Henry Blanchard Freeman

Henry Blanchard Freeman was born on January 17, 1837, in Mount Vernon, Ohio. His life would ultimately span more than four decades of active United States Army service, from the years before the American Civil War through the Indian Wars and into the era of the Spanish-American War and American operations in the Philippines. Beginning his career as an enlisted soldier, he eventually rose to the rank of Brigadier General and became one of the Army's distinguished long-serving officers.

Freeman first entered the United States Army in 1855, when he was still a young man. His early enlisted service gave him direct experience with the discipline and responsibilities of the Regular Army before the nation descended into civil war. When the Civil War began in 1861, he again served in the Regular Army and advanced through the enlisted ranks, including service as a First Sergeant, before receiving a commission as an officer.

He was appointed a Second Lieutenant in the 18th U.S. Infantry in 1861 and was promoted to First Lieutenant on May 30, 1862. It was as a First Lieutenant of the 18th U.S. Infantry that Freeman performed the act of extraordinary courage for which he would eventually receive the Medal of Honor.

In late 1862, Union and Confederate armies confronted each other in Tennessee during the Stones River Campaign. The resulting Battle of Stones River, also known as the Battle of Murfreesboro, began on December 31, 1862, and developed into one of the hardest-fought engagements of the Civil War.

The battle opened with powerful Confederate attacks against the Union right. Federal troops were driven backward in several sectors, units became separated, and the battlefield rapidly filled with wounded men caught between the opposing forces. Musket and artillery fire made movement across exposed ground extremely dangerous.

During this crisis, First Lieutenant Henry Blanchard Freeman voluntarily moved forward under heavy enemy fire after an acting field officer had been wounded and was in immediate danger of falling into Confederate hands.

Freeman reached the wounded officer, picked him up, and carried him away from the threatened position to a place of safety. He performed the rescue while exposed to intense enemy fire, deliberately risking his own life to prevent a wounded fellow officer from being captured.

The act required Freeman to move toward danger rather than away from it. The wounded officer could not escape without assistance, and Confederate forces were close enough that capture appeared imminent. Freeman's decision to go forward voluntarily transformed a battlefield rescue into an extraordinary demonstration of personal courage.

His conduct during the Battle of Stones River was also recognized through brevet advancement. Freeman received the brevet rank of Captain for gallant and meritorious service connected with the battle.

The Battle of Stones River continued into January 1863 and ultimately ended with Confederate forces withdrawing from the area. Although the battle was costly for both armies, the Union retained control of the field and Murfreesboro, providing an important strategic and political success following a difficult period for Federal forces.

Freeman continued serving with the Army of the Cumberland during 1863. His military career soon brought him into another major confrontation, the Battle of Chickamauga in Georgia in September of that year.

At Chickamauga, Freeman again distinguished himself and received the brevet rank of Major for gallant and meritorious service. The battle, however, also dramatically changed the course of his war when he was captured by Confederate forces.

Freeman was taken to Richmond, Virginia, where he was held in Libby Prison, one of the best-known Confederate prisons for captured Union officers. His captivity became an extraordinary chapter in his military career.

He succeeded in escaping from Confederate imprisonment but was recaptured. Rather than accepting continued captivity, Freeman escaped again. After a long period separated from his own army, he was eventually able to rejoin Union forces in February 1865.

His return came during the final months of the Civil War. By April 1865, the principal Confederate army in Virginia had surrendered, and the conflict was rapidly moving toward its conclusion.

Freeman's wartime record therefore included several exceptional experiences: progression from enlisted service to commissioned officer, battlefield gallantry at Stones River, additional distinction at Chickamauga, capture by Confederate forces, imprisonment, repeated escape attempts, and eventual return to Union lines.

Formal recognition of his greatest act of heroism came many years later. On February 17, 1894, Henry Blanchard Freeman was presented with the Medal of Honor for his actions at Stones River on December 31, 1862.

The Medal of Honor had been authorized for the United States Army during the Civil War in 1862. At the time, the United States did not possess the extensive system of military valor decorations that developed during the twentieth century. The Medal of Honor therefore became the country's highest formal recognition for extraordinary military conduct.

Freeman's official recognition centered specifically on his voluntary rescue of the wounded acting field officer. Under heavy enemy fire, he went forward, picked up the wounded man, and carried him to safety before the officer could fall into Confederate hands.

Because Freeman's Medal of Honor was presented on February 17, 1894, his verified database representation belongs to the Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army period. No clasp, star, bar, oak leaf cluster, or other device has been verified with the award.

The conclusion of the Civil War did not end Freeman's Army career. Unlike many wartime officers who returned immediately to civilian life, he remained in the Regular Army and spent much of the following decades serving on the expanding western frontier.

