George N. Galloway

George Norton Galloway was a United States Army soldier, Civil War veteran, Medal of Honor recipient, author, and later performer whose military legacy was defined by an extraordinary act of courage at Alsops Farm, Virginia, on May 8, 1864. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the early 1840s, Galloway grew up in a working-class environment and was employed as a brush maker before entering military service. Surviving records differ slightly on his exact year of birth, with military records generally placing it in 1841 while some civilian evidence indicates a later year. What is securely established is that Philadelphia remained central to both his military identity and his later life. Galloway enlisted in Philadelphia in September 1861 and entered Company G of the 95th Pennsylvania Infantry as a Private. The regiment, sometimes known as Gosline’s Pennsylvania Zouaves, became part of the Army of the Potomac and later served prominently with the Sixth Corps. Throughout the war the 95th Pennsylvania experienced some of the hardest campaigning in the Eastern Theater, and Galloway’s service placed him within an infantry regiment repeatedly exposed to major combat. During 1862, the 95th Pennsylvania participated in the Army of the Potomac’s operations in Virginia and Maryland. The regiment fought during the Peninsula Campaign and later took part in the Maryland Campaign, including the Battle of Antietam. Antietam on September 17, 1862, became the bloodiest single day of combat in American military history, and the battle demonstrated the increasingly severe conditions faced by infantrymen such as Galloway as the Civil War entered its second year. The following year brought further campaigning and disruption to Galloway’s military record. Surviving Pennsylvania service documentation records an unauthorized absence beginning in July 1863. He was subsequently apprehended and returned to military control, after which he rejoined his regiment and resumed active service. This episode is part of the documented record and should not be separated from the remarkable conduct he later displayed in battle. By the spring of 1864, Galloway was again serving with Company G as the Army of the Potomac prepared for one of the most relentless campaigns of the entire war. In May 1864, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant began the Overland Campaign against General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Unlike many earlier campaigns, Grant intended to maintain continuous pressure on Confederate forces even after costly engagements. The first great battle of the campaign was fought in the tangled Virginia Wilderness from May 5 through May 7. The 95th Pennsylvania and the rest of the Sixth Corps endured confused and violent combat in terrain where dense woods severely limited visibility and made unit control exceptionally difficult. After the fighting in the Wilderness, Union forces began moving toward Spotsylvania Court House in an effort to place themselves between Lee’s army and Richmond. On May 8, 1864, the movement brought elements of the opposing armies into renewed combat around Laurel Hill, Alsops Farm, and the approaches to Spotsylvania. It was during this fighting at Alsops Farm that Private George Norton Galloway performed the action for which he would eventually receive the Medal of Honor. His official citation is unusually brief, but its meaning is significant: Galloway voluntarily held an important position under heavy fire. The key word in that recognition is “voluntarily.” Galloway was not a commissioned officer with command responsibility, nor was he acting under the protection of a prepared defensive work. As a Private infantryman, he chose to remain at a position considered important to his unit while subjected to intense enemy fire. Maintaining such a position could help preserve the alignment, security, or effectiveness of surrounding troops at a moment when withdrawal might have placed others at greater risk. The citation does not provide elaborate dramatic details, and none should be invented. What it establishes beyond doubt is that Galloway deliberately remained in a dangerous tactical position when doing so exposed him to heavy Confederate fire. His conduct was regarded as sufficiently exceptional that it was later selected for the nation’s highest military decoration. Galloway continued with the 95th Pennsylvania after the Alsops Farm action. His wartime service remained that of an enlisted infantryman, and no verified promotion above Private has been established. Private was therefore both his rank during the Medal of Honor action and his highest verified United States Army rank. His military service ended in November 1864, only months before the final collapse of the Confederacy. By then he had served through several years of a conflict that had carried the 95th Pennsylvania across some of the most heavily contested ground in the Eastern Theater. The recognition for Galloway’s action at Alsops Farm did not come immediately. More than thirty years passed before the United States formally awarded him the Medal of Honor. On October 24, 1895, George Norton Galloway received the decoration for his conduct on May 8, 1864. This delay is historically important when identifying the correct Medal of Honor version for his record. The Army Medal of Honor had originally been authorized by Congress in 1862 during the Civil War. Over the following decades, the design and ribbon arrangement of the decoration changed as the award system developed. Galloway’s heroic action occurred in 1864, but his medal was officially issued in 1895. For the project database, his verified decoration is therefore recorded as Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1895. No additional bar, clasp, star, oak leaf cluster, or other device has been verified for Galloway’s Medal of Honor. His final verified ribbon entry remains a single Medal of Honor with no additional attachment. The later Army Civil War Campaign Medal is not part of his verified medal record. Galloway died in February 1904, several years before that campaign medal was established. Consequently, unlike Civil War veterans who survived into the medal’s authorization period, there is no basis for adding it to his rack. His final verified decoration therefore remains the Medal of Honor alone. After leaving the Army, Galloway returned to civilian life in Philadelphia. He resumed work as a brush maker but also developed interests beyond his original trade. City directories and surviving accounts associate him at various times with work as an actor, vocalist, and musician, suggesting that his postwar life included a significant connection to public performance. Galloway also became deeply involved in preserving the history of his wartime regiment. He wrote an historical account of the 95th Pennsylvania Volunteers, commonly associated with the title Ninety-fifth Pennsylvania Volunteers (“Gosline’s Pennsylvania Zouaves”) in the Sixth Corps. The work originated in connection with a reunion of surviving members of the regiment and preserved important information about the unit’s Civil War service. His role as an author gave him an enduring connection to the historical memory of the regiment beyond his own Medal of Honor action. This contribution is particularly significant because veterans’ regimental histories became major sources for understanding the Civil War. Former soldiers documented battles, marches, casualties, commanders, and personal experiences that might otherwise have disappeared as the wartime generation aged. Galloway therefore contributed not only as a soldier but also as a participant in preserving the story of the men with whom he had served. His family also possessed an unusual connection to the Medal of Honor. His brother John Galloway was himself a Medal of Honor recipient for Civil War service, making the brothers part of a relatively small group of siblings who both received the nation’s highest military decoration. George Norton Galloway died in Philadelphia on February 9, 1904. He was buried at Mount Moriah Cemetery in Philadelphia, where his brother John would also be buried after his death later that year. Galloway’s legacy combines battlefield courage with postwar preservation of military history. As a Private in Company G, 95th Pennsylvania Infantry, he voluntarily held an important position under heavy fire at Alsops Farm on May 8, 1864. More than three decades later, the United States formally recognized that act by awarding him the Medal of Honor on October 24, 1895. He later helped preserve the history of his regiment through his writing and remained connected to the story of the Civil War until his death. His final verified medal record remains Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1895, with no verified additional device or clasp.