Jacob Sanford

Jacob Sanford was born in 1840 in Fulton County, Illinois. He grew up in the Prairie City area of Illinois and was still a young man when the American Civil War began. In the opening year of the conflict, Sanford answered the call for Union volunteers and entered the United States Army, beginning a military career that would take him through years of hard campaigning and ultimately earn him the Medal of Honor.

Sanford enlisted from Prairie City and joined Company F of the 55th Illinois Infantry. He entered service as a Private on October 31, 1861. The regiment became part of the Union forces operating in the Western Theater and eventually developed an extensive combat record under armies associated with Major General Ulysses S. Grant and Major General William T. Sherman.

The 55th Illinois Infantry experienced demanding service from the early stages of the war. Its soldiers were required to endure long marches, difficult camp conditions, disease, artillery bombardment, and repeated infantry combat as Union forces attempted to gain control of important Confederate transportation routes and strongholds.

By 1863, one of the Union's most important strategic objectives was Vicksburg, Mississippi. The fortified city stood high above the Mississippi River and formed a critical link between the eastern and western parts of the Confederacy.

As long as Vicksburg remained under Confederate control, the South could maintain an important connection across the Mississippi. For the Union, capturing the city promised to secure the river and divide the Confederacy geographically.

Grant's 1863 Vicksburg Campaign brought Union troops across the Mississippi south of the city. Federal forces then fought a rapid series of inland engagements before driving Confederate troops back into the powerful defensive works surrounding Vicksburg.

Rather than immediately settling into a lengthy siege, Grant first attempted to seize the city through direct assault.

An attack on May 19 failed against the strong Confederate defenses. A larger coordinated assault was therefore planned for May 22, 1863.

The Confederate fortifications presented an extraordinary challenge. Deep ditches, steep slopes, earthworks, rifle pits, artillery positions, and defensive obstacles protected the approaches. Any attacking soldier crossing the open ground in front of these works could be exposed to concentrated rifle and artillery fire.

To prepare the way for the main attack, a group of Union soldiers volunteered for an exceptionally dangerous advance against the Confederate position. The men became known as the volunteer storming party.

Private Jacob Sanford was one of those volunteers.

The assignment demanded courage before the attack even began. The soldiers understood that they would be among the first men moving directly toward the enemy defenses and that casualties were likely to be severe.

On May 22, Sanford advanced with the storming party during the Union assault on Vicksburg.

The volunteers moved forward under intense Confederate fire. They had to cross exposed ground while the defenders fired from protected positions. Their task placed them ahead of or at the front of the larger attacking force, where they had very little protection from enemy weapons.

The Confederate defenses proved extremely difficult to overcome.

As the storming party approached the works, men were killed and wounded, while survivors attempted to reach whatever cover was available near the fortifications. The larger Union assault also encountered fierce resistance and was unable to break through the Confederate defensive line.

Sanford survived the attack.

His individual Medal of Honor citation did not attempt to describe every movement he made during the assault. Instead, it recognized the essential fact of his conduct: gallantry in the charge of the volunteer storming party.

That wording placed Sanford among the soldiers officially recognized for willingly taking part in one of the most hazardous assignments of the Vicksburg Campaign.

The courage required was not based on a sudden battlefield opportunity. Sanford had volunteered in advance for an operation whose danger was obvious. He knowingly joined a group expected to move against heavily fortified Confederate defenses before the main assaulting force could fully engage.

The May 22 attack failed to capture Vicksburg by direct assault. Union casualties were substantial, and Grant concluded that further attempts to storm the defenses would cause unnecessary losses.

The campaign therefore entered a new phase.

Federal forces surrounded Vicksburg and began a formal siege. Union artillery and naval guns continued to bombard the Confederate position while Grant's army cut the garrison off from food, supplies, and reinforcements.

Conditions inside Vicksburg steadily deteriorated. Confederate soldiers and civilians endured bombardment and increasing shortages as the siege continued through June.

On July 4, 1863, Confederate Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton surrendered Vicksburg to Grant.

The victory became one of the most strategically important Union successes of the entire Civil War. Union control of Vicksburg, followed by the fall of Port Hudson, effectively opened the Mississippi River to Federal traffic and divided the Confederacy.

Sanford's service did not end with Vicksburg.

He remained with the 55th Illinois Infantry as the war continued. His decision to remain in military service reflected the endurance required of veteran soldiers who had already survived major campaigns but continued fighting as Union armies advanced deeper into Confederate territory.

Sanford later reenlisted as a veteran. His service records show that he reenlisted in 1864, demonstrating his commitment to remain with the Union Army beyond his original term of service.

