General James B. McPherson's 17th Corps Medal

After a siege of more than six weeks, the city of Vicksburg fell on the 4^th of July 1863 to Civil War General Ulysses S. Grant’s Union forces. The honor of leading the victorious troops into the captured stronghold fell to General James B. McPherson’s 17^th Corps of the Army of the Tennessee. As commander of the Union's occupation forces at Vicksburg, McPherson, on the 2^nd of October 1863, authorized a medal to be awarded to officers and enlisted men of the 17^th Corps who displayed “gallant and distinguished service in the field.” Sometimes called the “medal of gold,” it remains among the rarest of Civil War memorabilia.

17th Corps Medal

                

Exactly how many and to whom the medal (pictured above) was awarded is unknown. One who received it was Major L. S. Willard, McPherson’s senior aide-de-camp. He and others of McPherson’s staff accompanied his body to Clyde, Ohio after he was killed during the opening rounds of the Battle of Atlanta. Three weeks later, Willard wrote his friend and comrade Lt. Augustus. C. Blizzard, also a recipient of the medal. 

Lt. A.C. Blizzard
Courtesy of
Harry Blizzard

On August 15^th, Willard wrote from Peoria, Illinois, “I am now at home waiting to see what will be done with me after accompanying the remains of our beloved commander to their last resting place…It was a very sad duty Capt. Gile, Steele, and myself had to perform. It must have been a sad and lonely Head Qtrs. the night of the 22^nd of July with the tent of our beloved General vacant and vacant forever. That Army felt that night as though a loss unrepairable had befallen them; to me the thought was fearful it seemed as though with the death of the General the Army of the Tennessee almost became extinct. His relatives in Ohio felt the loss as only Mothers and Sisters can, everyone paid the greatest respect to the remains.”

After leaving Clyde, Major Willard resigned his commission at Cincinnati and left the military. He had been with the 17^th Corps since the Battle of Shiloh, Today, other war date letters written by Willard are preserved and online at the Newberry Library in Chicago.

General McPherson's 17th Corps Army of the Tennessee
Balfour House, Vicksburg
(Lt. Blizzard standing at far right)
Courtesy of the Old Courthouse Museum

Lt. Blizzard was proud of his appointment to General McPherson's 17th Corps staff. Like Willard, he too resigned shortly after McPherson's death. He returned to Iowa where he lived a long and useful life before his death in Malcome, Iowa in 1909. His obituary mentions his being awarded "the "Medal of Gold" for gallant and distinguished service in the field. Engraved on same, Battles of Shiloh, Corinth, Raymond, Jackson, Champion Hills, and Vicksburg July 4th, 1863"

                                                                  

                                                         

Anniversary of the Death of Civil War General James B. McPherson

On this day in 1864, Clyde, Ohio native General James Birdseye McPherson was killed in the opening rounds of the Battle of Atlanta. The Society of the Army of the Tennessee dedicated this equestrian statue of their former commander at what became known as McPherson Square in Washington, D. C. located some six blocks from the White House.


The veterans unveiled the monument on October 18, 1876, the date of the society's 11th reunion.  The sculpture features McPherson on horseback, surveying a battlefield with field glasses in his right hand. In the casting of the statue, created Louis Rebisso, Confederate cannon captured at the Battle of Atlanta were used.


To learn more about the statue located over General McPherson's grave in Clyde, Ohio, go to the earlier post http://ohiosyesterdays.blogspot.com/search?q=mcpherson.

General James B. McPherson Monument at Clyde, Ohio

General James B. McPherson Monument

On August 22nd, 1881, 10,000 individuals - Civil War veterans, U.S. congressmen, military officers, area residents and even an ex-president - joined family members in Clyde, Ohio, to honor General James B. McPherson. A bronze statue, at long last, would mark his gravesite.

The story of Clyde's McPherson monument started years earlier. Civil War veterans and Clyde citizens had struggled unsuccessfully for more than a decade to raise funds for a memorial worthy of General McPherson, the highest-ranking Union officer killed in the Civil War. The catalyst for reaching their goal finally came in the spring of 1876.

The incident involved the unexpected arrival in Clyde of strangers from Washington, D.C., who had come to remove McPherson's body for re-burial in the capital. Clyde residents exploded in anger. Tempers flared and accusations of grave robbing flew as inaccurate newspaper reports fanned the flames. Councilman A. B. French recalled, "Our people did not take kindly to the idea of having our dead hero removed. A secret committee of citizens was formed to guard the grave. If those fellows from Washington had come back to get McPherson's body, powder would have been used!"

Only gradually, did the full truth come out. In fact, it was McPherson's fiancee, Emily Hoffman of Baltimore, still in mourning, who wished to have the remains of her gallant soldier nearby. As years passed and no Clyde monument materialized, Emily called on two of McPherson's closest friends for help - then President Ulysses S. Grant and General William T. Sherman. Her brother-in-law, one of the founders of Wells Fargo, offered to pay for the completion of an equestrian statue of McPherson if Grant and Sherman could convince Congress to provide a location and a granite base. When arrangements were complete, Grant himself contacted Cynthia McPherson. She agreed to the reburial of her son's remains beneath the statue in Washington, D.C. And, rather than an insensitive "lowly government official," as local residents claimed, it was General George Elliot who came to take the body of his dear friend to the capital. Elliot, a fellow West Point engineer, had been McPherson's assistant in San Francisco before the war.

Elliot left Clyde empty handed. Despite the setback, President Grant, General Sherman and thousands of veterans met that fall for the unveiling of the magnificent bronze statue at McPherson Square, just blocks from the White House.

Although Sandusky Countians had prevented the removal of McPherson's remains, they still felt betrayed - the monument intended for Clyde was in Washington, D.C. In time, anger and disappointment gave way to a determined effort to raise the funds for a statue in Clyde. Five years later, on the seventeenth anniversary of General McPherson's death, the statue that stands today over the fallen warrior's gravesite was dedicated.

See the Sandusky County Scrapbook to learn more about General James B. McPherson.