Henry G. Buhrman

Henry G. Buhrman was a Union Army infantryman and Medal of Honor recipient whose defining military action came during one of the most dangerous assaults of the Vicksburg Campaign. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1844, Buhrman entered military service during the American Civil War and became a member of Company H, 54th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. The surviving authoritative records consistently preserve his name as Henry G. Buhrman; the full form of his middle initial has not been reliably established and should therefore not be expanded. The 54th Ohio Infantry was organized during the opening phase of the Civil War and served with the Union’s western armies. The regiment became associated with Major General William T. Sherman’s command and fought in some of the most demanding campaigns of the Western Theater. Before Vicksburg, the regiment had already been engaged at Shiloh, where it defended a position on the Union left and suffered substantial casualties. It subsequently took part in operations around Corinth and later moved into the Mississippi Valley campaigns that brought Union forces toward Vicksburg. By 1863, control of the Mississippi River had become one of the Union’s most important strategic objectives. Vicksburg, Mississippi, stood on commanding heights overlooking the river and served as one of the Confederacy’s strongest remaining positions along the waterway. As long as Vicksburg remained in Confederate hands, uninterrupted Union control of the Mississippi could not be achieved. Major General Ulysses S. Grant’s campaign maneuvered Union forces south of Vicksburg, crossed the Mississippi, and fought a series of engagements that drove Confederate forces back toward the fortified city. The 54th Ohio Infantry belonged to Sherman’s XV Corps and participated in the campaign that ultimately surrounded Vicksburg. After Union troops reached the Confederate defenses, Grant attempted to capture the city by direct assault. The first major assault on May 19, 1863, failed against the strongly constructed earthworks. Confederate defenders occupied fortified positions protected by difficult terrain, trenches, obstacles, and commanding fields of fire. Grant ordered a second, larger attack for May 22. Before the main infantry advance, a specially selected group of volunteers was assigned one of the most hazardous tasks of the assault. Approximately 150 men were chosen to form a volunteer storming party that would advance ahead of the main Union force toward the Stockade Redan, a powerful Confederate defensive work guarding the Graveyard Road approach. Private Henry G. Buhrman volunteered for this storming party. The mission required the volunteers to carry wooden planks and scaling ladders toward the Confederate defenses. The planks were intended to bridge the ditch in front of the fortifications, while the ladders would allow following troops to climb the defensive works. The volunteers therefore had to move in front of the main assaulting infantry while carrying cumbersome equipment directly toward an enemy position whose defenders were waiting behind prepared earthworks. On the morning of May 22, Union artillery bombarded the Confederate line for several hours. At approximately 10:00 a.m., the bombardment ceased and Union infantry began advancing along a broad front. The volunteer storming party moved ahead toward the Stockade Redan. As the soldiers approached, Confederate troops opened a devastating fire. The men carrying the planks and ladders were particularly exposed because they had little ability to protect themselves while transporting the equipment necessary for the assault. Buhrman continued forward with the party under this intense fire. Some Union soldiers succeeded in getting close enough to place planks across portions of the defensive ditch, and Federal colors were planted against the exterior slope of the Confederate works. Nevertheless, the defenders maintained overwhelming fire against the attackers. The larger Union assault also failed to break the Confederate line. Across the Vicksburg defenses, Federal soldiers reached the outer slopes of several fortifications, but Confederate resistance remained strong. The May 22 assault ultimately cost the Union thousands of casualties and convinced Grant that further frontal attacks would be too costly. After the failure of the assault, Grant shifted to formal siege operations. Buhrman’s conduct in the volunteer storming party became the defining event of his military career. His later Medal of Honor citation described his achievement simply as gallantry in the charge of the volunteer storming party. The brevity of the citation should not obscure the danger of the mission. Buhrman had voluntarily joined an advance force whose task required its members to move directly ahead of the main attacking troops and approach one of the strongest sections of the Confederate defenses while exposed to concentrated enemy fire. Buhrman was serving as a Private in Company H, 54th Ohio Infantry at the time of the action. The distinction between his action-time rank and his later verified rank is important. Official Medal of Honor records identify him as Private during the Vicksburg action, while later federal veterans and burial records identify him as Sergeant. Sergeant is therefore his