Andrew Schmauch

Andrew Anton Schmauch was a German-born Union Army soldier who rose from Private to First Sergeant during the American Civil War and received the United States Medal of Honor for gallantry during the assault on Vicksburg, Mississippi, on 22 May 1863. Serving with Company A, 30th Ohio Infantry, Schmauch volunteered for one of the most dangerous assignments of the Vicksburg Campaign—a storming party sent ahead of the main Union assault against strongly fortified Confederate defenses. His official Medal of Honor citation summarized his conduct simply as “Gallantry in the charge of the ‘volunteer storming party.’”

Early Life

Later biographical records identify Schmauch's full name as Andrew Anton Schmauch and give his birth as 30 May 1841 in Rottenburg am Neckar, then part of the Kingdom of Württemberg in what is now Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The principal national Medal of Honor databases are more conservative, recording his birthplace simply as Germany and his birth year as 1841.

At some point before the American Civil War, Schmauch came to the United States and became associated with Ohio. His Medal of Honor record is accredited to Portsmouth, Scioto County, Ohio, establishing that community as the place connected with his military entry and wartime service.

Enlistment in the Union Army

Schmauch entered Union service as a Private and became a member of Company A, 30th Ohio Infantry. Later biographical compilations give his enlistment date as 15 August 1861 at Portsmouth, Ohio. The 30th Ohio was organised for Union service during the opening months of the Civil War and became an infantry regiment with a long campaigning history across several theatres.

At the beginning of his service Schmauch held no command rank. He was an ordinary enlisted infantryman. His later rise to First Sergeant therefore reflected several years of military service after the action that ultimately brought him the Medal of Honor.

The Vicksburg Campaign

By the spring of 1863, the Union war effort in the western theatre was focused heavily on Vicksburg, Mississippi.

Vicksburg's position above the Mississippi River gave the Confederacy control over an important stretch of the waterway. Major General Ulysses S. Grant sought to capture the city, which would help open the Mississippi to Union traffic and divide the Confederacy geographically.

After manoeuvring his army into position east of the river and driving Confederate forces back toward Vicksburg, Grant began direct operations against the city's formidable defensive works.

The 30th Ohio Infantry was among the Union units involved in the Vicksburg operations. Schmauch was serving as a Private in Company A when Grant ordered another major assault on 22 May 1863.

The Volunteer Storming Party — 22 May 1863

The plan for the 22 May assault required a small body of volunteers to advance ahead of the main Union attacking force against the Confederate position around the Stockade Redan.

The National Park Service describes a force of 156 volunteers assigned to lead the attack on the Confederate stronghold guarding the Graveyard Road approach. Their task placed them in an exceptionally exposed position before the main assaulting columns.

The mission became widely remembered as a “forlorn hope,” a nineteenth-century military expression for an operation in which casualties were expected to be extremely high.

The storming party had to move directly toward fortified Confederate defenses while exposed to rifle and artillery fire. Their role included helping prepare the way for the troops following behind them by overcoming obstacles immediately in front of the defensive works.

Andrew Schmauch volunteered.

This point is central to his Medal of Honor story. He was not ordered into the advance simply because he happened to be part of an attacking company. He became one of the soldiers associated with the specially selected volunteer storming party sent in advance of the main force.

The Assault at Vicksburg

When the volunteers moved forward, Confederate defenders subjected them to intense fire.

The terrain and fortifications made the advance exceptionally difficult. Soldiers attempting to approach the Confederate earthworks had little protection, and many members of the storming party were killed or wounded before they could accomplish their intended tasks.

Those who survived near the defenses were pinned down for much of the day as the wider Union assault failed to break through.

The operation did not capture the Confederate position.

Strategically, the 22 May assault was unsuccessful, and Grant subsequently abandoned attempts to take Vicksburg by immediate storm in favour of siege operations.

Yet the bravery displayed by the volunteers who had gone forward first was remembered separately from the tactical result.

Schmauch was among the soldiers whose conduct in that advance was later formally recognised by the United States government. The National Park Service and U.S. Army records both identify him as a Private of Company A, 30th Ohio Infantry, whose qualifying action occurred at Vicksburg on 22 May 1863.

