David Lewis Gifford

Private David Lewis Gifford, U.S. Army, later Ordinary Seaman, U.S. Navy

David Lewis Gifford earned the Medal of Honor not by attacking an enemy position, but by repeatedly rowing into Confederate artillery fire to rescue hundreds of trapped Union soldiers. Born in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, on 18 September 1844, he entered military service at nineteen and joined Company B of the 4th Massachusetts Volunteer Cavalry. His unit was sent to the Department of the South, where Union forces were operating along the coastal rivers of South Carolina and Georgia.

On 24 May 1864, Gifford participated in an expedition on the Ashepoo River in South Carolina. The transport steamer Boston, carrying a large body of Union troops, became stranded within range of a Confederate battery. With the vessel exposed to sustained artillery fire, Lieutenant George W. Brush secured a small boat and called for volunteers to help evacuate the soldiers. Gifford stepped forward with three other enlisted men.

The rescue party repeatedly rowed between the stranded steamer and the riverbank while Confederate gunners concentrated their fire upon them. Each journey placed the small boat, its crew and the soldiers crowded aboard in immediate danger. Gifford remained with the rescue effort until the trapped men had been carried away from the vessel. The official Army citation praised his gallantry in helping convey the soldiers to shore while exposed throughout the operation to heavy enemy fire.

Shortly after the Ashepoo River action, Gifford transferred from the Army to the Union Navy. He served as an ordinary seaman through the remainder of the Civil War, with compiled service accounts recording duty aboard the vessels Braziliera, Princeton and South Carolina. His dual service made him both a Union cavalryman and a wartime sailor, although his Medal of Honor remained an Army award because it recognized his conduct with the 4th Massachusetts Cavalry.

The Medal of Honor was presented to Gifford on 21 January 1897, more than thirty years after the rescue. He was not decorated posthumously and lived long enough to see his actions formally recognized. Gifford died in Dartmouth on 13 January 1904 and was buried in South Dartmouth Cemetery. A memorial erected in his hometown honours both Gifford and the other Dartmouth residents who served during the Civil War.

Gifford’s courage at Ashepoo River was defined by persistence. He did not make one quick dash through enemy fire. He returned again and again in a small, exposed boat because soldiers remained aboard the stranded steamer. His Medal of Honor recognized a rescue in which seamanship, endurance and selfless courage were as important as traditional battlefield combat.