Civil War Medal of Honor Winners

Approved by the United States Congress in 1862, the Medal of Honor has been presented men and women who have distinguished themselves in service to their country. The medal may only be awarded to a person who was on active military service at the time of the incident. The first awardees of the medal were men involved in "The Great Locomotive Chase."

The Medal of Honor during the Civil War The medal was originally proposed to General Winfield Scott who did not like idea. However, a similar proposal was endorsed by Gideon Welles, then Secretary of the Navy. This proposal was signed by President Abraham Lincoln in December, 1861. The next year a "medal of valor" was created for the Army thanks to the efforts of Edward D. Townsend, Assistant Adjutant General. The bill creating this medal was signed into law in July, 1862. Although proposed only for the Civil War, Congress made the medal permanent in 1863. Since that time more than 3400 men and 1 woman have been awarded the medal.

The first formal system for rewarding acts of individual gallantry by the nation's fighting men was established by General George Washington on August 7, 1782.Designed to recognize "any singularly meritorious action," the award consisted of a purple cloth heart. Records show that only three persons received the ward: Sergeant Elijah Churchill, Sergeant William Brown, and Sergeant Daniel Bissel Jr. The Badge of Military Merit, as it was called, fell into oblivion until 1932, when General Douglas MacArthur, then Army Chief of Staff, pressed for its revival. Officially reinstituted on February 22, 1932, the now familiar Purple Heart was at first an Army award, given to those who had been wounded in World War I or who possessed a Meritorious Service Citation Certificate. In 1943, the order was amended to include personnel of the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. Coverage was eventually extended to include all services and "any civilian national" wounded while serving with the Armed Forces.

Although the Badge of Military Merit fell into disuse after the Revolutionary War, the idea of a decoration for individual gallantry remained through the early 1800s. In 1847, after the outbreak of the Mexican-American War, a "certificate of merit" was established for any soldier who distinguished himself in action. No medal went with the honor. After the Mexican-American War, the award was discontinued, which meant there was no military award with which to recognize the nation's fighting men. Early in the Civil War, a medal for individual valor was proposed to General-in-Chief of the Army Winfield Scott. But Scott felt medals smacked of European affectation and killed the idea.

The medal found support in the Navy, however, where it was felt recognition of courage in strife was needed. Public Resolution 82, containing a provision for a Navy medal of valor, was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on December 21, 1861. The medal was "to be bestowed upon such petty officers, seamen, landsmen, and Marines as shall most distinguish themselves by their gallantry and other seamanlike qualities during the present war." Shortly after this, a resolution similar in wording was introduced on behalf of the Army.Signed into law July 12, 1862, the measure provided for awarding a medal of honor "to such noncommissioned officers and privates as shall most distinguish themselves by their gallantry in action, and other soldierlike qualities, during the present insurrection." Although it was created for the Civil War, Congress made the Medal of Honor a permanent decoration in 1863. Almost 3,400 men and one woman have received the award for heroic actions in the nation's battles since that time.

Some of the biography material is from Washington State Men of Valor, by Donald K. and Helen L. Ross, copyright 1980, Coffee Break Press, Burley, Washington. Used by permission of Helen L. Ross.

Citations for every Medal of Honor Winner

Rank and organization: Corporal, Company H, 3d Minnesota Infantry. Place and date: Near Duck River, Tenn., 26 May-2 June 1863. Entered service at: Ft. Snelling, Rice County, Minn. Birth: 18 January 1841, Columbiana County, Ohio. Date of issue: 3 March 1917. Citation: While on a scout captured single-handed 2 desperate Confederate guerrilla officers who were together and well armed at the time.

Biography: I believe his family was Isaac, Mary and sister Louisa Barrick, listed Fairbank Township, 1870 Census of Rice County Minnesota. Louisa C. Barrick married J. Cole December 21, 1870. (Source: Fairbault Republican) Barrick, Jesse T., PVT Age: 30 Born; Ohio Regt: Third, H Mustered in: 25 Oct 1861, Rice Co. Minn. Remarks: Corporal, Reenlisted 31 Dec 1863. Promoted to 2nt Lieutenant 57th Colored Infantry 10 July 1864 (Source: Minnesota Adjutant General's Report of 1866). The newspaper article from the South County Journel, Kent, Washington, February 17, 2000 is available on-line from their archives section.  This link will take you there. http://southcountyjournal.com/sited/retr_story.pl/12698

