Frank Stolz

Frank Stolz was born on July 20, 1844, in Dearborn County, Indiana. He came of age during one of the most turbulent periods in American history, and while still a young man entered the service of the United States during the American Civil War. His military record identifies him with Sunman, Indiana, and he served in the United States Army as a Private in Company G, 83rd Indiana Infantry. The rank of Private is both his documented rank during the action for which he became famous and the highest rank securely established for his profile.

The 83rd Indiana Infantry formed part of the Union forces operating in the Western Theater. During the Vicksburg Campaign the regiment served in the 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, XV Army Corps, under the broader command of Major General William T. Sherman. Vicksburg, Mississippi, occupied a commanding position above the Mississippi River and represented one of the Confederacy's most important remaining strongholds on that waterway. Capturing the city would give the Union greater control of the Mississippi and help divide the Confederacy geographically.

By May 1863, Union forces had driven Confederate troops back into the defenses surrounding Vicksburg. The 83rd Indiana Infantry took part in the operations against those fortifications, including the major assaults of May 19 and May 22. One of the strongest Confederate positions facing Sherman's troops was the Stockade Redan, a heavily fortified earthwork guarding the Graveyard Road approach into Vicksburg. The terrain surrounding it was difficult, and Confederate defenders had created additional obstacles to slow attacking troops.

The first large Union assault against the Stockade Redan on May 19 failed. Nevertheless, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant believed another coordinated attack might break the Confederate defensive line before a prolonged siege became necessary. A new assault was therefore ordered for May 22, 1863. Sherman's troops were to advance toward the Stockade Redan along the Graveyard Road while other Union formations attacked elsewhere along the Vicksburg defenses.

An especially dangerous role in the assault was assigned to a group of volunteers who would advance ahead of the main attacking infantry. Approximately 150 men were selected for this storming party. Their mission required them to approach the Confederate works carrying materials such as wooden planks to help cross the defensive ditch and ladders intended to assist troops in climbing the fortifications. Because the volunteers would move first and would be exposed to enemy fire before the main assaulting force reached the defenses, the mission involved an extraordinary degree of danger.

Private Frank Stolz volunteered for this storming party. He was only eighteen years old at the time of the attack. As a member of Company G, 83rd Indiana Infantry, he joined soldiers from several Union regiments in the advance toward the Confederate position on May 22.

The volunteers moved toward the Stockade Redan ahead of the following infantry. Confederate troops initially withheld much of their fire as the assaulting soldiers approached. Once the Union force had moved into an extremely exposed position near the defenses, the Confederates opened a devastating fire. The storming party and the infantry behind it faced intense rifle and artillery fire while attempting to reach the fortifications.

Despite the danger, members of the storming party continued forward. Some succeeded in reaching the ditch and the outer slope of the Confederate works, and Union colors were planted against the exterior of the position. The attack, however, could not overcome the concentrated Confederate resistance. The Union troops were pinned down or forced back, and the assault on the Stockade Redan ultimately failed.

Frank Stolz survived the attack. The official account of his individual conduct is concise and does not provide elaborate details about a particular isolated act. Instead, his Medal of Honor citation recognizes his participation and courage in the assault with the words: “Gallantry in the charge of the volunteer storming party.” That wording is important because his distinction rested upon willingly participating in one of the most hazardous elements of the May 22 attack and advancing against a strongly defended enemy position under extremely dangerous conditions.

The failure of the May 22 assaults marked a turning point in the Vicksburg Campaign. Grant abandoned further attempts to capture the city through immediate frontal attacks and instead conducted a formal siege. Union forces gradually tightened their hold around Vicksburg until the Confederate garrison surrendered on July 4, 1863. The fall of Vicksburg, together with the Union victory at Gettysburg during the same period, became one of the major strategic turning points of the Civil War.

The 83rd Indiana Infantry's connection with Vicksburg remained an important part of the regiment's history. Several members of the regiment were eventually recognized with the Medal of Honor for participation in the May 22 volunteer storming party. Frank Stolz was among those men, and his personal military legacy became permanently associated with the attack on the Stockade Redan.

The decoration associated with Stolz's verified award history is the Medal of Honor. The Army Medal of Honor had itself been created during the Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln signed legislation authorizing an Army Medal of Honor on July 12, 1862, initially providing recognition for noncommissioned officers and enlisted soldiers who distinguished themselves through gallantry in action and other soldierly qualities. In March 1863, the law was expanded to include officers. The decoration therefore belonged directly to the military culture of the conflict in which Stolz served.

Although Stolz performed the action that earned his Medal of Honor on May 22, 1863, the decoration was not issued to him immediately. More than thirty-one years passed before official recognition was completed. His Medal of Honor was issued on July 9, 1894. For the VictoriaCross.ca historical database, his award is represented by the Civil War-era Army category Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army, with 1894 as the year of issue. No additional star, clasp, bar, oak leaf cluster, or other device is verified for his Medal of Honor.

The long interval between the battlefield action and the issuance of the medal was not unique among Civil War recipients. A substantial number of soldiers from earlier Civil War actions were formally recognized years or even decades afterward as their wartime records and recommendations were reviewed. In Stolz's case, the award preserved official recognition of the courage he had displayed as a young Private during the assault at Vicksburg.

No additional campaign or service medal has been included in Stolz's final verified medal history for this profile. His participation in the Civil War and the Vicksburg Campaign clearly establishes substantial wartime service, but service during an eligible period does not by itself prove recipient-specific entitlement to a later campaign medal. Without sufficiently strong individual evidence establishing such an award to Frank Stolz, the verified ribbon rack remains limited to the Medal of Honor.

Stolz lived for more than six decades after the events at Vicksburg. By the time he received his Medal of Honor in 1894, the Civil War had already passed into national memory and veterans of the conflict were increasingly being recognized for actions that had taken place many years earlier. Stolz was able to receive that recognition during his lifetime; his award was not posthumous.

Frank Stolz died on November 19, 1926, in Indianapolis, Indiana, at the age of eighty-two. He was buried at St. Joseph's Cemetery in Indianapolis. His long life connected the generation that fought the Civil War with the United States of the early twentieth century, but his enduring military legacy remained centered on a single exceptionally dangerous day in Mississippi.

On May 22, 1863, Private Frank Stolz voluntarily joined the soldiers who went ahead of the main Union assault against the fortified defenses of Vicksburg. He advanced toward the Stockade Redan as part of a storming party facing concentrated Confederate fire and survived an attack whose dangers were evident before it even began. More than three decades later, the United States formally recognized that gallantry with the Medal of Honor.

His final verified military profile therefore remains clear: Frank Stolz served in the United States Army as a Private in Company G, 83rd Indiana Infantry; fought during the American Civil War; participated in the volunteer storming party during the assault at Vicksburg on May 22, 1863; and received the Medal of Honor on July 9, 1894. His Medal of Honor stands as the verified decoration representing his courage and his place among the soldiers whose actions became permanently associated with the costly Union assault on Vicksburg.