Loyd Wheaton

Loyd Wheaton was born on July 15, 1838, in Penfield, Calhoun County, Michigan. He would eventually spend more than four decades in the United States Army, rising from an enlisted noncommissioned officer at the beginning of the American Civil War to Major General at the end of his career. His military life crossed several major periods of American history: the Civil War, postwar frontier and Indian Wars service, the Spanish-American War era, and finally the Philippine-American War. Congressional Medal of Honor Society When the Civil War began in 1861, Wheaton entered service from Illinois. On April 20, 1861, he became a First Sergeant in Company E, 8th Illinois Infantry. His rise through the ranks was rapid. He was commissioned First Lieutenant on July 25, 1861, and promoted to Captain on March 25, 1862. His regiment served in the Western Theater, and Wheaton was wounded while serving as a captain at the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862. GovInfo As the war continued, Wheaton gained increasingly important responsibilities. He became a Major, later reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, and served in staff as well as field assignments. Official wartime records also show him serving as a senior aide-de-camp, acting judge advocate, and provost marshal with the Fifteenth Army Corps during part of the conflict. His long service with the 8th Illinois eventually brought him to the Mobile Campaign in Alabama during the final weeks of the war. Wikimedia Commons The action that permanently established Wheaton’s place in American military history occurred at the Battle of Fort Blakely, Alabama, on April 9, 1865. At that time he was a Lieutenant Colonel in the 8th Illinois Infantry. Union forces were assaulting the heavily defended Confederate works at Fort Blakely, one of the final major fortified positions protecting the Mobile area. The attack took place on the same day that Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox, although news of that surrender had not yet reached the troops fighting in Alabama. During the assault, Wheaton personally led the right wing of his regiment against the Confederate fortifications. Under strong artillery and infantry fire, he advanced directly toward the works. His official Medal of Honor citation records that he sprang through an embrasure and became the first man to enter the enemy works. Congressional Medal of Honor Society An embrasure was an opening in a fortification through which artillery could be fired. Entering a defended position through such an opening exposed an attacker directly to the weapons and defenders inside. Wheaton’s action therefore combined personal exposure with command responsibility: he was not simply participating in the assault but leading part of his regiment during the breakthrough. Fort Blakely fell to Union forces, and Wheaton’s conduct during the attack became the defining heroic action of his career. Medal of Honor Although Wheaton performed his heroic action in 1865, he did not receive the Medal of Honor immediately. His Medal of Honor was formally presented on: January 16, 1894 nearly twenty-nine years after the Battle of Fort Blakely. Congressional Medal of Honor Society The award recognized his actions of: April 9, 1865 — Fort Blakely, Alabama At the time of the action his rank was: Lieutenant Colonel His later highest verified rank was: Major General For the VictoriaCross.ca database, his verified award is therefore correctly represented as: Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1894 — No device or clasp No star, clasp, bar, oak leaf cluster, or other ribbon device has been verified for his Medal of Honor. The distinction between the dates is important: Heroic Action: 1865 Medal Presentation: 1894 The medal was presented during Wheaton’s lifetime and was not posthumous. Transition to the Regular Army The end of the Civil War did not end Wheaton’s military career. He remained in service after the volunteer forces were demobilized and entered the Regular United States Army. Over the following decades he became closely associated with the Regular Army infantry and developed into an experienced field and regimental officer. His service moved from the large conventional armies of the Civil War to the smaller, widely dispersed Regular Army of the postwar frontier. This period included duty connected with the American Indian Wars. One documented episode was the Black Hills Expedition, during which Captain Wheaton served with Company I, 20th U.S. Infantry. The expedition represented the type of extended frontier operation undertaken by Regular Army units during the 1870s. Over time, Wheaton became strongly associated with the 20th U.S. Infantry, the regiment with which he spent a substantial portion of his Regular Army career. Spanish-American War Era By the time war with Spain began in 1898, Wheaton was already a highly experienced senior officer. He was appointed a Brigadier General of U.S. Volunteers and given command of a brigade. War Department records list him commanding the First Brigade, First Division during the mobilization of the Seventh Army Corps. U.S. Army History The Spanish-American War was short, and the formations under Wheaton did not participate in the major battlefield operations in Cuba before organized Spanish resistance ended. Nevertheless, this period marked his transition from regimental command to senior general-officer responsibility. His most important late-career combat service would come immediately afterward in the Philippines. Philippine-American War Wheaton was sent to the Philippine Islands, where war had broken out between United States forces and the forces of the Philippine Republic. He received command of a Provisional Brigade in the Eighth Army Corps and became involved in a series of major operations during 1899. His forces participated in the Pasig River expedition, an operation intended to