highest verified rank, while Private remains the historically correct rank for his Medal of Honor action. The 54th Ohio Infantry remained associated with extensive Union operations after Vicksburg. The regiment’s broader wartime history included continued campaigning in Mississippi, service around Chattanooga, participation in the Atlanta Campaign, operations through Georgia, and later campaigning in the Carolinas. However, individual participation in every engagement of a regiment should not automatically be assigned to Buhrman without a complete personal service record establishing his presence in each action. The fall of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863, became one of the decisive Union victories of the Civil War. Together with the Union victory at Gettysburg in the East, it marked a major turning point in the conflict. Federal control of Vicksburg opened the Mississippi River and effectively divided the Confederacy geographically. Buhrman did not receive the Medal of Honor immediately after the battle. More than thirty years passed before his gallantry was formally recognized with the nation’s highest military decoration. On July 12, 1894, Henry G. Buhrman was issued the Medal of Honor for his conduct at Vicksburg on May 22, 1863. This long interval between action and award is important for understanding the correct medal classification. His heroic action occurred during the Civil War in 1863, but the Medal of Honor itself was issued in 1894. Under the project’s historical Army Medal of Honor periods, the correct designation is: Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1894. The Army Medal of Honor had been authorized by Congress in 1862 during the Civil War. At that time, the United States did not possess the extensive system of valor decorations later created during the twentieth century. The Medal of Honor therefore served as the principal federal decoration for exceptional military conduct. Many Civil War Medal of Honor cases were recognized during the war itself, while others were reviewed and approved decades later as wartime records, eyewitness accounts, and official recommendations were examined. Buhrman belonged to this later group of Civil War recipients. His award was made during his lifetime and was not posthumous. No additional bar, clasp, star, oak leaf cluster, or other device has been verified for Buhrman’s Medal of Honor. His final Medal of Honor entry should therefore remain a single plain award without attachments. The Army Civil War Campaign Medal is not included in his verified medal record. Buhrman’s Civil War service unquestionably placed him within the historical period later recognized by that campaign medal, but service during an eligible period cannot automatically be converted into recipient-specific entitlement. More importantly in Buhrman’s case, he died in 1906, before the Army Civil War Campaign Medal was established. For those reasons, the later campaign medal should not be added to his final published rack. His verified medal history therefore contains one decoration only: Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1894 — No device or clasp. Details of Buhrman’s civilian life after the Civil War are comparatively limited in the surviving authoritative sources. This is common among enlisted Civil War veterans, whose military records frequently preserve more detail about their battlefield service than about their postwar occupations, marriages, or family life. What is securely documented is that by the final years of his life Buhrman was associated with the Mountain Home National Soldiers Home in Johnson City, Tennessee. The Mountain Home institution was created to care for disabled and aging Union veterans and became one of the last major branches of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers system. Henry G. Buhrman died there on June 1, 1906. He was buried in the cemetery at Mountain Home in Johnson City, Tennessee, which later became Mountain Home National Cemetery. His grave is located in Section C, Row 2, Site 12. Federal cemetery records continue to identify him as Sergeant Henry G. Buhrman and specifically preserve his status as a Civil War Medal of Honor recipient. His military legacy remains permanently connected with May 22, 1863. As a young Private of Company H, 54th Ohio Infantry, Henry G. Buhrman volunteered for the storming party that advanced ahead of the Union assault on the Confederate defenses at Vicksburg. Carrying the equipment necessary to cross defensive obstacles and reach the fortifications, the volunteers moved directly into concentrated enemy fire. The attack failed to capture the Confederate works that day, but Buhrman’s willingness to participate and his gallantry during the charge were remembered. Thirty-one years later, on July 12, 1894, the United States formally recognized that conduct with the Medal of Honor. His final verified military profile therefore records Henry G. Buhrman as a United States Army infantry soldier, Private at the Medal of Honor action, Sergeant as his highest verified rank, and Company H, 54th Ohio Infantry as his unit. His Combat Achievement classification is Infantry. His sole verified decoration is Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1894, with no verified device or clasp, and no Army Civil War Campaign Medal added to his final rack.