In the years after the war, Freeman served at frontier posts including Fort Phil Kearny and Fort Fetterman and performed duties across areas such as Wyoming, the Dakota region, Colorado, Utah, and Oklahoma. His assignments placed him within the long and difficult period of military operations associated with the American West.

He participated in frontier campaigns during a time of continuing conflict between the United States government and Native American peoples resisting military pressure, displacement, and expansion into their lands. These campaigns required Regular Army soldiers to operate over enormous distances in harsh terrain and frequently under difficult logistical conditions.

Freeman's western service included participation in the Sioux War of 1876. He kept a journal during that campaign, preserving an important firsthand record of infantry operations during one of the most famous periods of the Indian Wars.

His extensive western campaign service eventually brought Freeman his second verified military medal: the Indian Campaign Medal.

The United States Army established the Indian Campaign Medal in 1907 to recognize qualifying participation in specified campaigns against Native American groups during the nineteenth-century frontier conflicts. Unlike merely establishing that Freeman served in the West, recipient-specific official biographical evidence confirms that he received the Indian Campaign Medal.

For the database, the award should therefore be recorded as Indian Campaign Medal — 1907. The year represents the medal's establishment period rather than an independently verified exact date on which Freeman personally received his physical medal. No clasp or other device has been verified for Freeman's Indian Campaign Medal.

The Indian Campaign Medal is particularly appropriate to Freeman's long military career because much of his post-Civil War service was spent on western frontiers and reservations. It represents a second major historical phase of his Army service, separate from the Civil War action recognized by his Medal of Honor.

Freeman continued advancing through the Regular Army. He became Major of the 16th Infantry in 1891 and Lieutenant Colonel of the 5th Infantry in 1895. His promotion reflected decades of professional Army service extending far beyond his Civil War reputation.

In 1898, the United States entered war with Spain. Freeman's military career again intersected with a major national conflict. He served in connection with American operations in Cuba during the Spanish-American War period.

On October 4, 1898, Freeman was promoted to Colonel of the 24th U.S. Infantry. The 24th was one of the Regular Army's African-American infantry regiments whose enlisted soldiers became widely associated with the history of the Buffalo Soldiers.

As Colonel, Freeman held one of the most senior regimental commands in the Army. His later service also extended to the Philippines during the period of American military operations there following the Spanish-American War.

Despite this verified service in Cuba and the Philippines, additional medals sometimes associated with Freeman in secondary lists have not been included in his final verified medal record. Service in a theater or campaign does not by itself establish recipient-specific medal entitlement, and sufficient individual issuance evidence has not been established for those additional decorations.

Freeman's career reached its highest point on January 16, 1901, when he was promoted to Brigadier General in the United States Army. This was the highest verified rank of his career.

The following day, January 17, 1901, Freeman reached the retirement age applicable to his service and retired from active duty. His military career had begun at the enlisted level decades earlier and concluded with the rank of general officer.

Few aspects of his career better demonstrate its extraordinary range. He had served as an enlisted soldier before the Civil War, become a commissioned infantry officer, carried a wounded officer to safety at Stones River, been breveted for gallantry, survived Confederate imprisonment and escaped, served for decades on the western frontier, participated in Indian campaigns, commanded a Regular Army infantry regiment, served during the Spanish-American War era and in the Philippines, and finally became a Brigadier General.

After retirement, Freeman settled on a ranch near Douglas, Wyoming. His choice of Wyoming reflected his long association with the American West, where he had spent so much of his post-Civil War Army career.

His family also became connected with Wyoming's political history. His daughter Julia married Robert D. Carey, who later became Governor of Wyoming and a United States Senator.

Freeman lived in retirement for more than fourteen years after leaving active Army service. He died at Douglas, Wyoming, on October 16, 1915, at the age of seventy-eight.

He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, where his final resting place reflects his exceptionally long career in the United States Army and his status as a Medal of Honor recipient.

Freeman's legacy also continued beyond his lifetime. During the Second World War, the United States named the military transport General H. B. Freeman in his honor, preserving his name within another generation of American military service.

Henry Blanchard Freeman's career ultimately connected several major eras of nineteenth-century American military history. His defining moment of personal heroism occurred at Stones River on December 31, 1862, when, as a First Lieutenant of the 18th U.S. Infantry, he voluntarily entered an area under heavy enemy fire and carried a wounded acting field officer to safety.

For that act, he received the Medal of Honor on February 17, 1894. His decades of subsequent frontier service also resulted in verified receipt of the Indian Campaign Medal, giving him two decorations that can presently be supported by recipient-specific evidence.