Oscar Burkard

He rescued wounded comrades in gunfire during fierce combat.

Oscar Rudolph Burkard was born at Achern, Germany, on 21 December 1877. He immigrated to the United States in 1895 and enlisted in the Army at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, in April 1898. Assigned to the Hospital Corps with the 3rd Infantry, he became an acting hospital steward.

On 5 October 1898, troops confronted members of the Pillager Ojibwe community at Sugar Point on Leech Lake, Minnesota. The encounter developed into sustained fighting. Burkard repeatedly went to the assistance of wounded soldiers while exposed to gunfire, continuing his work throughout the engagement.

His Medal of Honor, issued on 21 August 1899, recognized his bravery during the action. The award marked the service of a medical soldier whose responsibility was the care and evacuation of casualties rather than command of the firing line.

Burkard remained in the Army and developed a career in medical administration. During the First World War he served as a medical supply officer at Camp Upton, New York, helping support the Army's expanding medical system. His work formed part of the development of a professional administrative service that allowed physicians to concentrate more fully on clinical duties.

He subsequently became one of the early officers of the Medical Administrative Corps. His postwar service included further appointments at Army installations before retirement in October 1930. His career therefore extended from enlisted hospital work during the frontier fighting to the commissioned administration of a much larger twentieth-century medical organization.

Burkard died at Rome, New York, on 18 February 1950 and was buried in Rome Cemetery. His Medal of Honor and his later medical career continued to be remembered in histories of the Army Medical Service Corps.

Medal of Honor citation

For distinguished bravery in action against hostile Indians.