John Shiel

He Carried a Wounded Soldier Through Enemy Fire

John Shiel was born in Scotland in May 1828. He later emigrated to the United States and entered Union service during the American Civil War, joining Company E of the 90th Pennsylvania Infantry. Historical records also preserve his surname as Shields, but his Medal of Honor record identifies him as John Shiel.

During his military service Shiel eventually attained the rank of Sergeant, although he was serving as a Corporal when he performed the action that would earn him the Medal of Honor.

By December 1862, the 90th Pennsylvania Infantry was serving with the Army of the Potomac during the Fredericksburg Campaign. The Union Army had moved toward Fredericksburg, Virginia, hoping to cross the Rappahannock River, defeat General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, and open a route toward Richmond.

The resulting Battle of Fredericksburg became one of the most costly Union defeats of the war.

On December 13, 1862, Union troops launched repeated attacks against strongly positioned Confederate forces. While some of the battle’s most famous assaults occurred against Marye’s Heights, other Union formations fought south of the city against Confederate troops positioned around wooded ground, fields, and the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad.

The 90th Pennsylvania Infantry entered this violent fighting as part of the Union force operating in that sector.

The regiment faced devastating enemy fire. Ammunition became critically short, formations were disrupted, and men were killed or wounded as the battle intensified. At one stage the regiment was forced to withdraw after suffering heavily.

Somewhere amid that chaos, John Shiel saw a fellow Union soldier lying dangerously wounded.

The situation was desperate. A seriously wounded man left behind as Union troops withdrew faced not only the possibility of dying from his injuries but also almost certain capture by Confederate forces.

Shiel chose not to leave him.

With enemy bullets passing around him, Shiel went to the wounded soldier, lifted him, and carried him back toward the Union lines.

The rescue required him to expose himself while burdened by the weight of another man. He could not move as quickly or freely as an unencumbered soldier, yet he continued until his wounded comrade had been brought into Union-held ground.

The act saved the soldier from falling into enemy hands.

Shiel’s official Medal of Honor citation later described the deed directly: he carried a dangerously wounded comrade into the Union lines, thereby preventing his capture by the enemy.

The simplicity of that description conceals the circumstances in which the rescue took place. Fredericksburg was a battlefield filled with concentrated rifle and artillery fire, broken formations, casualties, and retreating troops. Shiel deliberately exposed himself to that danger for the sake of another soldier.

The 90th Pennsylvania remained on the battlefield through the difficult days that followed. Union forces ultimately withdrew across the Rappahannock, leaving Fredericksburg as a major Confederate victory.

Shiel survived the battle and continued his Union Army service. He later rose to Sergeant, making Sergeant his highest verified military rank, although the action for which he became famous had taken place while he was still a Corporal.

For more than three decades, the courage he displayed at Fredericksburg went without the nation’s highest formal recognition.

Then, on January 21, 1897, John Shiel was awarded the Medal of Honor.

More than thirty-four years had passed since the battle.

The Medal of Honor had been created during the Civil War, with the Army version authorized by Congress in 1862. It became the United States’ highest military decoration, recognizing acts of exceptional courage and distinguished conduct.

Shiel’s medal honored an act that differed from many battlefield citations involving captured flags, assaults on fortifications, or attacks on enemy positions. His distinction came from saving another soldier.

He had placed himself in danger not to capture ground or seize a weapon, but to prevent a wounded comrade from being abandoned to the enemy.

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

Shiel’s wider Union Army service also fell within the period later commemorated by the Civil War Campaign Medal. Established after the conflict, the medal recognized qualifying United States Army service during the Civil War and represented the broader military service surrounding his individual Medal of Honor action.

For Shiel, the Civil War Campaign Medal reflected his service with the 90th Pennsylvania Infantry, while the Medal of Honor remained permanently connected to the rescue at Fredericksburg.

After leaving military service, Shiel lived for more than four decades beyond the war. Like many Civil War veterans, he witnessed the conflict gradually pass from personal memory into national history as battlefields were preserved, monuments were erected, and veterans gathered to remember those who had fought beside them.

His own story remained tied to one of the bloodiest battles of the conflict.

John Shiel died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 11, 1908. He was buried in Greenmount Cemetery in Philadelphia.

His Medal of Honor legacy rests on a decision made in seconds amid the confusion of battle.

The Union line was under severe pressure.

A wounded soldier could not save himself.

Enemy fire made returning for him dangerous.

Shiel went back anyway.

He lifted the wounded man and carried him through the fire until both reached the Union lines.

For that act at Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862, Corporal John Shiel earned the Medal of Honor and a permanent place among the soldiers remembered not only for courage in combat, but for risking their own lives to save another.