Showing results for "Medal of Honor"
The Flooding Across Vermont
Last month I wrote about how Maj. William J. Sperry earned the Medal of Honor at the Petersburg Breakthrough on April 2, 1865. The 6th Vermont’s acting commander devised an unconventional method on the fly for using captured artillery pieces. This discouraged any counterattacks as the Sixth Corps fought to expand their breach in the […]
Read more...Commanding the Regiment: Galusha Pennypacker: The Civil War’s Youngest General
PHILADELPHIA, October 1—1916 General Galusha Pennypacker, U.S.A., retired, died here today in the Jefferson Hospital from a complication of diseases brought on by wounds suffered in the civil war. He was in his seventy-third year, and was the youngest officer in either the Union or Confederate Armies to win the brevet of Brigadier. [1] And […]
Read more...Commanding the Regiment: USCTs Lead Companies at New Market Heights
On October 11, 1864, less than two weeks after the battles fought at New Market Heights and Fort Harrison, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler produced a circular praising the efforts of the X and XVIII Corps, which comprised his Army of the James. “The time has come when it is due to you that some word […]
Read more...Commanding the Regiment: William Sperry’s Creative Cannoneering
During the final assault on the Confederate entrenchments at Petersburg, April 2, 1865, the 6th Vermont Infantry’s acting commander found himself among an artillery battery abandoned by its crew. The major cleverly devised a way to wield the cannons against the defenders as they rallied to retake the position. Having worked his way up from […]
Read more...Henry Boynton, Battlefield Preservation, and Civil War Memory
Emerging Civil War welcome back guest author Colonel (ret) Ed Lowe… Civil War battlefields evoke a range of emotions in visitors. One may imagine the Confederate attacks against Major General George Meade’s lines at Gettysburg or the Union gunboats battling their way through Vicksburg’s defenses. As I look up at Missionary Ridge in Chattanooga, I […]
Read more...“I’ll Take That Chance and Live, Too”: Pvt. Judson Spofford, 10th Vermont Infantry
During the summer of 1862, President Abraham Lincoln pleaded for 300,000 more volunteers to help put down the rebellion. Hundreds of thousands of men answered the call. Thousands of boys joined, too. One such youth, Judson Spofford, enlisted on July 22, 1862, in his hometown of Salem, Vermont. Although his regimental enlistment records claimed he […]
Read more...From Camp Servants to Soldiers – Part II
The famous 54th Massachusetts included a number of men who first served as camp servants before formally enlisting as arms-bearing soldiers. Probably the best documented individual due to his surviving collection of letters is George E. Stephens. Born free in Philadelphia, educated, and from a respected family that had left Virginia in the wake of […]
Read more...From Camp Servants to Soldiers – Part I
On July 9, 1861, Lt. Col. Barham Bobo Foster, 3rd South Carolina Infantry, wrote to his daughter in Spartanburg District from Fairfax Court House, Virginia, about how good army life was: “If you all knew how we enjoyed ourselves here you would not be uneasy about us. we live rough but have plenty of it […]
Read more...Fallen but not Forgotten: Corporal Obadiah Triford, Co. G, 22nd USCI
Recently the Capital Region Land Conservancy announced the addition of 49 acres to the growing total saved at the New Market Heights battlefield. This particular section of the battlefield, located on the Federal left during the September 29, 1864 assaults, is where Col. John Holman’s brigade (22nd, 1st, and 37th United States Colored Infantry regiments) […]
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