Martin E. Scheibner

Extinguished a burning fuse on an enemy shell among troops.

Martin E. Scheibner faced a live shell inside his own regiment's lines and chose to act. Born in Russia, he served as a private in Company G, 90th Pennsylvania Infantry and later attained the rank of corporal.

At Mine Run, Virginia, on November 27, 1863, a Confederate shell landed among the Union troops with its fuse still burning. Scheibner voluntarily moved to the shell and extinguished the fuse before it could explode. He received the Medal of Honor on June 23, 1896.

Medal of Honor Citation (condensed): Voluntarily extinguished the burning fuse of an enemy shell thrown into his regiment's lines.

CMOHS records his birth as October 13, 1842, at Valdai, Russia, while the older Army citation index gives 1840. Because of that source disagreement, the biography does not rely on an exact birth year. Scheibner died on November 29, 1908, in Camden, New Jersey, and was buried in Charles Evans Cemetery in Reading, Pennsylvania.