of 1600 horsemen, presumably from Canada, but recruited, in the Detroit area mainly. His unit was called the First Michigan Lancers.

As you can see from the bottom of the recruiting poster, shown above, Rankin's enlistment poster of 1861 offered a $100 bonus, ($300 could buy a farm in those days,) and payments from $13 for a private to $23 for a Sergeant Major, with benefits to include food and clothing, and even...if you can believe it... medical attention. Hmmm?

If you brought your own horse they would pay you an additional 40 cents per day and $8 monthly for forage. Horses would be provided to those who could not provide their own.

In short order 8 companies of men, many no doubt seeing the above poster, responded by enlisting in Rankin's First Michigan Lancers.

In September of 1861 Harper's Weekly published a short story of the Lancers. With it was this sketch of a somewhat more dignified looking Colonel Rankin and some of his men proudly bearing their lances.

While 0ver 600 men were enlisted, the regiment saw no action and was disbanded due to technicalities involving the Foreign Enlistments Act of 1819. Rankin was arrested and charged but avoided successful prosecution due, yet again to technicalities. His men then joined other units.

The Rankin story has many very interesting twists and turns and I recommend you Google his name and have a coffee nearbye. You will need it!

A few weeks back I brought you a few blogs on the much more promising military career of New Brunswick born Daniel Chaplin. He too was a horseman, but started out in the 2nd Maine Volunteer Infantry. He rose from Private to Colonel and then sent off to Bangor to raise ... not 600... but 1800 men which became the 18th Maine Heavy Artillery and still later... the Ist Maine Heavy Artillery.

Yet another horseman, also from Montreal, along with 15 others in 1863 faced those hundreds of hoofs charging at them. Eight including Montrealer James Flanagan would be later awarded the Medal of Honor for their bravery. Others in the same battle, had died or could not be found and so they missed out on the medal. (A matter for advocacy for someone no doubt.)

Here is a newspaper account of their deed near Nollensville Tenn. in mid February 1863...

As is often the case, this site provider tool did not allow better cropping of the above image an thus it is difficult to read.

The news account tells of how 15 (possibly 16) soldiers scrounging for feed for their mules came under a charge of some 125 (some sites say 150) enemy cavalry. Though outnumbered about 8 to 1, the Union men held their ground till reinforcements arrived. In the process they had captured several prisoners, wounded and killed a few more, captured enemy weapons, horses and still managed to save the supplies they had rounded up.

Their brigade commanded later noted, as seen above, that ..."this little affair is one of the most glorious of the campaign and deserves to be remembered and cited as worthy the emulation of all." He added that it was his desire... "that the names of these worthy men and brave soldiers may be preserved."

The dangers of war, and the panic of being drafted by some, less brave than the soldiers above noted, would cause a few to take strange steps to avoid service.

Recent research produced this newspaper gem from late 1863...

While the wishes of the Union Brigade Commander of 1863 were well known at the time, his wishes apparently were soon forgotten. But late in the century some of the soldiers involved in the battle and others started to ask why those to be remembered were in fact forgotten.

Finally officialdom at Washington remembered those they could find, limited to only 8 of the 15 or 16, including Flanagan, and awarded them with Medals of Honor in September 1897. It only took them about 35 years to regain their memory. A few of the others had died but the rest, so they say, could not be found.

Others had been issued over the years posthumously, but this appears to have not been the case this time.

Here is a news account that gives details about the standard letter sent out to recipients years after the fact. This one went to one of the 8 involved in the Nollensville skirmish.

At the end of the war James Flanagan returned to his mother's farm in Louisville New York. Upon moving there at a very early age and getting his education there, he in midlife relocated to the west prior to enlisting in the army. It would be here that he would return after the war and where he would work the farm for the rest of his life.

He died at Louisville New York in August 1905 and lays at rest today at the St Lawrence Cemetery in that county.

Next week I will bring you some interesting news of late about this hero.

Hope to see you then,

Bart

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More Atlantic Canada Medal of Honor Updates!

4/23/2018

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While researching the Medal of Honor over the years, I have also come across several Canadian soldiers, or like some of the MOH recipients, those with a connection to Canada, who made it to the rank of general. . The few internet mentions about these generals note about a half dozen men, but my list, while still needing work, has grown to 11.