Medal of Honor Action

Schmauch's official citation is remarkably brief:

“Gallantry in the charge of the ‘volunteer storming party.’”

That brevity is characteristic of many Civil War-era Medal of Honor citations.

Modern awards often include long narratives explaining precisely what a recipient did minute by minute. Nineteenth-century citations could instead reduce a highly dangerous battlefield action to only a single sentence.

Because the official citation does not attribute a separate individual feat—such as capturing a flag, carrying a wounded soldier, or killing a particular opponent—to Schmauch, such details should not be invented or borrowed from the actions of other members of the storming party.

What is verified is that he voluntarily took part in the storming-party charge and that the U.S. government subsequently judged his conduct in that action worthy of the Medal of Honor.

Medal of Honor

The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States for valor.

The Army Medal of Honor originated during the American Civil War. Congress authorised an Army version in 1862, making the Civil War the conflict in which the decoration first became established as a national military honour.

Schmauch's Medal of Honor belongs to that early generation of awards.

Importantly, he did not receive the medal immediately after the Battle of Vicksburg.

More than three decades passed between the action and the award.

His Medal of Honor was issued on 9 July 1894. Both the U.S. Army Medal of Honor database and the National Park Service confirm that date.

Therefore the correct chronology is:

Action: 22 May 1863 Medal of Honor issued: 9 July 1894

The occasional claim that the medal was awarded in 1864 is incorrect; the authoritative national records give 1894.

Why the Award Came Decades Later

The long delay was not unique to Schmauch.

Many Civil War Medal of Honor awards were reviewed and issued years or even decades after the battle concerned. The Vicksburg storming party produced a particularly large group of later Medal of Honor recipients whose gallantry on 22 May 1863 was formally recognised long after the war.

For Schmauch, that meant the decoration arrived when he was already a veteran in civilian life rather than an active soldier standing on a Civil War battlefield.

Rank at the Medal of Honor Action

At Vicksburg, Schmauch's rank was:

Private

This is the rank attached to his Medal of Honor action in official U.S. Army and Congressional Medal of Honor Society records.

He did not remain a Private for the rest of his career.

Promotion After Vicksburg

Later service records and biographical research show Schmauch advancing through the noncommissioned ranks after the Vicksburg campaign.

He was promoted to Corporal, then Sergeant, and ultimately First Sergeant.

Later biographical compilations give the progression as Corporal on 2 March 1864, Sergeant on 22 June 1864, and First Sergeant on 10 August 1864. The Congressional Medal of Honor Society independently confirms that his highest rank was First Sergeant.

This distinction is important for his profile:

Rank at Medal of Honor action: Private Final / highest verified rank: First Sergeant

Continued Civil War Service

Schmauch remained associated with the 30th Ohio Infantry after Vicksburg.

The regiment continued campaigning after the fall of the city, serving in further operations during the later years of the Civil War. The 30th Ohio eventually remained in Federal service until 13 August 1865, when it was mustered out at Little Rock, Arkansas. Later biographical accounts specifically record Schmauch as being mustered out there with the regiment.

Care is necessary when describing these later campaigns. The regiment as a whole participated in a long series of operations after Vicksburg, but individual participation in every listed regimental battle should not be automatically assigned to Schmauch without his own detailed service record.

What can safely be stated is that his military career continued after the 1863 Medal of Honor action and that he eventually completed his service as a First Sergeant.

End of Military Service

Schmauch's Civil War service ended in August 1865, after the Confederacy had collapsed and organised fighting had ceased.

His development from Private in 1861 to First Sergeant by the later part of the war reflects a substantial progression in responsibility.

The soldier who volunteered for the Vicksburg storming party as a junior enlisted man therefore finished his Army career as the senior enlisted leader of a company.

His Final Verified Medal Entitlement

For the present historical profile, Schmauch has one medal verified to the required person-specific standard:

Medal of Honor (Army) — no device

No bar, clasp, oak-leaf cluster, star, or other device is associated with the award.

