George Henry Stockman

On 22 May 1863, as Union troops prepared to assault the formidable Confederate defenses of Vicksburg, First Lieutenant George Henry Stockman stepped forward for one of the most dangerous assignments of the campaign. He joined the volunteer storming party, a group sent directly toward the fortified works before the main attack. More than thirty years later, his courage that day would be recognized with the Medal of Honor. George Henry Stockman was born on 3 July 1833 in Münden, Germany. He later made his way to the United States and entered Union military service during the American Civil War. On 1 June 1861, he entered service at Chicago, Illinois, as a first lieutenant with the 6th Missouri Infantry. He initially served with Company G before later being associated with Company C, the unit under which his Medal of Honor action was officially recorded. By the spring of 1863, Stockman and the 6th Missouri Infantry were involved in the campaign against Vicksburg, Mississippi, one of the Confederacy's most important strongholds on the Mississippi River. On 22 May, Union forces launched a major assault against the city's defenses. Before the main attacking columns could advance, volunteers were called upon for a storming party whose mission placed them at the very front of the attack, exposed to intense Confederate fire as they approached the fortifications. The National Park Service records the men of this force as the Forlorn Hope, many of whom later received the Medal of Honor for their actions during the assault. Stockman volunteered. Serving as First Lieutenant, Company C, 6th Missouri Infantry, he took part in the charge against the Confederate position at Vicksburg. His official Medal of Honor citation was strikingly brief, but its few words captured the nature of what he had done: “Gallantry in the charge of the ‘volunteer storming party.’” The Congressional Medal of Honor Society confirms both the action date of 22 May 1863 and Vicksburg as the location of his heroism. Stockman continued in Union service until 7 June 1864, when he was honorably discharged. Recognition for his conduct at Vicksburg did not come immediately. More than three decades after the battle, on 9 July 1894, George Henry Stockman was presented with the Medal of Honor, the United States' highest military decoration for valor. His award permanently connected his name with one of the most hazardous episodes of the Vicksburg Campaign and with the soldiers who willingly placed themselves at the head of the Union assault. Stockman lived for nearly eighteen years after receiving the medal. He died on 30 June 1912, just three days before his seventy-ninth birthday, and was buried at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. From a German-born immigrant to a Union Army officer and Medal of Honor recipient, George Henry Stockman's story is defined by a single extraordinary decision at Vicksburg: when volunteers were needed to go first, he stepped forward.