Daniel Chaplin, born in New Brunswick was one of these generals and the subject of my last 2 blogs. His name and heroic actions were briefly discussed last week with the Canadian Embassy at DC, with a follow-up letter needing to to be sent.

The remnants of a Civil War fort, and a park at the nation's capital bearing Chaplin's name still exists. I have dropped the hint that Canada needs to recognize this general, with some sort of a plaque, interpretation panel etc. Such should be unveiled in a formal ceremony. I will bring you updates as this idea hopefully moves forward.

Moving on, some will recognize this painting of the Civil War Union warship USS Plymouth, one of 4 bearing the same name throughout US military history.

In mid July 1876 this vessel was stationed along the Eastern seaboard of the US and on the 26th was moored at New York. When a sailor fell overboard, St. John's Newfoundland born Thomas Kersey was serving on the ship. He and two others dived overboard and rescued their shipmate.

The three were awarded Medals of Honor. About 130 were awarded for similar events over the years, several of these coming to other Canadians. Many of these stories have been highlighted in past blogs here.

In April 1888 Kersey died while a patient at the Chelsea Massachusetts Naval Hospital. Thought to be buried there, over the years many, including our Medal of Honor Historical Society of the US have tried to confirm his exact place of burial.

Recently the society brought me the great news that the Kersey grave had been finally found... not in Massachusetts but at Newport Rhode Island, with other family members. The society of course will be taking steps to have this stone joined by a modern marker bearing the notation also that this man was a naval hero and awarded the Medal of Honor.

I will also bring this matter to the attention of our Embassy at Washington DC and request that they enter into communications with the Society. Hopefully they will be invited to participate in the unveiling in the spring or perhaps early summer.

Over the years our society has played a major role in finding "lost graves." In many cases we have also secured financing and arranging modern Medal of Honor markers being installed. Most with the appropriate military ceremonies connected to the hero and his... or her service to their country of birth, or adoption.

Just a dozen days after the New York rescue, the USS Plymouth was docked at Halifax Nova Scotia as part of a good will tour. Its crew and thousands of others flocked the streets to meet all kinds of strange animals and even a general that stood less than three feet high. Search John W. Powers on this site to read about that amazing story. (The name is not to be confused with another by the name of John Wesley Powers, a Canadian MOH recipient as well.)

One of the thousands in Halifax Nova Scotia that day was a civilian who was touring the navy ship. When he fell overboard Powers and shipmate Michael Connolly dove overboard to save the fellow. Both were awarded a Medal of Honor in the weeks that followed.

Depending on the sources viewed, either Powers or Connolly deserted shortly after the General Order was made that gave official notice that both had been awarded their medals. Powers' name is not on most of the later lists of recipients but Connolly's remains. A few years back, and probably to this day the medal shown above was, and may still be held, and on display at the Navy's museum in DC.

This medal is incredible rare as only 2 in the entire history of the medal, some 3,500 strong, has an inscription that involves deeds performed IN Canada.

The inscription reads... For Valor... John Powers... Ordinary Seaman... USS Plymouth... Halifax Hbr...???? (possibly Duty) ... August 7 1876.

Moving along, I also have an update on Thomas Gay, PEI born MOH recipient for his bravery in 1866, just one of 32 different skirmishes he and the 8th US Cavalry fought during his service with them.

His story was told back in 2013 at this site and mentioned in other blogs since, and can be located using the site search engine at upper right.

Family have recently contacted me to share a few wonderful photos and pose a question.

At one point the actual medal was on display in a family member's home, but over the years has apparently disappeared. I had asked for a photo of the inscription on the reverse but alas, the medal was long since gone.

Also forwarded was this picture retrieved from an old family bible. He appears to be wearing what looks like an 8th Cavalry tunic or shirt.

The question posed had to do with his 2nd given name. While the official medal was issued in the name of Thomas H. Gay, many references note the initial was in fact a K.

My research suggests that the later is right and officialdom got it wrong when quickly looking at handwritten documents. An H and a K could easily be miss-read.

I suspect that most, when researching Thomas, myself included, googled the name and came up with the story of his receiving the Medal of Honor. An action performed whist with the 8th Cavalry.