Matthew Bickford

Rank and organization: Corporal, Company G, 8th Missouri Infantry Place and date: At Vicksburg, Miss., 22 May 1863. Entered service at: Trivolia, Peoria County, Ill. Birth: Peoria County, Ill. Date of issue: 31 August 1894. Citation: Gallantry in the charge of the "volunteer storming party." Biography: Matthew is buried at: Bayview Cemetery, Bellingham

Rank and organization: Quartermaster, U.S. Navy. Entered service at: Northampton, Mass. Birth: 1841, Canada. Date of issue: 24 November 1916. G.O. No.: 17, 10 July 1863. Citation: Served as quartermaster on board the U.S.S. Cincinnati during the attack on the Vicksburg batteries and at the time of her sinking, 27 May 1863. Engaging the enemy in a fierce battle, the Cincinnati, amidst an incessant fire of shot and shell, continued to fire her guns to the last, though so penetrated by enemy shellfire that her fate was sealed. Conspicuously cool in making signals throughout the battle, Bois, after all the Cincinnati's staffs had been shot away, succeeded in nailing the flag to the stump of the forestaff to enable this proud ship to go down, "with her colors nailed to the mast." Biography: Frank is buried at the GAR Cemetery in Seattle, Washington.

Herbert E. Farnsworth

Rank and organization: Sergeant Major, 10th New York Cavalry. Place and date: At Trevilian Station, Va., 11 June 1864. Birth: Cattaraugus County, N.Y. Date of issue: 1 April 1898. Citation: Voluntarily carried a message which stopped the firing of a Union battery into his regiment, in which service he crossed a ridge in plain view and swept by the fire of both armies. Biography: Herbert is buried at Pomeroy City Cemetery in Garfield County, Washington

Asbury F. Haynes

Rank and organization: Cpl, Co F, 17th Maine Inf. Action: At Sailors Creek, Va, 6 Apr 1865. Entered service at: Maine. Born: Edinburgh, Maine. Issued: 10 May 1865. Citation: Capture of flag. Biography: Asbury is buried at Lakeview Cemetery, Seattle, Washington.

George L. Houghton

Rank and organization: Private, Company D, 104th Illinois Infantry. Place and date: At Elk River, Tenn., 2 July 1863. Entered service at: Brookfield, Cook County, Ill. Birth: Canada. Date of issue: 27 March 1900. Citation: Voluntarily joined a small party that, under a heavy fire, captured a stockade and saved the bridge. Biography:George buried at the State Soldier's Home Cemetery in Orting.

William McCammon

Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, Company E, 24th Missouri Infantry Action: Corinth, Miss., 3 October 1862. Entered service at: Montgomery County, Mo. Born: Ohio Issued: 9 July 1896. Citation: While on duty as provost marshal, voluntarily assumed command of his company, then under fire, and so continued in command until the repulse and retreat of the enemy on the following day, the loss to this company during the battle being very great. Biography: William is buried at Vancouver Barracks, Vancouver, Washington.

Rank and organization: Corporal, Company H, 26th Michigan Infantry. Place and date: At Spotsylvania Courthouse, Va., 12 May 1864. Entered service at: Muskegon, Mich. Born: 1842, Ireland. Date of issue: 11 January 1900. Citation: Captured a Confederate color in a charge, threw the flag over in front of the works, and continued in the charge upon the enemy. Biography: Alexander is buried at the State Soldier's Home Cemetery in Orting.

Rank and organization: Private, Company K, 55th Illinois Infantry. Place and date: At Vicksburg, Miss., 22 May 1863. Entered service at: Bridgers Corner, Ill. Birth: Mercer County, Pa. Date of issue: 2 September 1893. Citation: Gallantry in the charge of the "volunteer storming party." Biography: Jerome is buried in Riverton Crest Cemetery in Tukwila, Washington

Rank and organization: Quartermaster, U.S. Navy. Birth: 1842, Germany. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 59, 22 June 1865. Citation: Served as quartermaster on board the U.S.S. Peterel during its capture in Yazoo River, 22 April 1864. Standing his ground when a shot came through the stern, raking the gundeck and entering and exploding the boilers, when all the others had deserted the flag, Nibbe assisted in getting the wounded off the guard and proceeded to get ready to fire the ship despite the escaping steam from the boilers at which time he was surrounded on all sides by the rebels and forced to surrender.

