"[We] rushed forward like tempest, through the stockade and up the parapet"

At Fort Fisher, seventy-two soldiers, sailors, and marines received the Medal of Honor for gallant service. Lieutenant William Henry Walling of the 142nd New York earned one of nine medals awarded to Federal soldiers after a Confederate flag, cut down by Union naval gunfire at Shepherd's Batter during the Christmas bombardment, was captured when he entered the fort through the palisade fence, scaled the exterior slope, and seized it. On January 15, 1865, Brevet Brigadier General Newman M. Curtis's brigade moved into position behind the attack on the fort, where volunteers planned to breach the wooden palisade fence; after reconnoitering it, Privates Alaric Chapin and James Spring of the 142nd New York and Dewitt Hotchkiss and Oscar Kingsland of the 112th New York determined that gunpowder bags were unnecessary, and a party of enlisted axe men from the 142nd New York chopped openings under heavy fire. Their work allowed Curtis's men to break through the palisade fence and advance up the western salient. Brigadier General Adelbert Ames later recommended medals for all enlisted men who opened the fence, but because his report was lost for many years, only four of the sixteen men received the Medal of Honor: Alaric Chapin, Zachariah Neahr, Bruce Anderson, and George Merrell. Medal of Honor recipient Private William Henry Freeman of Troy, New York, who had enlisted in the 169th New York Infantry in 1862, served in four southern states, was wounded twice, and on January 15, 1865 volunteered to carry his regiment's flag at Fort Fisher after the bearer was wounded, earning the Medal of Honor for his bravery.

North Carolina · United States