But he ALSO served, to my surprise and perhaps others, in the Civil War as evidenced on this very old grave marker. That service was with the 62nd Massachusetts Infantry, very briefly in 1865. (Note the above marker has the initial K.)

After the question was posed I went in search of his original
enlistment documents... not with the 8th... but with the 62nd. And here is what I found....

While a little difficult to see in this image, three times his name is given with the initial K. One of these being his very own signature.

Being only 16 years of at the time, he required permission from family to enlist. This document is signed by his uncle who declares that he is the closest living relative, and gives the family permission to join the army. Note that the uncle also states that his 2nd given name began with a K... not an H.

Here is a March 1865 muster roll document. Note the use of the letter K. Note also a claim that he was born in PE Island, and the country given was England, Two years later with Canadian Confederation, the Island became the province of PEI.

Roots web genealogy documents also show that the initial is a K and stands for the name..."Knight." .

As noted in several; past blogs, with the US bicentennial celebrations many years back, the president of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society and others were asked to come up with a celebration special way to honour the MOH recipients. Two markers were designed. This being one of them . The president of the society at that time was Charlottetown PEI born Charles MacGillivary, who earned his MOH during the Battle of the Bulge during WWll.

The above marker for Gay was unveiled shortly after these were created. Ironically Gay, came from MacGillivary's province and very close to his Charlottetown roots as well.

Here we see the old and new markers together.

A few more updates are waiting to see the light of day in this space. Some of those will come on Sunday next.

Bart

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Late arrival of some details will delay today's blog till tomorrow night ... sorry folks!

4/22/2018

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Abe's Pets, Part ll

4/15/2018

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Last week I brought you the first part of Daniel Chaplin's story, one that I think all readers of this blog should know about. In fact it is one that you should share with your friends and neighbours as well.

This civilian clerk, raised in the Bangor Maine area, joined the military at the beginning of the US Civil War at the old age of 4I when most were under 20. But that did not stop him from repeatedly showing his bravery and leadership skills, raising a regiment 1,800 men strong, and in return gaining promotions from Private to full Colonel in very short order.

In May of 1864 Colonel Chaplin's regiment found themselves in the thick of a battle of about 170,000 on both sides at Spotsylvania Virginia. The inconclusive battle between the North and the South saw about 32,000 casualties and the First Maine Heavy Artillery, now acting as infantrymen would lose about 530 men when they got caught up in an attack, facing heavy artillery fire and plenty of obstacles preventing a quick escape.

A month later, to the day, and about 900 miles south of Washington DC, Chaplin's regiment would again become involved in a terribly costly battle for the Union near Petersburg. It is ironic that 49 years earlier the British Battle at Waterloo went in their favor. The May 18-19 1864 battle at Hare's House, near Petersburg would also be won by the British supported Confederacy.

To set the stage for the Civil War battle, it should be remembered that the First Maine Heavies, acting as Infantry by this time, where relatively new on the battlefield. Not that long previously it was doing the patrolling and guarding of the nation's capital and other area forts. Its day to day activity saw it training in tactics, that by 1864 were long since proven, in many cases, to no longer be the best way to do battle.

Lessons learned by hard fought battles usually saw the veterans passing these down to the front line troops in a unit. But most in the Heavies.. did not have this experience to pass down. The generals did but apparently did not pass this down to the greenhorns. Greenhorns full of gusto and bravery, much suppressed by those already having gone before and having learned their lessons.

Now back to Petersburg ...

At upper right we see the positioning of Major General Birney's ll Corps. Answering to him, and his junior was Brig. General Mott, and under Mott came several regiments, Colonel Chaplin's being one of these and shown at the very top near center of this map.

Chaplin's Heavies had about 900 men on the field that day. They were spread along a line of roadway that had a slight build up at its front so they could not see ahead, and the enemy, located between 3 and 500 yards to their front also could not see the Union troops.

Chaplin was actually slightly back of his unit as he was in temporary command of several units. He was near the Hare house shown above by the little black square.

Earlier in the day the Union tried to move forward and was driven back by the Confederates in dugouts along the treeline to Chaplin's front. These Confederate troops also consisted of fresh troops, and also had the aid of artillery already in command of the area that any advance by Union troops would have to cross.

