Frederick Phisterer

Frederick Phisterer was born on October 11, 1836, in Stuttgart, in the Kingdom of Württemberg, in what is now Germany. He later came to the United States and established the beginning of a long military career that would eventually connect him with the Regular Army, the American Civil War, the New York National Guard, and the historical preservation of New York's wartime service. His career was unusually broad: he served first as an enlisted soldier, later became a commissioned officer, performed an act of battlefield courage that earned the Medal of Honor, continued in the Regular Army after the Civil War, rose to senior rank in the New York National Guard, and became an important compiler of Civil War military history. Phisterer entered the United States Army on December 6, 1855, when he enlisted as a Private in Company A of the 3rd U.S. Artillery. Over the following years he advanced through the enlisted ranks, becoming a Corporal and later a Sergeant. His first period of Regular Army service ended with an honorable discharge on December 6, 1860. By that point he already possessed several years of professional military experience, an important distinction at a time when many of the officers and soldiers who would soon fight in the Civil War had little or no previous military training. When the American Civil War began in 1861, Phisterer returned to military service. On July 31, 1861, he entered the newly organized 18th U.S. Infantry as a Sergeant Major. His experience and ability soon led to a commission. He became a Second Lieutenant on October 30, 1861, and was promoted to First Lieutenant on February 27, 1862. This placed him among the professional officers of the Regular Army rather than a temporary volunteer regiment. The 18th U.S. Infantry served in the Western Theater, where Union and Confederate armies struggled for control of strategically important territory in Kentucky, Tennessee and the Mississippi Valley. By late 1862 Phisterer and his regiment were serving with the Army of the Cumberland during Major General William S. Rosecrans's campaign against the Confederate Army of Tennessee under General Braxton Bragg. The campaign culminated in the Battle of Stones River near Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The battle began on December 31, 1862, and developed into one of the most violent and costly engagements of the Civil War. Confederate forces launched a powerful attack against the Union right, forcing several Federal formations backward and threatening to break the Union position. Communication between units and commanders became extremely difficult as formations were displaced, roads became congested, and heavy musket and artillery fire covered much of the battlefield. It was during this crisis that First Lieutenant Frederick Phisterer performed the action that later earned him the Medal of Honor. Under heavy enemy fire, he voluntarily carried critical information to the commander of a battalion of Regular Army troops. The mission exposed him directly to Confederate fire at a time when the battalion was in an extremely dangerous position. The information Phisterer delivered allowed the battalion commander to respond to the developing battlefield situation. His official Medal of Honor citation states that his action saved the battalion from capture or annihilation. The significance of the deed was therefore much greater than simply carrying a message. Phisterer deliberately entered a heavily contested area because the information had to reach the threatened troops, and the successful delivery helped preserve an entire battalion during one of the most confused phases of the battle. His Medal of Honor action occurred on December 31, 1862. At the time he held the rank of First Lieutenant in the 18th U.S. Infantry. This is the rank that should always be associated with his Medal of Honor action. His later career carried him to substantially higher titles, but those later promotions should not be projected backward onto the events at Stones River. Phisterer survived the battle and continued his military career through the Civil War. His service did not end with the conflict. On February 15, 1866, he was promoted to Captain in the Regular Army. He later transferred from the 18th U.S. Infantry to the 36th U.S. Infantry on July 28, 1866, and subsequently to the 7th U.S. Infantry on March 3, 1869. His Regular Army career concluded when he was honorably discharged on August 4, 1870. Captain was therefore Phisterer's highest verified substantive rank in the Regular United States Army. His later title of Brevet Major General came from his lengthy postwar service with the military forces of the State of New York. This distinction is important because his Civil War action rank, highest Regular Army rank, and later National Guard rank represent different stages of his career. After leaving the Regular Army, Phisterer eventually became deeply involved with the New York State military establishment. He served with the New York militia and National Guard and became particularly important in administrative, organizational and historical work. His experience as both a professional soldier and Civil War veteran made him valuable during a period when the state military system was becoming increasingly formalized and modernized. Phisterer served as a Captain in the Governor's Guard beginning in 1877. In 1880 he became a Colonel and Acting Assistant Adjutant-General of the State of New York. He later served in senior administrative positions within the New York National Guard, including Assistant Adjutant-General. His responsibilities placed him at the center of military organization, record keeping, administration and training. His National Guard career continued into the period surrounding the Spanish-American War. In recognition of his military service and his work in organizing and