His military responsibilities increased as well.

After serving as a Private, Sanford was promoted to Corporal and later to Commissary Sergeant. Commissary Sergeant became the highest verified rank of his military career.

The difference between his ranks is important. Sanford was a Private when he performed the Medal of Honor action at Vicksburg on May 22, 1863. His later promotion to Commissary Sergeant reflected advancement gained through continued military service.

A Commissary Sergeant held important logistical responsibilities. Armies depended upon reliable systems for distributing food and other essential supplies, and the men assigned to commissary duties helped ensure that soldiers received the provisions necessary to continue campaigning.

Sanford's advancement therefore represented a transition from an ordinary infantry private to a senior noncommissioned position involving significant administrative and logistical responsibility.

The 55th Illinois continued campaigning through the later years of the Civil War. The regiment participated in the wider Union military operations that eventually carried Federal forces through the South and helped destroy the Confederacy's remaining ability to continue organized resistance.

Sanford remained in service through the end of the war.

The final Confederate armies surrendered during the spring of 1865, but veteran Union units continued performing military duties for months afterward. Sanford's regiment remained in Federal service until the Army completed its remaining postwar responsibilities.

Jacob Sanford was finally mustered out on August 14, 1865.

His military career had lasted almost four years. He had entered the Army as a Private from Prairie City, survived the dangerous assault at Vicksburg, reenlisted as a veteran, risen through the enlisted ranks, and completed his service as a Commissary Sergeant.

The act for which he would eventually receive the nation's highest military decoration, however, remained the charge of May 22, 1863.

Formal recognition did not come immediately.

Like many Civil War soldiers whose acts of gallantry were reviewed years after the conflict, Sanford waited three decades before receiving the Medal of Honor.

On September 2, 1893, Jacob Sanford was presented with the Medal of Honor for his gallantry in the charge of the volunteer storming party at Vicksburg.

The Medal of Honor itself had originated during the Civil War. Congress authorized the Army Medal of Honor in 1862, establishing a national decoration for soldiers who distinguished themselves through extraordinary military conduct.

At that time, the United States did not yet possess the extensive system of military valor decorations that would develop during later conflicts. The Medal of Honor therefore became the principal national recognition for exceptional courage by Union soldiers.

Sanford's Medal recognized a form of bravery based upon voluntary exposure to extraordinary danger. He had knowingly joined the storming party and advanced toward strongly defended Confederate fortifications under intense fire.

Because his Medal of Honor was presented on September 2, 1893, the correct historical representation for the project database is Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1893.

No clasp, star, bar, oak leaf cluster, or other device has been verified with Sanford's Medal of Honor. His verified decoration therefore consists of one Medal of Honor without additional devices.

The presentation of the Medal in 1893 came more than thirty years after Sanford had stood with the volunteer storming party outside Vicksburg.

By that point, the Civil War had passed from immediate national experience into an era of veterans' reunions, battlefield memorials, regimental histories, and public commemoration. Surviving veterans were increasingly recognized for individual acts that wartime circumstances had not always allowed the government to honor immediately.

Sanford returned to civilian life in Illinois after his military career. He remained strongly associated with Prairie City, the community from which he had entered the Army in 1861.

Surviving official records preserve substantially more detail about his military career than about his civilian occupation and private life. Uncertain postwar details should therefore not be expanded without reliable documentary support.

What is firmly established is that Sanford lived for more than three decades after the end of the Civil War and personally received the Medal of Honor during his lifetime.

He died on September 3, 1901, in Prairie City, Illinois, one day after the eighth anniversary of the presentation of his Medal of Honor.

Jacob Sanford was buried at Prairie City Cemetery in Prairie City, Illinois.

His final resting place returned him to the same Illinois community associated with the beginning of his military service.

Sanford's military legacy remains centered on May 22, 1863.

As a Private in the 55th Illinois Infantry, he volunteered for the storming party assigned to advance against the formidable Confederate defenses at Vicksburg. He entered the charge knowing that the men at the front would face concentrated enemy fire and an extremely high risk of death or serious injury.

The assault failed to capture Vicksburg that day, but the courage displayed by Sanford and the other volunteers became permanently connected with the history of the campaign.

Thirty years later, on September 2, 1893, the United States formally recognized Jacob Sanford's gallantry by presenting him with the Medal of Honor.

He had entered the Army as a Private, continued serving after Vicksburg, reenlisted as a veteran, and ultimately advanced to Commissary Sergeant, the highest verified rank of his military career.

Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1893 remains Jacob Sanford's verified military decoration and the defining official recognition of his courage in the volunteer storming party at Vicksburg.