Senior commanders ordered that another advance was to be made. The more experienced pleaded that it was a suicide mission as literally ever inch of the field to cross was covered by the enemy. A junior commander did not have the ability to convince the higher ups and the command was given to Charge and thus Chaplin was ordered to pass the command along.

Other more seasoned veterans were also given the command to charge but were not forced to do so by their commanders. So the First Maine Heavy Artillery, were forced to carry the entire burden of the battle, be the sole targets of the enemy and with no help from any backup units.

Within about 10 and 20 minutes, depending on sources consulted, figures again vary, but from 532 to 615 Union soldiers lay dead or dying on the field or went Missing in Action. These numbers have been recorded in history as being the highest casualties of any regiment of over 2000 in the Union Army during the war, to have been lost in one battle by a single unit.

The battle and slaughter is depicted in this painting. A careful study will show that about half in the image are dead or dying. Note also that all bayonets are fixed. One source says that the men were ordered not to shoot but only use their bayonets. One quote has only one Union soldier crossing the enemy line... and he immediately fell dead.

The Confederates also had loses. Apparently only 25 of them!

After the battle, when Maj. General Birney rode up to Chaplin, he asked where all his men were. He was told that they were mostly all out there... pointing to the field of battle and noting they were dead or dying. He then apparently withdrew his sword, handed it to his boss.. blade first, and said that the General may keep it, as he had no further use for it. He then sat down at the side of the road and cried like a child at the loss of most of his men, and in such a needless, and worse yet... foolish charge.

A month later the First Maine found themselves at a place called Deep Bottom Va. , Chaplin with sword.

It was the 17 August of 1864 and Chaplin's men again were in a dugout position along the line. He stood up at its ridge to use his glass to inspect the enemy positions. Two shots rang out. One just missing, the other hitting him in the chest with a very serious wound.

Chaplin was given initial treatment and then sent to the Turner's Lane Hospital at Philadelphia, shown here, where he died shortly after admittance on August 20th 1864.

Years later this monument to the regiment was unveiled at the battle site. Below is the reverse. It should be noted that about 20 names are apparently missing. One of these being Colonel Daniel Chaplin aged 44.

Here is another image taken years after the monument was mounted. The arrow on the right shows the monument while the one on left shows the tree line where the Confederates lay in wait for the Union slaughter about to take place.

Colonel Chaplin is buried at Mount Hope cemetery in Bangor Maine. The lower image is probably the first of his 2 grave markers.

On 30 March 1867, Secretary of War Stanton received the approval to posthumously promote Chaplin first to a Brig. General and then immediately to a Major General. Both promotions were to be back dated to August of 1864 when he was killed in action at Deep Bottom.

This is an entry out of the 1867 Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the US Senate of the US in March of 1867.

From the widow Susan's pension files regarding her late husband, here is a document signed just about a month later acknowledging that her husband had received two posthumous promotions He ought to have received a Medal of Honor but I can find no details re any recommendations for same as of yet.

In the early 1860's several forts were completed and others started in the DC area in the event the war moved close to DC. One of these, with 12 gun emplacements but only one installed suggesting the fort was never completed, was named in honour of Daniel Chaplin. Here is the map showing its location, remnants of which are still visible to sharp eyes in DC.

Here we see it along the right side of the image above. About a mile south there is a street called Chaplin Street but it is believed to have been named after a merchant and not Daniel.

Now, to completely throw you for a loop, here is a partial map of New Brunswick Canada.

About ten miles west of Miramichi NB is a small place of a few thousand called Red Bank.

While most sites will tell you that Daniel was raised in the Bangor area or close by in Maine, few tell you that before he was raised, he had to be born. And that happened at Red Bank New Brunswick. His parents had at least 12 children, the last 2 of these were born at Red Bank and Daniel was one of these.

Regular readers will recall me often mentioning that there are a number of Canadians who served as generals during the US Civil War. Many sites claim the number is around 5 or 6. My numbers are at 11. Some were born here, others have connections to Canada.

Since Daniel was born here he clearly joins these numbers. He ought to also join them as a Medal of Honor recipient, but that has not happened.

Yet!

See you next week!

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Abe's Pets, Paper Collars and Band Box Soldiers!

