John W. Wagner

He Charged With the Forlorn Hope at Vicksburg

John W. Wagner was born in 1837 in Clear Spring, Maryland. During the American Civil War, he entered Union service and became a corporal in Company F of the 8th Missouri Infantry, a regiment that would take part in the hard-fought campaigns along the Mississippi River.

By the spring of 1863, Wagner and his regiment were involved in Major General Ulysses S. Grant’s campaign against Vicksburg, Mississippi. The fortified city was one of the Confederacy’s most important positions on the Mississippi River, and its capture was essential to the Union effort to gain control of the waterway.

On May 22, 1863, Union forces prepared for a major assault against the Confederate defenses. Before the main attack began, volunteers were called for an exceptionally dangerous mission. A storming party would advance ahead of the larger force toward the heavily defended Stockade Redan and help open the way for the troops following behind.

Wagner volunteered for the mission.

The men of the storming party moved forward directly against the Confederate works, exposed to intense defensive fire as they approached the fortifications. Their position at the front of the attack made the assignment one of the most dangerous undertaken during the assault on Vicksburg.

Wagner remained with the volunteers during the charge. His conduct in that advance was later officially recognized as gallantry in the charge of the volunteer storming party. Although the Union assault failed to break the Confederate defenses that day, the courage of the men who led the attack became one of the most remembered episodes of the siege.

The struggle for Vicksburg continued after the failed assault. Rather than attempt another costly frontal attack, Grant tightened the siege around the city. Confederate forces eventually surrendered on July 4, 1863, giving the Union control of the Mississippi River and marking one of the most important strategic victories of the Civil War.

More than thirty years after Wagner’s charge, his bravery received formal national recognition. On December 14, 1894, John W. Wagner was awarded the Medal of Honor for his gallantry with the volunteer storming party at Vicksburg.

Wagner lived only a short time after receiving the decoration. He died on August 24, 1896, in Boston, Massachusetts, and was buried at Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain.

John W. Wagner’s Medal of Honor legacy rests on a decision made before the assault even began. When soldiers were asked to volunteer for a mission that would place them at the very front of an attack against fortified Confederate positions, he stepped forward. His participation in that desperate charge at Vicksburg secured his place among the recognized heroes of the American Civil War.