John Henry Patterson

Under fire, he carried a wounded officer from the burning woods!

John Henry Patterson was born on February 10, 1843, in New York. He came of age as the United States was approaching the crisis of the Civil War, and in 1861 he began a military career that would ultimately span nearly four decades and carry him from the battlefields of Virginia to the western frontier and Cuba.

Patterson entered the United States Army as a First Lieutenant in the 11th U.S. Infantry. Unlike the large volunteer regiments raised for the Civil War, the 11th Infantry belonged to the Regular Army, and Patterson would remain a professional soldier long after the conflict ended.

His defining act of courage came on May 5, 1864, during the Battle of the Wilderness in Virginia.

The Wilderness was the opening battle of Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant’s Overland Campaign. Union and Confederate forces collided in dense woodland where visibility was poor, formations became confused, and the thick undergrowth made coordinated movement extremely difficult. Gunfire ignited portions of the forest, creating an additional danger for wounded soldiers unable to escape the flames.

It was in this environment that First Lieutenant Patterson saw a fellow officer lying seriously wounded and helpless on the battlefield.

The officer was exposed not only to enemy fire, but also to the spreading forest fires that threatened men who could no longer move on their own.

Patterson went to him.

Under heavy Confederate fire, he lifted the wounded officer and carried him several hundred yards to a place of greater safety.

It was a physically demanding rescue performed in the middle of a violent engagement. Patterson had to move through dangerous ground while carrying another man, remaining exposed to enemy fire for much of the distance.

His action removed the wounded officer from a position where he could have been left defenseless against both the battle and the advancing flames.

That rescue became the act for which Patterson would eventually receive the Medal of Honor.

The recognition did not come immediately.

Patterson continued serving through the Civil War. Later in 1864, he received a brevet promotion to Captain for gallant service at Chapel House, reflecting further distinction in the field. The brevet appointment was an honorary recognition of service and should not be confused with his substantive rank at the time of the Wilderness action, which remained First Lieutenant.

When the Civil War ended, Patterson chose to remain in the Regular Army.

His postwar career carried him across the American West during an era when the Army maintained posts throughout frontier regions and conducted operations across a vast territory. Over the following decades, Patterson advanced through the professional officer corps, eventually serving as Captain, Major, Lieutenant Colonel, and Colonel.

His long career was therefore very different from that of many Civil War Medal of Honor recipients who returned permanently to civilian life after the war.

Patterson remained a soldier.

He experienced the transformation of the United States Army from its Civil War structure into the smaller professional force of the postwar period. His assignments placed him in a military world that demanded extended service far from the eastern battlefields where his career had begun.

More than thirty years after the Battle of the Wilderness, his actions there were formally recognized.

On July 23, 1897, John Henry Patterson received the Medal of Honor for rescuing the wounded officer under heavy fire during the battle of May 5, 1864.

The award commemorated one of the most dangerous moments of his long career.

No additional clasp, star, bar, or other device accompanied his Medal of Honor.

The decoration recognized the courage he had demonstrated as a First Lieutenant in the Wilderness.

Patterson’s active service was still not over.

When the United States went to war with Spain in 1898, he was a senior Regular Army officer. He commanded troops in Cuba and took part in the fighting around Santiago.

On July 1, 1898, Patterson was wounded during the Battle of El Caney.

The event placed him once again in direct combat more than thirty years after his Civil War service. By then he was no longer the young First Lieutenant who had carried a wounded officer through the Wilderness, but an experienced senior commander whose career had stretched across an extraordinary period of American military history.

His service ultimately culminated in promotion to Brigadier General in the Regular Army on January 18, 1899.

Patterson retired from active service shortly afterward, on February 6, 1899.

His highest verified military rank was therefore Brigadier General, although the act that earned him the Medal of Honor had occurred while he was a First Lieutenant.

That distinction captures the unusual span of his career.

The young officer who risked his life to carry another man from the Wilderness battlefield later became a general officer after decades of professional service.

John Henry Patterson died on October 5, 1920, in Selkirk, New York. He was buried at Albany Rural Cemetery.

His military legacy reaches far beyond a single battle.

He served through the Civil War, remained in the Army during the long postwar period, spent years on the western frontier, returned to combat during the Spanish-American War, suffered a battlefield wound at El Caney, and eventually retired as a Brigadier General.

Yet the moment for which he is best remembered occurred near the beginning of that long career.

On May 5, 1864, in the smoke, confusion, and burning woods of the Wilderness, First Lieutenant John Henry Patterson saw a wounded officer who could not save himself.

Patterson went back for him.

Under enemy fire, he carried the injured man several hundred yards away from immediate danger.

More than three decades later, the United States recognized that act with the Medal of Honor.

It remains the defining example of courage in a military career that lasted from the Civil War generation into the age of America’s first overseas war.