4/8/2018

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Daniel was born in 1820 and raised in the small town of some 3,000 called Bridgton Maine. But chances are, you've probably never heard of him.

Like many kids of the day, he probably grew up listening to old stories of how grandpa possibly fought at Bunker Hill and Ticonderoga during the Revolutionary War. But rather than soldiering he'd learn the trade of a clerk. By age 21 he'd moved to Bangor Maine and was developing quite a good reputation for his clerking talents in the Shipbuilding industry.

By 1846 Daniel was living in Glenburn, about a dozen miles North West of Bangor, and was married there that year. Over the next dozen years they would have 5 children, one girl and four boys. But sadly the girl died before her second birthday and a brother died at about age 6.

In 1861 Daniel heard the call for soldiers to sign up to defend their country in the War Against the States.(US Civil War) Was it the call, the excitement of friends and co-workers, the echoes of old stories from Grandpa, or the need for money or just excitement! Who Knows?

But whatever it was, it found him heading off to Bangor and trading his civilian clothes for that of a Private in F Company of the 2nd Maine Volunteer Infantry. It was 28 May 1861, and he was now Pvt Chaplin, and obligated to serve for 3 years come hell or high water. He's get both... and much more.

On enlistment he was an old man, if you will. While most were in late teens or early twenties, he was a whopping 41. No doubt this had much to do with his immediately being voted in by the rest of his company to be their leader... their Captain. Instead of a few kids, he now had about 100.

Within months his unit would be fighting at the Battle of Manassis. (First Bull Run) His performance must have been exceptional as he was promoted to Major less than 2 months later.

It was less than a year later at the Battle of Hanover Courthouse where Major Chaplin would again show his leadership and bravery for the cause. He had seen a near-bye Union Regiment of Artillery being driven off and their guns captured, He immediately rallied his own troops and made an attempt to rescue them. He failed. Whilst about to take a second run at the enemy, the artillery officer who lost the guns, a major by the name of Hamlin, saw that Chaplin was in trouble. A bullet damaged his scabbard and he could not withdraw his sword to rally the troops for a 2nd run at the Confederates. Hamlin raced out and offered Chaplin his own sword. Chaplin then made a move on the enemy, drove them off and rescued Hamlin's cannons.

You might recognize the name. His father was the Vice President of the United States!

Upon return Chaplin tried to return the sword but Hamlin, out of respect, insisted that the sword was now his to keep.

About 6 weeks later Chaplin was promoted to Colonel and sent back to Bangor to raise a new regiment, that would become the 18th Maine Volunteer Heavy Artillery, "the Heavies," as they became known to most. He would command this regiment for the next 6 months and then the unit would then be renamed the First Maine Heavy Artillery, with him still at the helm for about the next 16 months. (No pun meant for the navy readers.)

In less than 14 months Daniel Chaplin, shown above, had risen well over a dozen ranks from Private to a full Colonel.

For about the next 18 months Chaplin's Heavies spent their days marching and patrolling as part of the garrison defense force at Washington DC. When they finally got the call, the older vets in the area thought little of the Heavies as their service, though not their Colonel's, was limited to non combatant rolls and had yet to see the elephant. A military term for those yet christening on the fields of battle.)

The vets would tease them and call them Abe's Pets, Paper Collars, Band Box Soldiers and the like.

But soon they would quickly withdraw any criticism for the First Maine Heavy Artillery. A unit full of pride and destined to show the old boys what they were really made of.

And that would become evident about 900 miles south of the old enlistment stations of Bangor Maine.

This will come to you next weekend, as other duties are pressing today.

You do not want to miss the incredible follow-up!

Hope you will join me then.

Bart

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Too young to vote, but old enough to go to war... and come home with first ever Medal of Honor!

4/1/2018

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Folks around the world celebrate Easter today. Some, a little more giggly will celebrate today also as April Fools' Day.

A few days earlier, but back some 69 years ago, many closer to home had some real concerns about the British Colony of Newfoundland. It's long heated debates concluded with the decision to break away from Britain. And it had chosen April 1st as it's day of entry into our Dominion. Cooler heads of the day prevailed to avoid any possible silliness connected to April Fools and moved it back to March 31st. Regardless they were and are a most precious part of our Dominion today.

