Robert A. Lower

He Joined the Storming Party at Vicksburg

Robert A. Lower was born in Illinois in 1844 and later entered the United States Army during the American Civil War. He served as a private in Company K of the 55th Illinois Infantry, a regiment that became part of the Union campaign against Vicksburg, Mississippi. His place in military history was secured on May 22, 1863, when he volunteered for one of the most dangerous assignments of the siege.

Vicksburg was one of the Confederacy’s most important strongholds on the Mississippi River. Its powerful defensive works protected a critical section of the river and helped maintain Confederate communications between the eastern and western parts of the South. Capturing the city became a major Union objective.

By May 1863, Union forces under Major General Ulysses S. Grant had reached the defenses surrounding Vicksburg. After earlier fighting failed to break the Confederate position, another large assault was prepared for May 22.

Before the main attack, a volunteer storming party was organized.

The men who stepped forward were given an extremely dangerous task. They were to advance ahead of the main Union force carrying materials needed to cross defensive obstacles and reach the Confederate works. Some carried wooden planks intended to bridge ditches, while others carried ladders that could be used against the fortified positions.

Lower volunteered.

The assignment meant moving directly toward enemy defenses before most of the attacking infantry. The volunteers would be exposed to concentrated Confederate fire while carrying equipment that made movement more difficult.

On May 22, the storming party advanced toward the Vicksburg defenses.

As the men approached the fortified line, Confederate soldiers opened heavy fire. The attack became a deadly struggle almost immediately. The volunteers pressed forward despite the danger, attempting to reach the obstacles and prepare the way for the assaulting troops behind them.

Lower remained part of that advance.

The official record of his heroism is deliberately brief. He was recognized for gallantry in the charge of the volunteer storming party.

That simple citation represents an extraordinary decision.

Lower had knowingly volunteered to move at the front of an attack against prepared defenses. The men of the storming party understood that they would be among the first exposed to enemy fire and that their chances of being killed or wounded were exceptionally high.

The assault itself failed to capture Vicksburg.

Union forces suffered significant casualties, and the Confederate defenses remained intact. Grant abandoned further attempts to take the city by direct assault and instead settled into siege operations.

Lower and the 55th Illinois Infantry remained part of the larger Vicksburg Campaign as Union forces tightened their hold around the city.

The siege continued for weeks.

Cut off from outside support and facing steadily worsening conditions, the Confederate garrison eventually surrendered on July 4, 1863. The fall of Vicksburg gave the Union control of the Mississippi River and became one of the most important strategic victories of the Civil War.

Lower’s own Medal of Honor action, however, remained tied to the desperate assault of May 22.

His courage was not defined by capturing an enemy flag or being the first man over a parapet. It was defined by volunteering for the storming party and participating in its charge against heavily defended positions.

Three decades passed before that act received the nation’s highest military recognition.

On September 2, 1893, Robert A. Lower was awarded the Medal of Honor for his gallantry at Vicksburg.

The Medal of Honor had been created during the Civil War, but many veterans received recognition years after their wartime actions. In Lower’s case, the award preserved the memory of a moment when an ordinary private willingly accepted an extraordinary risk.

His broader Civil War service is also represented by the Army Civil War Campaign Medal, established later to recognize qualifying service in the United States Army and volunteer forces during the conflict.

The two decorations represent different aspects of Lower’s military history.

The Medal of Honor commemorates one specific act of courage: his participation in the charge of the volunteer storming party at Vicksburg.

The Army Civil War Campaign Medal represents the wider service in which that act took place.

Lower survived the war and lived for more than half a century after the Vicksburg Campaign. During those years, the battlefield where he had once advanced under fire became part of the national memory of the Civil War.

The storming party of May 22 became especially notable because of the extreme danger faced by its volunteers. Their attack did not carry the Confederate works, but the courage required to step forward for the mission was remembered long afterward.

Robert A. Lower died in 1918 in Yates City, Illinois, and was buried in Yates City Cemetery.

His story remains connected to one of the most dangerous moments of the Vicksburg Campaign.

He was not ordered into the storming party by chance.

He volunteered.

He then advanced at the front of an assault against fortified enemy positions, knowing the danger that waited ahead.

For his gallantry in that charge, Robert A. Lower received the Medal of Honor and earned a permanent place among the soldiers recognized for extraordinary courage during the American Civil War.