Biography: Recognized as a sailing master, storekeeper and postmaster in early Kitsap County, John Nibbe is ignored in local annals as a national hero. In the Hall of Heroes, Arlington, Virginia, Nibbe's name is enrolled along with Greg Boyington, John "Bud" Hawk, Johnathan Wainwright, Hazard Stevens and fifty-five other Washingtonians whose brave actions merited the Medal of Honor.

Of the eight Medal recipients recognized as permanent or part-time residents of Kitsap County, Nibbe, a Civil War veteran, is the first to have received the honor of wearing the coveted Medal. Further, Nibbe bears the distinction of being one of two Medal of Honor recipients buried in Kitsap County.

Born in Hamburg, Germany, November 25, 1847 Nibbe went to sea at the tender age of fourteen in merchant ships plying between Hamburg and New York. By the time he was seventeen, he had served in both the United States Army and Navy during the Civil War.

On April 22, 1864, Quartermaster John H. Nibbe threaded the Union's gunboat USS Peterel up the Yazoo River channel which runs northeast out of Vicksburg in western Mississippi.

In an engagement on the river with the Confederacy, a shot ripped through the stern of the ship. Boilers exploded as the enemy raked the gun decks. Fire, heat and ear-splitting blasts from bursting ammunition created a hell-hot atmosphere. In a frenzy of fear and panic, officers and men jumped overboard only to be gunned down or drowned. Not so Quartermaster Nibbe.

Though much younger than most of his shipmates, Nibbe assisted in removing the wounded from exposed areas and then proceeded to the fireroom. Man-killing steam escaped from boilers ruptured in the initial attack. Nibbe started to light fires under the undamaged boilers.

Suddenly he was surrounded by rebel soldiers and forced to surrender. Along with two others of the ship's company he was captured and transported to a southern prison. Out of the fifty-four officers and men in the Peterel, fifty-one of them lost their lives that day. The record omits the date of Nibbe's release from prison. He was honorably discharged from the Navy on January 12, 1865, three months before the final battle.

At War's end, General Order No. 59 of June 22, 1865 directed that Medals of Honor be awarded to sixty-five Navy men from twenty-one ships for actions above and beyond the call of duty. Nibbe was one of those men.

After his discharge, Nibbe followed the sea. Sailing in the deepest waters of the globe, he rounded the Horn in 1867. After a short stay in California he moved to Puget Sound. He immediately engaged in logging and later served on steamers Favorite, Flying Dutchman and other craft.

In 1867 he opened a store and Post Office at Crystal Springs, which, today is in an area of homes on the southwest coast of Bainbridge Island. Nibbe married Georgianna Porter, a widow, June 30, 1885 when he was thirty-eight years old. Two years before that date, a Port Blakely precinct census showed John Nibbe, 34 year old Jenny Nibbe and two young boys living at the same residence. Since there is no record of Nibbe's marriage to Jenny and there were no white women living in what was then Oregon Territory when Jenny was born, it is assumed that Jenny was an American Indian.

Nibbe was appointed Postmaster of Nibbeville Post Office at Crystal Springs, serving until 1890. He subsequently served as Postmaster at Mitchell Point and in Bremerton.

The man who made an early start in life was one of the first entrepreneurs of Kitsap County. He understood the economics of transporting goods in his own ships to his own store which would attract settlers who required a Post Office which he would operate.

With transportation at the ready, Nibbe had no difficulty moving his merchandise into an area on the brink of development. Consequently he streamed just ahead of the tide of settlers, moving from Crystal Springs to Mitchell Point to Sidney and finally to Bremerton. At his last stop, his general merchandise store was the first commercial business in Bremerton which boasted almost a dozen buildings.

During that period of parapetic businesses Nibbe's ships included the steamer Seattle; Watchmaker (sunk in 1886); sloop Sea Bird (a Port Orchard-Seattle ferry); Lief Erickson (burned in the Sound, December 1888); excursionist stern-wheeler Nellie and San-Juan.

Nibbe was remembered by pioneers as one of those considerate mosquito fleet captains who was not too busy or too hurried to stop and pluck a passenger or a shopping list out of a rowboat anywhere in the Sound.

At least in the Gay 90s he must have been recognized as a hero for he was given the signal honor of greeting the station ships for the new naval base in Bremerton. With no assistance, Nibbe loaded and fired all twenty-one rounds from an old cannon mounted on Fort Hill at the foot of the Sidney Hotel. No better selection could have been made than Civil War veteran Nibbe to blast off the cannon welcoming the USS Nipsic, another Civil War relic.