Same goes for the North West Territories. It became two separate territories when some 2 million square miles of the Eastern portion broke away and formed what we today know as Nunavut. That happened 19 years ago today.

Happy birthday to both Territories!

Closer to home for this blog, my last entry noted that today's would be dealing with the March 25th US celebration of National Medal of Honor Day. Such being proclaimed by Congress in 1990, and signed by the President. It's first celebration was in 1991, 28 years ago last week.

On March 25th, back in 1863, the first ever Medals of Honor were physically presented, to six of the escaped famous Andrews Raiders. They had been paroled from the Confederates and immediately invited to DC to tell of their incredible daring adventure, torture as prisoners, convicted in sham trials as spies and all ordered to death by hanging. Eight were. Two twice! But that's all in past blogs here.

When the six were finally paroled, they were rushed to Washington to tell of their dangerous advance several hundred miles into the heart of enemy territory. They told of the seized rail engine and several rail cars from the immediate area of a enemy drill camp of some 10,000 Confederates. Details were given about an 8 hour chase, little distance between raiders and pursuers, the race along almost 100 miles of track and destruction they caused along the way. They added that exhaustion and running out of fuel, caused them to eventually have to abandon the engine just about 20 miles from their destination at Chattanooga Tn. Thus being forced to flee for their own safety in unknown woods. Within 24 hours all had been caught.

It was 156 years ago this Friday the 6th, that Union civilian spy JJ Andrews, having previously met and given the go ahead, met with his 2nd in command.. another civilian spy by the name of William Campbell and some 20 soldiers to start their plan in motion.

In the early 1840's part of the state railway was being built in Georgia. At today's Kennesaw, some 30 miles North West of Atlanta stood a shanty, like so many others that were used for the workers on the line. This shanty was the high point in elevation on the rail line in the area and some 350 feet in elevation above that about 20 miles away. In rail talk it was thus referred to the big shanties, later morphed in the Big Shanty.

Having traveled over 130 miles in deep enemy territory over several days, the Raiders met up with a southbound train at Chattanooga Tn. Then they traveled south to Marietta Georgia on rail cars also loaded with Confederate soldiers. Spending the night in a hotel room the next morning they caught the same train northbound. It stopped as depicted in above painting, at the Big Shanty for the crew and passengers to have breakfast.

That was 12 March 1862. The day neither the North nor South would ever forget. The day that the train capture and destruction to Confederate facilities began... and ended. And the very day in which the South later proclaimed, would have been devastating to the Southern war, had it succeeded.

Over the next several hours the Raiders, often just minutes ahead of the Southerners in another train, managed to stop, lift some track, and cut telegraph lines. Attempts to set bridges on fire failed as recent rains had everything soaked. While in more detailed in past blogs, here we see a sketch of the "General," the railway's name for the engine captured, and the men nearing their last stages, dropping of the last of several cars and setting it on fire in hopes of blocking the pursuers.. But it was just pushed aside.

When the engine breaking down and then run out of fuel, it was only about 20 miles south of their objective. The Raiders had to abandon the train and run for their lives in the woods in all directions. They did not know North from South at that point and had to fend for themselves. At the same time thousands of troops were in the area looking for them, and more were en-route. Even trained hunter dogs used in the capture of run-away slaves were brought out. The citizenship themselves were out in force also. Many possibly because of the very quickly circulated poster shown below. Most were caught within 24 hours.

In very short order 8 of the soldiers caught were hung in a public display. This has been noted previously in this space, including the sham trials, selection of those to be hung and the barbarous way in which this was carried out.

It included two being very heavy, and actually breaking their ropes, falling to then ground and being recovered. Then left to watch the corpses of their comrades for about an hour. They were then rehung. One having his neck snapped immediately, but the other being too tall, and feet reaching the ground strangled over a long period until an onlooker got a shovel and brushed the dirt below his feet away to let him die as quickly as possible and bring to an end his insane torture.

Of the other prisoners, some had escaped after several moves from prison to prison. But by March of 1863, the remaining six were finally paroled and spirited off to Washington for briefings.

Here is the front page of the New York Times on 25 March 1863. It gives faint details about the Raiders. You can see its original depth of coverage.... all jammed into the little red circle.

This is the brief article enlarged.

