Francis Jefferson Coates

Blinded at Gettysburg, He Never Left His Courage Behind

Francis Jefferson Coates was born on August 24, 1843, in Grant County, Wisconsin. When the American Civil War began, he was still a young man, but he entered the Union Army and joined Company H of the 7th Wisconsin Infantry. The regiment would become part of the famous Iron Brigade, a formation known for enduring some of the hardest fighting of the war.

Coates initially entered service as a corporal and later rose to the rank of sergeant. The 7th Wisconsin fought in the Eastern Theater, where repeated campaigns placed the regiment against some of the Confederate Army’s strongest forces. Service in the Iron Brigade demanded exceptional endurance. Its soldiers were repeatedly committed to major engagements and often suffered severe casualties.

One of Coates’s early major battles came at South Mountain, Maryland, in September 1862. The fighting there formed part of the Maryland Campaign and occurred only days before the Battle of Antietam. Union forces attacked Confederate positions in the mountain passes as they attempted to force their way toward Lee’s army.

Coates was wounded during the fighting at South Mountain. He survived and eventually returned to service, continuing with the 7th Wisconsin despite the injury. His decision to remain with his regiment meant that less than a year later he would face another, even more consequential battle.

In the summer of 1863, Confederate General Robert E. Lee carried the war north into Pennsylvania. Union and Confederate forces converged around the town of Gettysburg, where the largest battle of the Civil War began on July 1.

The Iron Brigade was among the Union formations heavily engaged during the opening day. The fighting west and northwest of Gettysburg became brutal as Union infantry attempted to slow the Confederate advance and hold critical ground long enough for additional Federal forces to arrive.

Sergeant Coates fought with Company H of the 7th Wisconsin during this desperate struggle.

On July 1, 1863, he displayed the extraordinary courage that would later bring him the Medal of Honor. His official citation described his conduct as unsurpassed courage and recorded the terrible price he paid during the battle.

Coates was severely wounded in the fighting. The injury destroyed his sight, leaving him permanently blind in both eyes. He was only nineteen years old.

The loss of his vision ended his ability to continue normal combat service, but it did not erase the significance of what he had done at Gettysburg. His courage had been demonstrated while his regiment fought in one of the most dangerous sectors of the battlefield, during a day when the Iron Brigade suffered devastating losses while helping delay the Confederate advance.

The first day of Gettysburg ended with Union troops withdrawing through the town to defensive positions on Cemetery Hill and the surrounding heights. Although the Federal forces had been pushed back, the resistance offered by formations such as the Iron Brigade bought valuable time and helped shape the battlefield on which the Union Army would fight successfully over the following two days.

Coates survived his wounds but faced the permanent consequences of the battle. Blindness in the nineteenth century could radically alter every part of a person’s life, particularly for a young soldier whose adult life had barely begun. His military career could no longer continue in the same way, and he was eventually discharged from service because of his disability on September 1, 1864.

His valor at Gettysburg was later formally recognized by the United States government. On June 29, 1866, Francis Jefferson Coates was awarded the Medal of Honor for his conduct during the battle.

The decoration recognized the extraordinary courage he had demonstrated on July 1, 1863, when he continued fighting during the savage opening struggle at Gettysburg and suffered the wounds that permanently took his sight. He had been serving as a sergeant when the action occurred, and Sergeant remains his highest verified formal military rank.

The Medal of Honor ensured that Coates’s sacrifice would not disappear into the enormous casualty lists of Gettysburg. Thousands of soldiers were killed or wounded during the battle, but his individual act of courage was preserved through the nation’s highest military decoration for valor.

His story also reflects the enormous personal cost carried by surviving Civil War veterans. Coates did not die on the battlefield, but the wounds he received changed the remainder of his life. He left the Army as a young man permanently blinded by combat, carrying with him the consequences of Gettysburg long after the armies had moved on.

Despite those injuries, Coates lived for more than sixteen years after the war. His later life took him west, and he eventually settled in Nebraska.

Francis Jefferson Coates died on January 27, 1880, in Dorchester, Nebraska. He was only thirty-six years old. He was buried in Dorchester City Cemetery.

His military service was relatively brief when measured against a lifetime, yet it contained experiences that few people could endure. He was wounded at South Mountain, returned to duty, fought again with the Iron Brigade at Gettysburg, and there suffered the injury that left him permanently blind.

The Medal of Honor preserved the nation’s recognition of his courage, but the deeper legacy of Francis Jefferson Coates lies in the extraordinary sacrifice behind that decoration. At Gettysburg, a nineteen-year-old sergeant stood with his regiment during one of the Civil War’s most violent battles and paid for his courage with his sight.