John James Toffey

Sick and Excused From Duty, He Led the Assault

John James Toffey was born on June 1, 1844, at Quaker Hill in Dutchess County, New York. Still a young man when the American Civil War began, he entered Union military service and embarked on a career that would place him in some of the hardest fighting of the conflict. His defining act of courage came during the Chattanooga Campaign in November 1863, when illness had already excused him from duty but he chose to return to the front.

Toffey first served with the 21st New Jersey Infantry before later joining the 33rd New Jersey Infantry. By the autumn of 1863, he was serving as a First Lieutenant with the 33rd New Jersey during the Union operations around Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The military situation there was critical.

After the Battle of Chickamauga, Union forces had fallen back into Chattanooga, where Confederate troops occupied commanding heights around the city and threatened the Federal position. During November, Union commanders prepared a series of attacks designed to break the Confederate hold on the surrounding terrain and reopen the offensive.

Toffey was physically unwell as those operations began.

His condition was serious enough that he had been excused from duty and was expected to remain away from the fighting.

He did not.

Instead of remaining in safety because of his illness, Toffey voluntarily returned to the front.

On November 23, 1863, he assumed command of a storming party and joined the assault against Confederate positions during the opening phase of the fighting around Chattanooga.

Leading such a force required an officer to place himself at the front of men advancing directly toward defended ground.

Toffey did exactly that.

Although already weakened by illness, he exposed himself to enemy fire and continued forward with the troops under his command. His conduct was later remembered not simply because he participated in the attack, but because he had no obligation to be there at all.

He had been excused from duty.

He chose to fight anyway.

As the attack developed, Toffey helped rally and direct men whose formations had become disordered under the pressure of combat. Moving through exposed ground, he worked to restore order and keep the advance moving.

It was an act of leadership performed under immediate danger.

During the fighting, Toffey was severely wounded.

The injury was serious enough to leave him permanently disabled for further field service.

The wound effectively ended the kind of frontline military career that might otherwise have followed, but it also became part of the record of courage for which he would eventually receive the Medal of Honor.

His official recognition emphasized the extraordinary combination of circumstances surrounding the action: he had been excused from duty because of sickness, voluntarily returned, assumed command of a storming party, displayed conspicuous gallantry in the assault, and suffered a severe wound that permanently disabled him.

The Chattanooga fighting marked a turning point in the Western Theater.

Union forces succeeded in breaking the Confederate positions surrounding the city and opened the way for future operations deeper into the South. The victory transformed Chattanooga from a threatened Federal foothold into an important base for the campaigns that followed.

For Toffey, however, the battle was remembered on a far more personal level.

He had gone into the fight while already physically unfit for duty and emerged with wounds that permanently changed his life.

Despite that disability, his connection with military service did not end.

After the Civil War, Toffey remained involved with the military establishment of New Jersey. He served in the state militia and later rose through its commissioned ranks.

He became a Captain and ultimately reached the formal rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the New Jersey military organization.

That later rank was the highest verified military rank of his career, although the action that earned him national recognition had taken place when he was a First Lieutenant.

More than three decades passed before the United States formally recognized his conduct at Chattanooga.

On September 10, 1897, John James Toffey received the Medal of Honor for his actions of November 23, 1863.

No additional clasp, bar, star, or other device accompanied the award.

The Medal of Honor preserved the story of a young officer whose courage began before he ever reached the enemy.

Toffey had already been given permission to remain away from battle.

He could have obeyed that medical exemption without dishonor.

Instead, he chose to return to his soldiers, take command of an attacking force, and expose himself to the same danger they faced.

He paid for that decision with a severe and permanently disabling wound.

Toffey lived for many years after the war and became part of the generation of veterans who carried the memory of the Civil War into the twentieth century.

John James Toffey died on March 13, 1911, in Pawling, New York. He was buried in Pawling Cemetery.

His military legacy is defined by a moment when duty was no longer compulsory.

Illness had removed him from the line.

Orders had excused him.

But when the Union Army went forward at Chattanooga, First Lieutenant John James Toffey returned voluntarily, took command of a storming party, and led men into battle.

He was wounded badly enough to end his field service, but the courage he demonstrated that day endured.

More than thirty years later, the Medal of Honor formally recognized what his soldiers had witnessed in 1863: an officer who chose danger when he had every legitimate reason to remain behind.