George Schutt

George Schutt was an Irish-born United States Navy sailor and Medal of Honor recipient whose most important military service took place during the closing weeks of the American Civil War. Born in Ireland in 1833, Schutt later entered United States naval service and was officially credited to New York. By March 1865 he was serving as a Coxswain aboard USS Hendrick Hudson, a Union Navy screw steamer assigned to operations along the coast of Florida. His defining act of courage came during the joint Army-Navy expedition against Confederate positions near St. Marks, Florida, on March 5 and 6, 1865. The rating of Coxswain was an important enlisted position in the nineteenth-century Navy. A coxswain was normally an experienced sailor trusted with responsibility for boats and their crews and could be called upon for demanding duties away from the parent vessel. Schutt’s Medal of Honor action demonstrated exactly this kind of versatility. Instead of remaining aboard Hendrick Hudson during the St. Marks expedition, he went ashore and served directly with Union Army troops as part of a Navy howitzer crew. USS Hendrick Hudson had an unusual history. The vessel was originally built in New York as Florida in 1859 and was captured while attempting to run the Union blockade at St. Andrew’s Bay, Florida, in April 1862. After condemnation by a prize court, the U.S. Navy purchased the ship, renamed it Hendrick Hudson, and commissioned it in December 1862. The vessel was assigned to the East Gulf Blockading Squadron, whose mission included suppressing Confederate coastal commerce and maintaining the blockade along the complicated shoreline of western Florida. For much of its wartime service Hendrick Hudson operated around St. George’s Sound, the Suwannee River, Tampa Bay, and St. Marks. The ship participated in blockade duties, pursued Confederate commerce, and supported expeditions ashore. By early 1865 the East Gulf Blockading Squadron was cooperating increasingly with Union Army forces in operations intended to weaken the remaining Confederate presence in Florida. In late February 1865, Union authorities organized a joint military and naval expedition into the St. Marks region. Major General John Newton led the principal Army force. The expedition aimed to challenge Confederate troops in the area and threaten the military infrastructure around St. Marks. The larger strategic situation was already turning decisively against the Confederacy, but Confederate forces in Florida remained capable of resisting Federal movements. Hendrick Hudson participated in the expedition from February 27 through March 7, 1865. The vessel helped maintain the naval blockade around the St. Marks River while some members of her crew were detached for service ashore. George Schutt was among those sailors. The Navy supplied small artillery pieces known as howitzers for the expedition. Naval howitzers were designed to be portable enough for landing parties to take ashore while still providing useful artillery support. Moving one across difficult terrain required substantial physical effort. The gun, ammunition, carriage, and associated equipment had to remain together while the crew kept pace with advancing troops. Schutt served with the Army in charge of Navy howitzers during the movement toward St. Marks. His official Medal of Honor record specifically recognized his efforts in helping transport the gun. This was not simply routine shipboard duty. He and the other sailors had taken naval artillery inland and were operating directly alongside soldiers engaged in a land campaign. The Federal expedition encountered serious obstacles as it moved toward the Confederate positions. Union naval vessels had difficulty navigating the shallow St. Marks River, preventing the fleet from providing the kind of close support commanders had hoped to achieve. The Army force nevertheless continued inland. After encountering resistance around the approaches to St. Marks and finding the crossing at Newport strongly defended, Union forces redirected their movement toward Natural Bridge. The location took its name from a geological feature where the St. Marks River passes underground for a short distance, creating a natural crossing point. Before dawn on March 6, Union troops approached Natural Bridge. Confederate forces had anticipated the movement and occupied defensive positions around the crossing. The resulting Battle of Natural Bridge developed into the principal engagement of the expedition. Confederate defenders occupied breastworks and controlled the approaches to the crossing. Union troops repeatedly attempted to break through, but the defensive position proved difficult to overcome. The fighting lasted for much of the day. Schutt remained with the naval artillery contingent throughout the operation. According to his Medal of Honor citation, he displayed