The next day we got a little more in the same paper, shown above. Note that it mentions the men were awarded the first war medals for meritorious conduct, yet did not tell the world that these first medals were of course the Medal of Honor.

Here are pictures of the day for first recipients of the medal...

Top left to right are...Cpl ,William Reddick, Cpl William Pittenger and Pvt William Bensinger. Bottom Left to right are Sgt Elihu Mason, Pvt Jacob Parrott and Pvt Robert Buffum. All were volunteers in Ohio Infantry regiments.

Detailed in early blogs, Jacob Parrott was the youngest of the six to be first awarded the Medal of Honor. Whilst in captivity the Southerners turned their horror on him in an attempt to get information about their leader. They figured he would be the weakest, and thus easiest because of youth, to break. They were very wrong!

They stripped him and used four Confederates to drape him across a large bolder and started to whip him and demand details. They whipped and whipped and whipped, until after 100 or more lashes and him near death, they panicked about what might happen to them if he died. So they let him off the rock. And then threw him bleeding and near death into the 9 foot rat infested pit where some 20 other prisoners, some being Raiders, were being held. This after getting no info whatsoever from the youth.

Jacob's five comrades at Washington requested he be the first to receive the medal of Honor, and what he was given is shown above. The Secretary of War complied. Note that when created it had no date, nor details of deeds performed.

Often in this space I have talked about the first medals, ie the first earned, the first presented, and the first by General Order.

While clearly Parrott was the first ever to be presented with the medal. check out this 1886 book's details on the six raiders.

Here we see the "Date of Issue" mentioned. Could this be the actual date of the General Order. Is it possible that the first 6 had their medals presented before there was even an order signed by the President. Who knows? I do believe there are cases of this in the entire MOH story. But from above we see that of the six, Jacob Parrott was the last by "Date of Issue" and that being on Dec 30th 1863.

The column regarding date of action is not shown above. But in its place were the words... "1862 special service under General Mitchell." (He being the officer approving the raid in the first place.)

It should be further noted that with the 30 December Parrott date given above, this was 9 months after the presentation. And during that time no less than 67 sailors were awarded their medals. I have not researched army medals in that time frame.

Details aside, no intent whatsoever is being made to downgrade the rightful status Jacob Parrott and his Raiders deserve in the history of the medal and the United States itself.

The six Raiders were all offered commissions. Some declined. Parrott became a 2nd Lt in May of 1863 and a year later was promoted to Ist Lt and served throughout the rest of the war.

He later married and had children. One of these actually married one of the other Raider children and thus had two Medal of Honor sets of parents, if you will.

Jacob Parrott died in December of 1908 at the City of Kenton in Hardin County Ohio, and is buried there at the Grove Cemetery. This appears to be his original grave. Note it contains no information about his MOH status. The Grand Army of the Republic's marker is at his side, as is the flag he fought for.

Here we see a later grave marker noting that he was the first recipient of the medal for Distinguished Bravery, but again no mention of its correct wording... the Medal of Honor. Below this we see the redesigned MOH marker that came about back in 1976.

These and a upright version of marker were designed and created by a committee tasked with the President of the day, to reflect the importance that these heroes mean to the US... and the world. and one that could be unveiled during the Bicentennial year.

Of note to readers, the president of the Congressional MOH Society at the time, one playing an important part in the committee, was Prince Edward Island born Canadian Charles McGillivary, the then president of the CMOH Society, and a MOH recipient for bravery in action during the WW11 Battle of the Bulge.

So there you have it folks.. the first recipient, the date of same, and thus the date we now celebrate as MOH day across the US. Hopefully some day a similar event can occur in Canada for all of our 100 plus recipients.

See you next week with another story of a fellow I bet you never heard of before.

cheers and again, a Happy Easter to all.

Bart

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Try to image the terror and panic of 6.400 hoofs charging you and your comrades in battle!

More Atlantic Canada Medal of Honor Updates!

Late arrival of some details will delay today's blog till tomorrow night ... sorry folks!

Abe's Pets, Part ll

Abe's Pets, Paper Collars and Band Box Soldiers!

Too young to vote, but old enough to go to war... and come home with first ever Medal of Honor!

Author; Bart Armstrong

Archives

Categories

Author;

Bart Armstrong