Reuben Smalley

He Volunteered for Vicksburg's Forlorn Hope

Reuben Smalley was born in 1839 in New York and spent much of his childhood in Indiana. After losing his father at an early age, he was raised by an uncle in Jennings County. He eventually established his own life in Indiana and married Martha Ann Johnson in July 1859, several years before the American Civil War transformed the nation.

On August 15, 1862, Smalley enlisted in the Union Army, leaving his family behind to serve in Company F of the 83rd Indiana Infantry. Holding the rank of private, he joined a regiment that would participate in some of the most demanding campaigns of the war. After organizing in Indiana, the regiment moved south and took part in operations around Memphis, Chickasaw Bayou, and Arkansas Post before joining the campaign against Vicksburg, Mississippi.

Vicksburg was one of the Confederacy's most strategically important strongholds. Its defenses overlooked the Mississippi River, and its capture would help the Union secure control of that vital waterway. By May 1863, Union forces under Major General Ulysses S. Grant were preparing to attack the city's heavily fortified positions.

On May 22, 1863, Grant launched a major assault against the Confederate defenses. Ahead of the attacking infantry, volunteers were needed for an exceptionally dangerous mission near the enemy fortifications. The men who stepped forward became known as the Forlorn Hope, a storming party tasked with helping open the way for the assault.

Reuben Smalley volunteered.

As the attack began, the volunteers advanced toward the Confederate works under intense rifle and artillery fire. Their route exposed them to defenders positioned behind formidable earthworks, leaving little protection against the concentrated fire coming from the Confederate lines.

The assault failed to break through the defenses, and the volunteers suffered severe casualties. Smalley survived the desperate charge, but the experience became the defining episode of his military career. His willingness to enter such danger was later formally recognized as an extraordinary act of battlefield gallantry.

The fighting at Vicksburg continued until July 4, 1863, when Confederate forces surrendered. The Union victory secured a crucial stretch of the Mississippi River and marked a major turning point in the Civil War. Smalley's military service continued beyond Vicksburg as the 83rd Indiana participated in subsequent campaigns.

He served through further operations in the western theater, including the fighting around Chattanooga and Missionary Ridge. His wartime experiences also carried him through the Atlanta Campaign, Sherman's March to the Sea, and the final operations in the Carolinas. He remained with his regiment through the closing stages of the conflict before returning to civilian life in 1865.

More than thirty years after his courageous advance at Vicksburg, Smalley's actions received national recognition. On July 9, 1894, he was awarded the Medal of Honor for his gallantry in the charge of the volunteer storming party on May 22, 1863. The decoration recognized the extraordinary risk he had accepted when he volunteered to lead the assault against a heavily defended Confederate position.

After the war, Smalley returned to Indiana and built a civilian career that included railroad construction and work as a stationary engineer. He eventually settled in Greensburg, where he became an active member of the community. He also remained involved in veterans' affairs through the Grand Army of the Republic and served as a local constable.

Smalley lived to see the sacrifice of Civil War veterans remembered by later generations. He died in 1926 and was buried at South Park Cemetery in Greensburg, Indiana.

Reuben Smalley's Medal of Honor legacy was forged on the approaches to Vicksburg, where a private soldier answered a call for volunteers knowing that the mission could cost him his life. He stepped forward with the Forlorn Hope, advanced toward Confederate defenses under devastating fire, and survived one of the war's most dangerous assaults. His courage remains a lasting example of the extraordinary sacrifices made by ordinary soldiers during the American Civil War.