Nibbe relinquished his position as Bremerton Postmaster in May, 1901. The next Spring he retired from his merchandise business.

John H. Nibbe died June 15, 19-02 and is buried in Ivy Green Cemetery, Bremerton. The inscription on his headstone, "54 years of age," places his birthday in 1847 or 1848. This is at variance with the statistic in his Medal Citation which claims 1842 as his year of birth.

The large headstone honors Nibbe as "A Woodman of the World." Factually, Quartermaster Nibbe rates number one rank among patriots of Kitsap County.

Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company A, 7th Wisconsin Infantry. Place and date: At Gravelly Run, Va., 31 March and 1 April 1865. Entered service at: West Point Township, Columbia County, Wis. Birth: Canada. Date of issue: Unknown. Citation: On 31 March 1865, with a comrade, recaptured a Union officer from a detachment of 9 Confederates, capturing 3 of the detachment and dispersing the remainder, and on 1 April 1865, seized a stand of Confederate colors, killing a Confederate officer in a hand-to-hand contest over the colors and retaining the colors until surrounded by Confederates and compelled to relinquish them.

Biography: A few weeks before the end of the Civil War, Sergeant Albert O'Connor of Company A, 7th Wisconsin Infantry, recaptured a Union officer who had been a prisoner of nine Confederates at Gravelly Run, Virginia. Assisted by another Sergeant, William H. Sickles, on March 31, 1865 O'Connor captured three of the Confederates and dispersed the other six enemy soldiers.

The following day, 23 year old O'Connor engaged in hand-to-hand combat with an enemy officer in an effort to seize a stand of Confederate colors. O'Connor killed the officer during the struggle. In attempting to reach his own lines with the enemy's banners, O'Connor was surrounded by Confederate soldiers who recaptured their colors but spared O'Connor's life. O'Connor and Sickles served in the Iron Brigade, a group of outstanding infantrymen. They fought and bled shoulder to shoulder throughout 30 separate engagements.

Albert O'Connor was born in Canada in 1842. He joined the 7th Wisconsin Infantry at West Point Township, Columbia County, Wisconsin. On March 31, 1865 he fought with Company A at Gravelly Run, Virginia where his heroic deeds for two days caught the attention of his superior officers and for which he received the Medal of Honor.

O'Connor was admitted to Orting Soldiers' Home, Orting, Washington, September 6, 1915 where, at 86 years, he died, April 3, 1928. He is buried in the Home Cemetery near his comrade, Sickles, in Section 4.

Rank and organization: Private, Company G, 13th New York Infantry. Place and date: At Bull Run, Va., 30 August 1862. Entered service at: ------. Birth: Franklinville, N.Y. Date of issue: 23 March 1895. Citation: Picked up the colors and carried them off the field after the color bearer had been shot down; was himself wounded.

Rank and organization: Corporal, Company A, 1st West Virginia Cavalry. Place and date: At Sailors Creek, Va., 6 April 1865. Birth: Preston County, W. Va. Date of issue: 3 May 1865. Citation: Capture of flag of 76th Georgia Infantry (C.S.A.).

Biography: The Civil War ground to a halt. early in April 1865 General George Armstrong Custer's Division pursued the Confederate Army as they fled south after the fall of Petersburg, Virginia. A man who would spent most of his life in Washington State contributed in a large measure to the continuing success of Federal troops.

Corporal Emisire Shahan rubbed his finger along the barrel of his hand gun. He had the .44 caliber Colt cap and ball revolver had seen plenty of action since the day he joined the West Virginia Brigade in 1861. At the moment of reflection, Shahan did not know that his gun would bring honor to him for the rest of his life and beyond.

At Sailor's Creek, Virginia the 76^th Georgia Infantry made a stand, a delaying tactic. What had been a rout became a stalemate. Peering across a war-torn field at the Confederate Army, Shahan squinted in the bright sunshine. He noted the dogwood trees bursting their buds, and in the background, the Confederate flag which the 76^th Georgia Infantry had posted.

Corporal Shahan recalled a certain talk by his Company Commander. He had told the men that loss of a unit flag during a battle can be devastating. Loss of a banner influences morale and generally indicates loss of territory. Likewise, capturing the enemy's flag brings elation and a surge of power to the victor and his comrades. Its possession is synchronous with success.

