John Harvey Fisher

John Harvey Fisher was born about 1837 in Monmouth, Pennsylvania. During the American Civil War he served in the Union Army with Company B, 55th Illinois Volunteer Infantry, rising from private after enlisting in September 1861 to officer rank before his discharge in May 1865.

Fisher received the Medal of Honor for his role in the assault on Vicksburg, Mississippi, on 22 May 1863. General Ulysses S. Grant’s attack included a volunteer “storming party” tasked with advancing ahead of the main assault to bridge a ditch and place scaling ladders against Confederate works. The volunteers understood the mission was extremely dangerous; of roughly 150 men in the party, nearly half were killed, and seventy-nine survivors were later awarded the Medal of Honor.

His citation recognized him for gallantry in the charge of the volunteer storming party while serving as a First Lieutenant with the 55th Illinois Infantry. The medal was awarded on 2 September 1893, decades after the action. Fisher died on 16 September 1895 and is buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Longmont, Colorado.