John William Hart

Six Men Charged the Sharpshooters at Gettysburg

John William Hart was born on July 30, 1833, in Germany. He later came to the United States and, during the American Civil War, entered Union service with the 6th Pennsylvania Reserves, officially designated the 35th Pennsylvania Infantry. By the summer of 1863, Hart had risen to the rank of sergeant in Company D and had become an experienced soldier in a regiment that had already seen extensive combat.

The 6th Pennsylvania Reserves served within the Army of the Potomac and took part in some of the most demanding campaigns of the eastern theater. By July 1863, that service brought Hart and his regiment to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where Union and Confederate armies collided in the largest battle ever fought on American soil.

On July 2, the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, intense fighting developed along the Union left. The rocky ground around Devil's Den, the Wheatfield, and Little Round Top became the scene of repeated attacks and counterattacks as Confederate forces attempted to break the Federal position.

During this fighting, Confederate sharpshooters occupied a log house near the Union lines and used the position to fire on Federal troops. Their sheltered location made them difficult to dislodge and created an immediate threat to soldiers operating nearby.

Sergeant George W. Mears called for volunteers to attack the position.

John William Hart was one of the men who stepped forward.

Hart joined a small party of six volunteers who advanced against the log house. The group had to leave the relative protection of the Union position and move directly toward enemy soldiers who were already using the structure as a firing point.

The attack depended on speed and determination. Hart and the other volunteers rushed the building before the sharpshooters could maintain effective resistance. Reaching the position, the six men forced the Confederate soldiers inside to surrender.

The action was brief in duration but extraordinary in risk. A tiny group of Union soldiers had deliberately moved against an occupied enemy strongpoint in the middle of the violent fighting around Gettysburg. Their success removed the sharpshooter threat and brought the Confederate occupants into Union hands.

Hart's part in the assault later earned national recognition. His Medal of Honor citation identified him as one of six volunteers who charged a log house near Devil's Den and compelled the enemy sharpshooters occupying it to surrender.

The action occurred during one of the most critical periods of the Battle of Gettysburg. Throughout July 2, Confederate forces pressed heavily against the Union left, producing savage fighting across the southern end of the battlefield. The ability of small groups of soldiers to respond quickly to local threats could have immediate consequences for units already under intense pressure.

Hart's courage at the log house was therefore part of a much larger struggle. The Union line survived the Confederate attacks of July 2, and the battle continued into the following day. On July 3, the Confederate assault later known as Pickett's Charge failed against the Union center.

The Army of Northern Virginia began withdrawing from Gettysburg soon afterward. The Union victory became one of the most important turning points of the Civil War, ending Lee's invasion of the North and inflicting severe losses on both armies.

Hart continued to be remembered for his role in the small volunteer assault near Devil's Den. More than three decades after the battle, the United States formally recognized his courage.

On August 3, 1897, John William Hart was presented with the Medal of Honor.

The award commemorated a specific act rather than his entire wartime career: his voluntary participation in the six-man charge against the Confederate sharpshooters at Gettysburg. His decoration placed him among the soldiers whose individual battlefield actions became permanently associated with the Union victory.

The Medal of Honor itself had originated during the Civil War, when Congress created a national decoration to recognize exceptional military conduct. Hart's award came many years after the fighting had ended, but it preserved official recognition of what he had done on July 2, 1863.

After the war, Hart lived for decades beyond the conflict that had defined his military service. The surviving historical record is far more detailed about his wartime action than about his later civilian life, but his connection to Gettysburg remained central to his legacy.

Hart was eventually buried at St. Luke's Trinity Lutheran Cemetery in Cumberland, Maryland.

John William Hart's place in Civil War history rests on a moment of deliberate courage. On the second day at Gettysburg, when Confederate sharpshooters occupied a log house near the Union line, Hart volunteered to attack them. With only five other soldiers, he charged the position and helped force the enemy inside to surrender.

For that act of bravery as a sergeant of the 6th Pennsylvania Reserves, John William Hart received the Medal of Honor and secured a lasting place among the decorated soldiers of the Battle of Gettysburg.