History fails to record specific actions of Corporal Shahan. We do know that he rode out, captured the flag and brought it back to his lines. His Medal of Honor Citation is one of the briefest stating, "Capture of flag of 76^th Georgia Infantry (CSA)." What reads like a simple act may well have been fraught with great danger as no doubt the enemy would not release their banner without a struggle.

Some historians say that Emisire Shahan's brave deed broke the morale of a large unit of the Confederate Army. Three days later General Robert E. Lee requested a suspension of hostilities.

In less than a month, Shahan's daring exploit was recognized as "above and beyond the call of duty." An order of May 3, 1865 directed that a Medal of Honor be awarded Corporal Emisire Shahan, United States Army.

Emisire Shahan was named Amaziah Shahan when he was born in mountainous Preston County, West Virginia August 14, 1843. His parents, Samuel and Rebecca Wolf Shahan, descended from early settlers in Delaware. Amaziah's mother died when he was nine years old and he moved in with a farmer, Harry Brown. In 1861 he enlisted in the First West Virginia Volunteer Cavalry and was assigned to Company A.

According to a Preston County Journal newspaper account of 1858, when Amaziah Shahan enlisted in the Army, the clerk did not understand the given name, Amaziah. He came as close as he could with his own hill country accent by writing down Emisire which name Shahan assumed from that time. The name, Amaziah, originally recorded on six pages of various family bibles, has been crossed out and the name Emisire inserted above.

While on a furlough, February 14, 1864, Shahan married Rebecca Miller. At the end of his three-year hitch, he reenlisted November 30, 1864 when the command re-organized. After a total of four years service, all during the Civil War, Sergeant Emisire Shahan received an honorable discharge at Wheeling, West Virginia on July 8, 1865.

Back home in West Virginia eleven children were born to Emisire and Rebecca. Four of them died in a typhoid epidemic of the middle 1880s and wife Rebecca died in 1886 in Hallas, West Virginia. Shahan brought his seven remaining children to Washington State where he homesteaded on the Satsop River in Grays Harbor County. Shahan reaped the benefits of the pioneers of the Pacific Northwest, logging and hunting, and then ranching when the forest was cleared from his acreage.

In 1894 he returned to West Virginia where he married Mrs. Melvina H. Russell, widow of a Civil War soldier. The couple returned to the homestead where they lived until 1907 when they moved into the small town of Satsop.

Emisire Shahan died November 17, 1919 in Satsop. With his Medal of Honor pinned to his jacket, the former Sergeant was buried with military honors in the Masonic Cemetery near Elma, Washington. The pall bearers in full uniform, recently returned from action in WW I and occupation of Germany, reminded onlookers of the repetition of war. One of the few benefits of the battlefield is the opportunity for man to reveal courage and bravery. Emisire Shahan's act of valor brought him the esteem of his countrymen that day, today, and tomorrow.

Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company B, 7th Wisconsin Infantry. Place and date: At Gravelly Run, Va., 31 March 1865. Entered service at: Columbia County, Wis. Birth: Danube, N.Y. Date of issue: Unknown. Citation: With a comrade, attempted capture of a stand of Confederate colors and detachment of 9 Confederates, actually taking prisoner 3 members of the detachment, dispersing the remainder, and recapturing a Union officer who was a prisoner in hands of the detachment.

Biography: Sergeant William H. Sickles served with Company B, 7th Wisconsin Infantry the day he assisted Sergeant Albert O'Connor in the recapture of a Union officer and three Confederate soldiers. While Sickles' only recorded claim to glory is the March 31st conquest at Gravelly Run, Virginia, one must realize the incident was undoubtedly fraught with danger.

In the 20th century, Sickles and O'Connor claimed a comradeship with roots nurtured during infantry days. Though assigned to different companies part of the time, they usually fought side by side in 30 different engagements.

William H. Sickles was born in Danube, New York in 1843. After the Civil War, he married and lived in Yakima where he worked as a barber. He was admitted to the Orting Soldiers' Home, Orting Washington, at the age of 54.

When Sergeant Albert O'Connor came to the Home in 1915, the battlefield comradeship with Sickles blossomed into a staunch friendship. Sickles died September 26, 1938 and is buried in Section 4, at the Orting, Washington Soldiers' Home Cemetery.

