Gurdon H. Barter

When the Assault Broke, He Refused to Retreat

Gurdon H. Barter was born in 1843 in Williamsburg, Kings County, New York. The surviving historical record contains relatively little reliable information about his childhood and early civilian life, but his military service became permanently connected with one of the final major coastal battles of the American Civil War. During the conflict, Gurdon H. Barter entered the United States Navy and was credited to New York for his service.

Gurdon H. Barter served aboard USS Minnesota, one of the large steam frigates of the Union Navy. His rating was Landsman, an enlisted naval classification commonly used for men who had comparatively limited seagoing experience. Although this was an entry-level rating, the responsibilities of sailors aboard a wartime vessel could quickly place even junior crewmen in extreme danger.

USS Minnesota had already accumulated an important Civil War record before Gurdon H. Barter’s defining action. The ship participated in Union operations along the Atlantic coast and became part of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, whose mission included restricting Confederate maritime traffic and supporting attacks against fortified coastal positions.

By late 1864, one of the Union’s most important remaining objectives was Fort Fisher, North Carolina. The massive Confederate fortification protected the approaches to Wilmington, a vital port through which blockade runners continued bringing supplies into the Confederacy. As other major Southern ports were captured or closed, Wilmington became increasingly important to Confederate logistics.

The Union attempted to capture Fort Fisher in December 1864, but the first expedition failed. A second operation was organized in January 1865 under Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter and Major General Alfred H. Terry. This time, Union naval forces would subject the fort to an enormous bombardment while Army troops landed nearby and prepared to attack from the landward side.

USS Minnesota played a direct role in the operation. On January 15, 1865, the ship contributed approximately 240 sailors and Marines to the naval landing force assembled for an assault against the fort’s seaward defenses. Gurdon H. Barter went ashore as one of the sailors participating in that attack.

The naval assault was extraordinarily dangerous. Unlike sailors fighting from behind the wooden hull and heavy guns of a warship, the landing force had to cross exposed ground toward a fortified Confederate position while facing musketry, artillery, and canister fire.

Gurdon H. Barter advanced with the assaulting party from USS Minnesota toward Fort Fisher. The sailors moved across the beach and up the sand toward the Confederate defenses while enemy fire struck the attacking force.

Gurdon H. Barter reached the top of the sand hill and advanced partly through a breach in the palisades surrounding the fort. By that point, the attacking sailors were suffering severe casualties among both officers and enlisted men.

The naval assault began to collapse under the intensity of the Confederate defense. More than two-thirds of the attacking men became overwhelmed by the situation and retreated rapidly from the fort.

Gurdon H. Barter did not run with them.

Instead, Gurdon H. Barter remained near the front with the smaller group that continued holding its position despite the breakdown of the larger assault. Confederate fire had already killed or wounded numerous men around them, and remaining close to the fort meant continuing to face an enemy occupying prepared defensive works.

The small party stayed in the dangerous forward area until darkness provided enough protection for withdrawal. When they finally came away, they did not simply abandon everything on the field. They brought wounded comrades, weapons, and their colors with them.

This conduct became the central reason Gurdon H. Barter was selected for the Medal of Honor.

The naval assault against Fort Fisher’s sea face did not itself break the Confederate defenses. The sailors and Marines suffered extremely heavy losses. However, elsewhere on the battlefield, Union Army troops carried out their own assault against the fort’s landward defenses.

After prolonged fighting, Union troops succeeded in capturing Fort Fisher. Its fall was strategically significant because it effectively closed Wilmington’s access to overseas blockade-running traffic and deprived the Confederacy of its most important remaining Atlantic supply gateway.

For Gurdon H. Barter, however, the defining event remained the moment when the naval attack disintegrated around him. His distinction did not result from capturing an enemy flag or personally taking the fort. It came from remaining at the front when most of the attacking force had retreated and from helping ensure that the surviving party eventually withdrew with its wounded, arms, and colors.

The Medal of Honor that recognized Gurdon H. Barter’s conduct belonged to the earliest era of the decoration. Congress had authorized the Navy Medal of Honor in December 1861, during the opening year of the Civil War. The Army version followed in 1862.

At that time, the United States Navy did not possess the extensive hierarchy of personal military decorations that developed in later generations. Decorations such as the Navy Cross and many modern combat awards did not yet exist. The Medal of Honor therefore served as the principal federal recognition for extraordinary bravery and distinguished conduct by sailors and Marines.

Gurdon H. Barter’s heroism at Fort Fisher was formally recognized in Navy General Order No. 59, dated June 22, 1865. The order recognized numerous sailors and Marines for exceptional conduct during Civil War naval operations, including those who had distinguished themselves during the fighting at Fort Fisher.

For the VictoriaCross.ca database, Gurdon H. Barter’s verified decoration is represented as Medal of Honor 1862–1912 Navy — 1865.

The 1865 date records the year in which his Civil War bravery was officially recognized. No additional clasp, bar, star, or other ribbon device has been verified for Gurdon H. Barter’s Medal of Honor. His decoration therefore remains Medal of Honor 1862–1912 Navy — 1865 — No device or clasp.

The timing of the recognition was particularly significant. By the time General Order No. 59 was issued in June 1865, the principal Confederate armies had surrendered and the Civil War was effectively over. Gurdon H. Barter therefore received national recognition only months after the battle and shortly after the conflict in which he had served came to an end.

After leaving naval service, Gurdon H. Barter eventually moved west. The surviving authoritative record provides far fewer details about his civilian employment and family life than about his Medal of Honor service, so those aspects of his history should not be expanded with uncertain information.

What can be established is that Gurdon H. Barter eventually became associated with Idaho and spent the final period of his life there. His move west reflected the broader experience of many Civil War veterans who built new lives far from the communities from which they originally entered military service.

Gurdon H. Barter died on April 22, 1900, in Viola, Idaho. He was buried in Viola Cemetery, where his grave preserves his connection with both the American Civil War and the Medal of Honor.

His connection with Idaho continued long after his death. Gurdon H. Barter’s actual Medal of Honor was eventually preserved by the Idaho Military History Museum in Boise, where the decoration became part of the state’s historical collection.

The surviving medal provides a physical link to January 15, 1865. It represents a day when Gurdon H. Barter left the relative protection of USS Minnesota, landed on the North Carolina coast, and advanced on foot toward one of the Confederacy’s strongest remaining fortifications.

The naval attack became chaotic and costly. Officers and sailors fell under Confederate fire. The majority of the attacking force eventually broke and ran back from the defenses.

Gurdon H. Barter stayed.

That decision ultimately defined his place in American military history. Gurdon H. Barter remained near Fort Fisher until darkness allowed the surviving party to withdraw with its wounded, its weapons, and its colors. His Medal of Honor 1862–1912 Navy — 1865 preserves the memory of a Landsman who refused to abandon his position when one of the most dangerous naval assaults of the Civil War collapsed around him.