Henry W. Downs

He Crossed a Killing Field Twice for Ammunition

Henry W. Downs was born on August 29, 1844, in Jamaica, Vermont. His surviving authoritative military records preserve his name as Henry W. Downs; the full form of his middle name has not been securely established and should not be expanded by assumption. He entered Union military service during the opening months of the American Civil War and became a member of Company I, 8th Vermont Infantry, beginning a military career that would take him from the Gulf Coast to the Shenandoah Valley and ultimately earn him the Medal of Honor.

Downs enlisted from Newfane, Vermont, on November 28, 1861, initially serving as a Private. The 8th Vermont Infantry was formally mustered into Federal service in February 1862. Soon afterward the regiment left Vermont and traveled south, eventually joining Union operations in the Department of the Gulf. The regiment served in Louisiana during some of the most demanding campaigning of the war, including operations around New Orleans, Bayou Teche and Port Hudson.

During these years Downs advanced through the enlisted ranks. He became a Corporal and was promoted to Sergeant on December 13, 1863. His advancement reflected the growing experience and responsibility he had acquired during a long period of active wartime service. Rather than leave the Army when his original obligation approached its end, Downs reenlisted on January 5, 1864, continuing with the 8th Vermont as a veteran soldier.

By the summer of 1864, the military situation brought the 8th Vermont away from Louisiana and into Virginia. The veteran regiment became part of the forces operating in the Shenandoah Valley under Major General Philip Sheridan. Confederate Lieutenant General Jubal Early's army remained a serious threat in the Valley, and Sheridan was tasked with breaking Confederate resistance and preventing the region from continuing to support military operations against the North.

The defining moment of Downs's military career came on September 19, 1864, during the Third Battle of Winchester, also known as the Battle of Opequon. The engagement became the largest battle fought in the Shenandoah Valley. Union forces advanced against Early's army in an exceptionally hard-fought contest marked by heavy musketry and artillery fire. The 8th Vermont Infantry fought as part of the Union XIX Corps, and its soldiers became engaged in intense combat as the Federal army attempted to drive the Confederate defenders from their positions.

Downs was serving as a Sergeant of Company I when an urgent ammunition problem developed during the fighting. Ammunition was essential to keeping an infantry line functioning, but reaching additional supplies meant moving across exposed ground swept by enemy fire. Remaining under cover would have been the safer choice, yet the need for ammunition created an immediate danger to the fighting effectiveness of the Union soldiers.

Downs and one fellow soldier voluntarily crossed an open field while exposed to raking Confederate fire. They reached the needed ammunition and brought it back to the fighting line. The journey itself placed them in direct danger because enemy fire could sweep across the exposed ground with little protection available to anyone attempting to cross it.

Their first successful trip did not end Downs's action. A short time later, more ammunition was required. Downs again crossed the same dangerous open ground under enemy fire and once more returned carrying ammunition. By making the journey twice, he knowingly entered an area where he had already experienced the intensity of Confederate fire. His action ensured that badly needed ammunition continued reaching soldiers engaged in the battle.

The Third Battle of Winchester ended in a major Union victory. Confederate forces were driven from Winchester and withdrew south toward Fisher's Hill. The victory helped shift control of the Shenandoah Valley decisively toward Sheridan's army and marked the beginning of the collapse of Early's ability to maintain a sustained Confederate threat in the region.

Downs remained with the 8th Vermont after Winchester. Only three days later, the regiment took part in the Union victory at Fisher's Hill. The 8th Vermont subsequently remained with Sheridan's forces during the continuing Valley Campaign. In October 1864 the regiment endured exceptionally severe fighting at Cedar Creek, where the unit suffered devastating casualties during one of the most violent episodes in its history. Downs continued in military service through the final phase of the war.

His responsibilities continued to increase. On March 21, 1865, Downs was promoted to First Sergeant. Less than a month later, on April 18, 1865, he received a commission as Second Lieutenant. This became his highest verified military rank. The distinction is important: he was a Sergeant when he performed the act of heroism at Winchester, but he later completed his military career as a Second Lieutenant.

The war was effectively ending by the time of his commission. After operations in the Shenandoah Valley, the 8th Vermont moved toward Washington, D.C. The regiment remained in Federal service during the closing weeks of the conflict and was mustered out on June 28, 1865. Downs had therefore entered the Army as a Private during the early stages of the Civil War and left it as a commissioned officer after more than three years of demanding wartime service.

Recognition for his action at Winchester did not come immediately. Nearly three decades passed before the United States formally honored his courage. On December 13, 1893, Henry W. Downs was awarded the Medal of Honor for his conduct on September 19, 1864. The decoration specifically recognized his voluntary decision to cross an open field under raking enemy fire to obtain ammunition and his willingness to repeat the dangerous mission shortly afterward.

The Medal of Honor had been established during the Civil War itself. Congress authorized the Army Medal of Honor in 1862 as a national decoration for exceptional military conduct. During and after the war, the decoration became the highest American recognition associated with extraordinary bravery in military service. Downs's award belonged to the nineteenth-century Army Medal of Honor tradition and was presented during his lifetime, not posthumously.

For Downs, the Medal of Honor represented one precisely documented act rather than a general reward for his entire wartime career. He received a single Medal of Honor, with no verified additional clasp, bar, star or other device. No additional campaign medal is included in his verified medal record because his participation in the Civil War by itself does not establish recipient-specific entitlement to a later Civil War campaign medal.

Downs's Medal of Honor action is especially striking because it involved a fundamental battlefield necessity rather than the capture of an enemy flag or command of a dramatic assault. Infantrymen could not continue fighting without ammunition. By repeatedly exposing himself to hostile fire to bring ammunition back across open ground, Downs helped sustain the ability of his comrades to remain in the battle.

After the Civil War, Downs returned to civilian life as a veteran whose wartime record eventually received national recognition. By the 1890s he was also associated with organizations preserving the service and memory of Union veterans. His status as a commissioned veteran and Medal of Honor recipient remained permanently tied to the 8th Vermont Infantry and the battle at Winchester.

Henry W. Downs lived for more than four decades after the end of the Civil War. He died in Dayton, Ohio, on July 2, 1911, at the age of sixty-six. He was buried at Dayton National Cemetery, where his military service and Medal of Honor status remain part of his permanent historical record.

His career traced an extraordinary progression through the Union Army: Private, Corporal, Sergeant, First Sergeant and finally Second Lieutenant. Yet the event for which he is remembered most occurred while he was still a Sergeant on September 19, 1864. During one of the largest and bloodiest battles of the Shenandoah Valley, ammunition was needed beyond an exposed field swept by Confederate fire. Downs crossed that field, returned with the ammunition, and then went back across it again. Nearly thirty years later, that repeated journey under fire was formally recognized with the Medal of Honor.