Civil War Campaign Medal — Why It Is Not Added

Schmauch's Civil War service falls within the historical period later recognised by the Civil War Campaign Medal.

However, that medal was created decades after the Civil War.

Under the research standard being used for this profile, campaign eligibility by itself is not sufficient evidence that a particular individual actually received or was issued the medal.

No person-specific issue record, surviving Schmauch medal group, official individual biography listing, or equivalent documentation has yet been verified showing that Andrew Schmauch personally received a Civil War Campaign Medal.

For that reason it is not included in his final medal rack.

This preserves the distinction between:

possible regulatory eligibility and verified individual entitlement.

The final live profile therefore remains:

Medal of Honor only.

Post-War Life

After leaving the Army, Schmauch returned to civilian life.

Later biographical records state that he married Sophia M. Miller in 1867 and that the couple raised a large family. Some compilations identify twelve children, ten of whom survived to adulthood. These family details come primarily from later genealogical and biographical material rather than from the national Medal of Honor databases, so they should be treated as supporting personal history rather than military award evidence.

Schmauch eventually settled in Kentucky, where he lived for many years after the Civil War.

Unlike some Medal of Honor recipients whose names became nationally famous during their lifetimes, relatively little detailed documentation survives concerning Schmauch's civilian occupation and public activities.

The great documented event of his public life remained his military service and the delayed recognition of his bravery at Vicksburg.

Receiving the Medal as an Older Veteran

When his Medal of Honor was issued in 1894, Schmauch was approximately fifty-three years old.

More than thirty-one years had passed since he had crossed the battlefield at Vicksburg as a young Private.

The award therefore connected two very different stages of his life: the young immigrant soldier of the Civil War and the older American veteran living during the final decade of the nineteenth century.

The Congressional Medal of Honor Society confirms that the award was not posthumous. Schmauch lived for nearly three decades after receiving it.

Death

Andrew Anton Schmauch died on 20 August 1923 in Ashland, Kentucky, at the age of eighty-two.

His death came more than sixty years after the action at Vicksburg and almost thirty years after the formal award of his Medal of Honor.

Few members of the 1863 volunteer storming party lived long enough to see the memory of the Civil War evolve into the major national commemorative tradition that existed by the early twentieth century.

Schmauch did.

Burial in Ashland, Kentucky

Schmauch was buried in Ashland Cemetery, Ashland, Kentucky.

The Medal of Honor Historical Society identifies his burial location as:

Section 5, Lot 66.

His burial site continues to preserve the physical memory of a German-born immigrant who entered the Union Army, became an American soldier, and received the nation's highest military decoration.

Present Location of the Medal

A securely documented current institutional location for Schmauch's original Medal of Honor has not been established in the authoritative sources reviewed for this profile.

One later specialist biographical source describes the medal as believed to remain with the family, but without stronger provenance documentation the profile should not state a definite museum or private-collection location.

The historically safe position is therefore:

Original Medal of Honor — current location not definitively verified.

Legacy

Andrew Schmauch's story centres on one exceptionally dangerous decision.

On 22 May 1863, the Union Army was preparing another attempt to break through the defenses of Vicksburg.

A volunteer party was needed to go ahead of the principal assault.

The men who stepped forward knew that they would be exposed before the main attacking force and that casualties were likely to be severe.

Schmauch volunteered.

His official record does not embellish what followed. It does not attribute a dramatic speech, a captured flag, or a single-handed attack to him.

Instead, his citation records the essential fact:

gallantry in the charge of the volunteer storming party.

That short sentence carried enough weight that, thirty-one years later, the United States formally awarded him the Medal of Honor.

His story also reflects a broader feature of Civil War military history. The Medal of Honor system was still developing, and many acts recognised today were not formally rewarded until decades after they occurred.

Schmauch survived the war, advanced from Private to First Sergeant, returned to civilian life, raised a family, and lived until 1923.

Today his name remains preserved by the U.S. Army, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, the National Medal of Honor Museum, and Vicksburg National Military Park as one of the soldiers recognised for the extraordinary volunteer assault of 22 May 1863.