training troops, he received the brevet rank of Brigadier General in the New York military establishment in 1898. He subsequently served as Acting Adjutant-General of New York from 1901 into 1902. In 1905 he was given the brevet rank of Major General. This became the highest military title associated with his career, although it was a New York National Guard brevet rank rather than his substantive Regular U.S. Army rank. Phisterer's Civil War heroism was formally recognized many years after the Battle of Stones River. More than three decades after his 1862 action, he received the Medal of Honor on December 12, 1894. The award recognized his voluntary decision to carry vital information through heavy enemy fire and the decisive effect that action had in saving a battalion of Regular troops from capture or destruction. The Medal of Honor had been created during the Civil War itself. Congress authorized the Army Medal of Honor in 1862, the same year in which Phisterer performed his heroic action. It became the principal national decoration for extraordinary military conduct by soldiers. During the decades after the Civil War, many wartime actions were reviewed and officially recognized long after the battles in which they occurred. Phisterer's award is one example of this retrospective recognition. Because Phisterer's Medal of Honor was issued in 1894, the correct historical database representation is Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1894. The year 1894 refers to the issue and presentation period of his decoration, while the heroic action itself remains dated December 31, 1862. No star, clasp, bar, oak leaf cluster or other additional device has been verified for his Medal of Honor, so the decoration should be represented without a device. Although Phisterer's Civil War Army service is unquestionably documented, no separate Civil War Campaign Medal has been included in his verified medal rack for this project. The later campaign medal was created decades after the Civil War. Phisterer was still alive when that medal came into existence, but qualifying wartime service by itself does not establish recipient-specific issuance. Without sufficient individual evidence showing that the medal was actually issued to or specifically recorded for Phisterer, it remains outside the final verified rack rather than being added by assumption. No Indian Campaign Medal has been added either. His long Army career extended into the post-Civil War period, but service chronology alone is not enough to establish entitlement to a specific campaign medal. Without verified recipient-specific campaign participation and entitlement documentation, such an award should not be added to his profile. Beyond his military career, Phisterer made a major contribution to the preservation of Civil War history. He became an important military statistician, researcher and compiler. His most significant historical work was New York in the War of the Rebellion, 1861 to 1865, an extensive compilation documenting New York military organizations, officers, battles, casualties and service histories during the Civil War. The work became an important reference for the history of New York's Civil War participation. Its later editions expanded into multiple volumes containing detailed information on regiments and other military organizations. Through this work, Phisterer helped preserve the service records of thousands of soldiers long after the war itself had ended. His historical contribution therefore extended beyond his own Medal of Honor story and became part of the documentary foundation for studying New York's role in the conflict. Phisterer's unusual career joined several different forms of military service. He began as an enlisted Regular Army artilleryman, advanced to noncommissioned officer rank, returned to service during the Civil War, became a commissioned infantry officer, performed an extraordinary act under fire at Stones River, eventually reached Captain in the Regular Army, and later became a senior New York National Guard officer with the brevet title of Major General. He also lived long enough to see the Civil War become the subject of organized historical study. As a veteran, military administrator and historian, he occupied a distinctive position between the generation that fought the war and the later generation that sought to document it accurately. His own work helped ensure that official and regimental information about New York's Civil War soldiers would remain accessible. Frederick Phisterer died on July 13, 1909, in Albany, New York. He was seventy-two years old. He was buried in Green Lawn Cemetery in Columbus, Ohio. His death ended more than half a century of association with American military service, beginning with his enlistment in 1855 and extending through his later National Guard and historical work. His final verified profile records Frederick Phisterer as a United States Army officer, First Lieutenant at the time of his Medal of Honor action, Captain as his highest substantive Regular Army rank, and later Brevet Major General in the New York National Guard. His Medal of Honor action occurred at Stones River, Tennessee, on December 31, 1862, when he voluntarily carried vital information through heavy enemy fire and helped save a battalion of Regular troops from capture or annihilation. His verified medal rack for this project therefore consists of Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1894, with no additional device or clasp. The decoration represents the defining battlefield moment of a career that was much broader than a single act of heroism. Frederick Phisterer was not only a Medal of Honor recipient but also a professional soldier, Regular Army officer, senior National Guard administrator and historian whose work helped preserve the military history of thousands of other Civil War soldiers.