Richard Willis DeWitt

He Charged With the Forlorn Hope at Vicksburg

Richard Willis DeWitt was born on June 25, 1838, in Butler County, Ohio. During the American Civil War, he entered Union service and served with Company D of the 47th Ohio Infantry.

By the spring of 1863, DeWitt and his regiment were taking part in the Vicksburg Campaign, the Union effort to capture the heavily fortified Confederate stronghold overlooking the Mississippi River. The campaign culminated in a series of assaults and eventually a long siege.

On May 22, 1863, Union forces launched a major attack against the defenses of Vicksburg. Before the main assault, volunteers were called for a dangerous storming party whose task was to advance directly toward the Confederate works under intense fire.

DeWitt, then serving as a corporal, volunteered for the attack. The men of the storming party moved forward into some of the most exposed ground on the battlefield, facing concentrated rifle and artillery fire as they approached the Confederate positions.

The assault failed to break through the defenses, but the courage of the volunteers became one of the most remembered episodes of the siege. DeWitt's conduct during the charge was later officially recognized for gallantry.

He continued his military service after Vicksburg and eventually attained the rank of sergeant, the highest verified rank of his Army career.

More than thirty years after the battle, DeWitt received the nation's highest military decoration. On August 10, 1894, he was awarded the Medal of Honor for his gallantry in the charge of the volunteer storming party at Vicksburg on May 22, 1863.

DeWitt survived the war and lived for more than four decades after the conflict ended. He died on September 16, 1909, and was buried at Oxford Cemetery in Oxford, Ohio.

Richard Willis DeWitt's Medal of Honor legacy was forged in one of the most dangerous assaults of the Vicksburg Campaign. As a corporal, he volunteered to advance with the storming party toward heavily defended enemy works, placing himself in extreme danger during a charge remembered for the courage of the men who took part.