Thaddeus S. Smith

Rank and organization: Corporal, Company E, 6th Pennsylvania Reserve Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 2 July 1863. Birth: Franklin County, Pa. Date of issue: 5 May 1900. Citation: Was 1 of 6 volunteers who charged upon a log house near the Devil's Den, where a squad of the enemy's sharpshooters were sheltered, and compelled their surrender. Biography: Thaddeus is buried at Laurel Grove Cemetery, GAR Plot, Port Townsend

Rank and organization: Captain and Assistant Adjutant General, U.S. Volunteers. Place and Date: At Fort Huger, Va., 19 April 1863. Entered service at: Olympia, Washington Territory. Birth: 9 June 1842, Newport, R.I. Date of issue: 13 June 1894. Citation: Gallantly led a party that assaulted and captured the fort.

Biography: Hazard Stevens became the second Washingtonian to be accorded the nation's top combat award. Stevens descended from a long line of leaders. As far back as 1642, one of his ancestors, John Stevens of Caversham, Oxford, England, founded Andover, Massachusetts. Other Stevens figured in the initial founding of our country. Hazard's father, Isaac Stevens, served simultaneously as a Major General in the Army and Governor of Washington Territory from 1853 to 1857.

Young Hazard accompanied his father on expeditions to various Indian tribes of the Northwest. When only thirteen years of age, he joined his father and a party of twenty-five white men to begin a 3,000 mile trip. Their nine month journey, long and dangerous, extended as far east as the Missouri River. Fraught with cold and ice, treacherous Indians and inadequate communications, the expedition matured the young boy.

When Isaac Stevens was elected to Congress in 1860, Hazard entered Chauncey Hall in Boston, Massachusetts to prepare for acceptance to Harvard University. At the start of the Civil War, Isaac resigned from Congress and volunteered for active duty in the Army. He was assigned as a Colonel to the 79th Highlanders, New York Volunteer Army.

Hazard, then a freshman at Harvard, left college and also volunteered. He joined the 1st Brigade which his father commanded. By October of that first year he advanced to Captain and Assistant Adjutant General of the Brigade. In 1862 Hazard fought in Pope's Campaign, the 2nd Battle of Bull Run and the Battle of Chantilly. At Chantilly he was wounded twice and his father was killed on September 1, 1862 at forty-four years of age.

After two months hospitalization, Hazard Stevens was assigned to the 3rd Division, 9th Corps. He fought at Fredericksburg, the James River Campaign and at the capture of Fort Huger on the Nansemond River. He planned, led and successfully carried out the attack on Fort Huger. Thirty-one years later, on June 12, 1894, a General Order awarded a Medal of Honor to Hazard Stevens for bravery displayed during the capture of the Fort.

In the battle of the Wilderness Stevens served as Inspector General and Adjutant General of the 2nd Division, 6th Corps of the Army of the Potomac. This bloody hunt to the death in Northern Virginia, led by General U.S. Grant, cost the Union forces 17,500 casualties. Stevens was wounded again. By the time he had received three brevets for exceptional performance on the battlefield.

Stevens' last brevet promoted him to Brigadier General on April 2, 1865 for heroism at Petersburg and Richmond, Virginia. Not yet twenty-three years of age, he became the youngest general in the Civil War.

After the War between the States, Hazard Stevens collected revenue for Washington Territory and was employed for four years by the Oregon State Navigation Company. On August 17, 1870 he became one of the first two men to climb to the top of Mount Rainier, the third highest peak in the United States.

He continued his varied career, read law privately, was admitted to the bar and served as attorney for Northern Pacific Railroad and as President of Olympia Light and Power Company and Olympia Railroad Union.

Stevens returned to Boston in 1875 to set up a law practice and to care for his widowed mother. In 1885 he was elected to the Massachusetts General Court,. For the next four decades he returned annually to the Olympia area to develop a dairy farm and to oversee his other businesses. Cloverfields Dairy Farm consisted of 320 acres surrounding a large Dutch Colonial house which featured a huge formal reception hall used for lavish entertainment.

General Stevens, as he was called, returned to Olympia in 1916 to write a history of his father's life. The General died in 1918 at the age of seventy-six, still a bachelor. Bits and pieces of the land had been sold off over the years. In 1977 the house and last four and a half acres were sold by the widow of one of Isaac Stevens' great grandsons. Four generations of the Stevens family had lived at Cloverfields, now being considered for listing in the National Registry of Historic Places.

Hazard Stevens is called, in one history book, "one of the state's most distinguished pioneers." Who will contest that?

