1LT John Warden - Orting, WA - Medal Of Honor Resting Places on Waymarking.com

WARDEN, JOHN

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."

On May 22, 1863, General Ulysses S. Grant ordered an assault on the Confederate heights at Vicksburg, Mississippi. The plan called for a storming party of volunteers to build a bridge across a moat and plant scaling ladders against the enemy embankment in advance of the main attack. The volunteers knew the odds were against survival and the mission was called, in nineteenth century vernacular, a "forlorn hope". Only single men were accepted as volunteers and even then, twice as many men as needed came forward and were turned away. The assault began in the early morning following a naval bombardment.

The Union soldiers came under enemy fire immediately and were pinned down in the ditch they were to cross. Despite repeated attacks by the main Union body, the men of the forlorn hope were unable to retreat until nightfall. Of the 150 men in the storming party, nearly half were killed. Seventy-nine of the survivors were awarded the Medal of Honor.

Armed Service: Army

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