push Filipino forces away from the important river corridor east of Manila. Wheaton subsequently participated in the American advance toward Malolos, then the capital of the Philippine Republic. The capture of Malolos in March 1899 was one of the central operations of the early conventional phase of the war. Wheaton later commanded troops during operations associated with the Zapote River and other fighting south of Manila. By the autumn of 1899, the U.S. Army launched another major offensive aimed at breaking up the remaining organized Filipino army in northern Luzon. The operation consisted of several converging forces. While General Arthur MacArthur advanced north through the central Luzon plain and General Henry Lawton operated farther east, Brigadier General Loyd Wheaton moved by sea to San Fabian on Lingayen Gulf. From there his troops advanced inland. On November 11, 1899, Wheaton’s command fought Filipino forces at the Battle of San Jacinto. His troops defeated the defending force and continued the advance until they eventually linked with MacArthur’s column. The U.S. Army’s official history identifies Wheaton as one of the three principal commanders in this coordinated northern offensive. U.S. Army History This campaign helped break up much of the remaining conventional Filipino field army. Afterward, the Philippine forces increasingly shifted toward guerrilla warfare. Department Command and Senior Rank As the conflict changed, Wheaton moved into increasingly senior command positions. Government records show him serving as commander of the Department of Northern Luzon, placing him in charge of military administration and operations across a large area during the later phase of the Philippine conflict. GovInfo His career progression culminated in promotion to general-officer rank in the Regular Army. By 1901, Wheaton had reached the rank of Major General, the highest verified rank of his career. Thus, the correct rank distinction for his final profile is: Medal of Honor Action Rank: Lieutenant Colonel Highest Verified Rank: Major General The database selection of Major General — U.S. Army is therefore correct. Retirement After approximately forty-one years of military service, Wheaton reached the mandatory retirement age. He retired from active Army service on July 15, 1902, his sixty-fourth birthday. By then his career had covered an extraordinary span of American military development. He had entered service in 1861 as a First Sergeant. He became a commissioned officer during the Civil War. He fought at Shiloh. He rose to Lieutenant Colonel. He personally led troops into the Confederate works at Fort Blakely. He remained in the Regular Army after the war. He served during the frontier era. He participated in the Black Hills Expedition. He eventually commanded the 20th U.S. Infantry. He became a Brigadier General during the Spanish-American War period. And in the Philippines he commanded brigades and later an entire military department during major operations at Pasig, Malolos, Zapote River, and San Jacinto. He ended that long progression as a Major General. Campaign Medals and Final Ribbon Rack Despite Wheaton’s exceptionally long service history, the final VictoriaCross.ca ribbon rack must remain based on recipient-specific medal evidence, not merely service eligibility. His Civil War service is unquestioned, but the later Civil War Campaign Medal has not been recipient-specifically verified. His frontier service does not automatically establish personal entitlement to the Indian Campaign Medal. Likewise, his Spanish-American War and Philippine service make the Spanish Campaign Medal, Philippine Campaign Medal, and related campaign decorations historically possible, but they cannot be added without individual entitlement or issuance evidence. Therefore these remain: Civil War Campaign Medal — HOLD / DO NOT ADD Indian Campaign Medal — HOLD / DO NOT ADD Spanish Campaign Medal — HOLD / DO NOT ADD Philippine Campaign Medal — HOLD / DO NOT ADD The project’s rule is that qualifying service alone is not proof of medal entitlement. Pasted text His final verified ribbon rack consequently remains: Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1894 — No device or clasp Death and Legacy Loyd Wheaton lived for another sixteen years after retirement. He died on September 17, 1918, at the age of eighty. He was buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Rockford, Illinois, where the Congressional Medal of Honor Society records his burial in Section 11-4. Congressional Medal of Honor Society Wheaton’s military career was remarkable not simply because of its length but because of the transformation it encompassed. He entered the Army when Civil War volunteers were being hurried into newly raised regiments. He eventually became a professional Regular Army officer, served on the western frontier, commanded troops during overseas expansion at the end of the nineteenth century, and retired as one of the Army’s senior generals. Yet the single event for which he received the nation’s highest military decoration remained the assault at Fort Blakely on April 9, 1865. As Lieutenant Colonel Loyd Wheaton of the 8th Illinois Infantry, he led the right wing of his regiment forward under heavy artillery and infantry fire, passed through an opening in the Confederate works, and became the first man to enter that position. Almost three decades later, the United States formally recognized that action with the Medal of Honor. His final historical profile is: Full Name: Loyd Wheaton Branch: United States Army Rank at Medal of Honor Action: Lieutenant Colonel Highest Verified Rank: Major General Medal of Honor Unit: 8th Illinois Infantry Defining Action: Fort Blakely, Alabama — April 9, 1865 Later Conflicts: American Indian Wars, Spanish-American War era, Philippine-American War Verified Decoration: Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1894 — No device or clasp.