Rank and organization: Colonel, 63d Ohio Infantry. Place and date: At Decatur, Ga., 22 July 1862. Entered service at: Sandusky, Ohio Birth: 4 April 1817, White Creek, N.Y. Date of issue: 18 January 1894. Citation: With a small command defeated an overwhelming force of the enemy and saved the trains of the corps. Biography: John is buried in Tacoma, Washington.

Rank and organization: Corporal, Company E, 55th Illinois Infantry. Place and date: At Vicksburg, Miss., 22 May 1863. Entered service at: Lemont, Ill. Birth: Cook County, Ill. Date of issue: 2 September 1893. Citation: Gallantry in the charge of the "volunteer storming party." Biography: John is buried at the Orting Cemetery in Orting.

John M. Wilson

Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Engineers. Place and date: At Malvern Hill, Va., 6 August 1862. Entered service at: Washington Territory. Birth: Olympia, Washington Territory. Date of issue: 3 July 1897. Citation: Remained on duty, while suffering from an acute illness and very weak, and participated in the action of that date. A few days previous he had been transferred to a staff corps, but preferred to remain until the close of the campaign, taking part in several actions.

Biography: John M. Wilson was the first man, residing in Washington Territory, to perform an act of heroism which merited the Medal of Honor. However, he was not the first in the Territory or State to receive his Medal. That honor was accorded to John H. Nibbe as early as 1865. Wilson waited 35 years for the presentation of his Medal in 1897.

Few details are known regarding the action in which Wilson's heroism was displayed and recognized. The citation for his Medal places him as a First Lieutenant serving with the United States Engineers at Malvern Hill, Virginia on August 6, 1862.

The Civil War was in its second year when attrition struck United States Engineers engaged in a week-long battle. First Lt. John Wilson, weak and weary from leading constant attacks on Southern forces, finally reported to a hospital tent where he was diagnosed as seriously ill. Authorities ordered him to remain behind lines in a staff position for a period of recuperation.

Wilson, ever in the forefront of maneuvers and tactics refused to be separated from the action. In spite of his weakened condition he insisted on accompanying the Engineers who were on the move. He not only stayed with the troops but took part in several actions against the enemy.

Historians can only guess at the actual actions of Wilson that day at Malvern Hill. By contrast, his achievements for his entire forty-one year Army career are carefully recorded.

John Moulder Wilson was born in the District of Columbia on October 8, 1837. Columbia Lancaster, Delegate from Washington Territory to the House of Representatives, nominated Wilson in December, 1854 for appointment as cadet at West Point. The letter of application was addressed to "The Honorable Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War."

Wilson, then a resident of Olympia, Washington Territory, was admitted to the Academy July 1, 1855. He graduated twelfth in a class of 41 members, was commissioned a 2nd Lt. July 1, 1860, and served the U.S. Army until the turn of the century.

During the Civil War he participated in campaigns in Maryland and Virginia; he superintended defenses of Baltimore, Maryland; Harpers Ferry, Virginia; Memphis, Vicksburg and Natchez, all in Tennessee; New Orleans, Louisiana ad Ship Island, Mississippi. Before War's end he was brevetted five times but not recommended for the Medal of Honor until three-and-a-half decades later.

During his lengthy Army career he traveled extensively and supervised major construction and engineering projects. He also directed memorial and monument work including completion of the Washington Monument in Washington D.C. in 1888-1889. He supervised building of the Army Medical Museum, and marking positions of each command at Gettysburg with memorial tablets.

Wilson's connection with Washington State is based on a three-year period, December 1875 to October 1878. He supervised engineering of Forts Stevens and Canby, river and harbor improvements ion Oregon and Washington Territories including the Columbia, Willamette and Snake Rivers, the Cascade Canal and the 13th lighthouse district.

The list of his accomplishments includes the increase of potable water in Washington D.C., erection of fish-ways in the Potomac river falls, improvement of innumerable rivers, harbors and lakes, survey of a water route from the Great Lakes to tide water, preservation of historical buildings and Superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Known as a man of great tact and discretion he was invaluable as a master of ceremonies at White House functions and supervisor of all social affairs.

He was appointed Colonel of Engineers March 31, 1895, and promoted to Brigadier General. Two years later he was appointed Chief of Engineers, U.S. Army. This position he held until he retired October, 1901.

Wilson died in Washington D.C., February 1, 1919 at 81 years of age. In southwestern Washington State, Forts Stevens and Canby stand as memorials to the accomplishments of John Moulder Wilson. Elsewhere, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, his works were many.