exceptional determination while helping move his gun and continued standing by it under heavy enemy fire. This detail is central to understanding his decoration. Schutt was not awarded the Medal of Honor merely because he belonged to a vessel participating in the expedition. His recognition was based upon his personal conduct ashore during the engagement. He physically assisted with the difficult transportation of a naval howitzer and remained at his assigned weapon while Confederate fire threatened the crew. His behavior demonstrated the qualities expected of an experienced coxswain: discipline, steadiness, responsibility, and an ability to continue functioning under dangerous conditions. The official record specifically praised his coolness and determination. The Battle of Natural Bridge ultimately ended in a Confederate victory. Union forces were unable to force the river crossing and eventually withdrew toward the protection of the naval force. The engagement prevented the Federal expedition from advancing toward Tallahassee. As a result, Tallahassee remained the only Confederate state capital east of the Mississippi River that was not captured by Union forces before the end of the Civil War. Although the larger operation did not achieve its principal objective, individual acts of courage among the sailors and soldiers were formally recognized. Schutt’s conduct was among the actions selected for the nation’s highest military decoration. On June 22, 1865, the Navy Department issued General Order No. 59 awarding Medals of Honor to a group of sailors for acts performed during the Civil War. George Schutt was specifically identified as Coxswain of USS Hendrick Hudson and recognized for his service during the St. Marks expedition. The Medal of Honor was still a relatively new decoration. Congress had authorized the Navy Medal of Honor in December 1861, making it the earliest version of what later became the United States’ highest military award. During the Civil War it was primarily available to enlisted sailors and Marines and could recognize extraordinary courage in naval combat, amphibious operations, rescue missions, or other exceptionally hazardous duties. Schutt’s award belongs directly to this original Civil War-era Navy Medal of Honor system. His heroic action occurred on March 5–6, 1865, and the formal award was authorized through General Order No. 59 on June 22 of the same year. For the project database, his decoration is therefore represented as Medal of Honor 1862–1912 Navy — 1865. No additional star, bar, clasp, or other device has been verified for Schutt’s Medal of Honor. His final verified Medal of Honor entry should therefore remain a single plain decoration with no attachment. A Navy Civil War Campaign Medal should not currently be added to his verified medal rack. That campaign medal was established decades after the conflict. Although Schutt clearly performed qualifying Civil War naval service, historical eligibility by itself does not establish personal entitlement. His authoritative death date has not been securely established, making it impossible to confirm from the available strong sources that he survived into the period required by the project’s Navy Civil War Campaign Medal rule. More importantly, no recipient-specific issuance record or equivalent evidence has been verified showing that Schutt personally received the campaign medal. It therefore remains excluded from the final verified rack. After the St. Marks expedition, USS Hendrick Hudson continued operating with the East Gulf Blockading Squadron through the final months of the Civil War. Following the collapse of Confederate resistance, the Navy ordered the vessel north in July 1865. It was decommissioned at Philadelphia on August 8 and sold the following month. The surviving official material is far more detailed about Schutt’s Medal of Honor action than about his life after the war. Strong historical sources do not presently establish a reliable date or place of death, burial location, or detailed civilian career. Those gaps should remain unfilled rather than supplemented with uncertain genealogical information. What is securely documented is the remarkable episode that placed George Schutt in American military history. An Irish-born sailor serving as a Coxswain in the United States Navy, he left the relative environment of his ship to accompany Union troops inland during one of the final campaigns in Florida. He helped haul a naval howitzer through difficult conditions, operated with the Army during a fierce land engagement, and remained with his gun under heavy Confederate fire. His conduct at St. Marks and Natural Bridge on March 5–6, 1865, was formally recognized by the Navy Department on June 22, 1865. George Schutt’s final verified medal record remains Medal of Honor 1862–1912 Navy — 1865, with no verified additional device or clasp.