John Shivers

He Stayed at the Breach as the Assault Fell Apart

John Shivers was born in Canada in 1830. Little is securely documented about his early life before he entered the United States Marine Corps during the final year of the American Civil War. On September 17, 1864, he enlisted at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was assigned as a Private to the Marine detachment serving aboard USS Minnesota.

USS Minnesota was a large steam frigate of the Union Navy and had already seen extensive wartime service along the Confederate coast. By early 1865, the vessel was operating off North Carolina as Union forces prepared for a second major assault against Fort Fisher, the powerful Confederate fortification guarding the entrance to the Cape Fear River and protecting Wilmington.

Wilmington had become one of the Confederacy’s most important remaining ports. Through it came supplies carried by blockade runners, making Fort Fisher a critical defensive position. As long as the fort remained in Confederate hands, the port could continue supporting the Southern war effort.

A first Union attempt to capture Fort Fisher in December 1864 had failed. In January 1865, Federal forces returned with a much larger naval and ground operation determined to take the position.

On January 15, 1865, John Shivers left USS Minnesota as part of the naval landing force sent ashore to attack the fort.

The sailors and Marines faced a formidable defensive system. Fort Fisher was protected by heavy guns, earthen works, sand hills, and a strong palisade. The naval assault force had to cross open ground before reaching the Confederate defenses, exposing the attackers to concentrated rifle and artillery fire.

Shivers advanced with the landing party.

He reached the crest of a sand hill near the Confederate works and continued toward a breach in the palisade.

The attack rapidly became chaotic.

Confederate fire struck the advancing force hard. Officers and enlisted men were killed or wounded, and the assault began to collapse. Many of the attackers broke and retreated toward the beach.

Shivers did not immediately follow them.

Despite the casualties and the confusion surrounding the failed naval assault, he remained near the front with a smaller group of men who continued holding their position close to the fort.

His Medal of Honor citation later emphasized the determination he displayed during those dangerous hours. He had advanced to the palisade under heavy fire and remained with the forward party even after much of the attacking force had fallen back.

The men stayed in the exposed area until evening.

When they finally withdrew, they helped bring wounded comrades, weapons, and colors back toward safety.

Although the naval assault itself had failed to break directly into Fort Fisher, the broader Union operation succeeded. Army troops attacked from another direction, fought their way into the defenses, and eventually captured the fort after fierce combat.

The fall of Fort Fisher effectively closed Wilmington to Confederate blockade-running traffic and dealt a major strategic blow to the Confederacy during the final months of the Civil War.

For John Shivers, the battle became the defining moment of his military service.

He had entered the Marine Corps only a few months earlier, yet at Fort Fisher he advanced from the beach toward one of the most heavily defended Confederate positions remaining on the Atlantic coast.

He continued forward while men around him were being killed and wounded.

And when the assault disintegrated, he remained near the front instead of immediately retreating.

On June 22, 1865, John Shivers was awarded the Medal of Honor for his conduct at Fort Fisher.

Because Marines served under the Department of the Navy for Medal of Honor purposes during the Civil War era, Shivers received the naval version of the Medal of Honor. His recognition placed him among the Marines and sailors whose courage in amphibious and naval operations was formally honored by the United States.

The Medal of Honor itself had been created during the Civil War. Congress first authorized the Navy decoration in 1861, specifically including enlisted Marines among those eligible for recognition. The Army version followed the next year.

Shivers therefore received his decoration during the earliest period of the Medal of Honor’s history, when the award was still closely connected to the extraordinary acts performed by sailors, soldiers, and Marines during the Civil War.

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

His broader Civil War service was later represented by the Navy Civil War Campaign Medal, the campaign decoration applicable to qualifying Navy and Marine Corps personnel who served during the conflict.

For Shivers, that medal represented his wider Marine Corps service during the final phase of the war, while the Medal of Honor remained specifically tied to his courage during the assault on Fort Fisher.

His Marine Corps service continued for several months after the battle. Military records later recorded him as having deserted on October 27, 1865. That administrative ending did not alter the Medal of Honor already awarded for his verified battlefield conduct at Fort Fisher.

The details of Shivers’s later life are far less certain than the record of his military service. His date and place of death have not been reliably established in surviving official records.

What remains firmly documented is the moment that placed his name in Medal of Honor history.

On January 15, 1865, a Marine Private stepped ashore from USS Minnesota and advanced toward Fort Fisher.

He crossed exposed ground under Confederate fire.

He reached the defensive palisade.

The assault around him began to collapse.

Still, he remained near the front.

John Shivers earned the Medal of Honor not through rank or command, but through the courage he displayed when a dangerous amphibious assault was breaking apart around him.