Sterling A. Galt

A scout faced enemy fire amidst the fighting outside Bamban.

Sterling Archibald Galt was born in Taneytown, Maryland, in October 1866. He grew up in the family of Henry and Ann Eliza Galt, whose household was recorded on a local farm. As a young adult he moved west to North Dakota, where his association with the state military forces eventually led him into overseas service.

The Spanish-American War took the 1st North Dakota Volunteer Infantry to the Philippines. Galt served in the islands during the transition from war against Spain to conflict between American forces and Filipinos seeking independence. He became associated with Young's Scouts, a small body of selected soldiers used ahead of larger columns for reconnaissance and contact with opposing troops. Their work required movement through difficult country and placed them repeatedly at the front of an advance.

When the North Dakota regiment's service ended, Galt continued with Company F, 36th Infantry, United States Volunteers. On 9 November 1899, near Bamban on Luzon, he performed the act for which he received the Medal of Honor. The surviving official citation gives no detailed account of a charge, rescue or crossing. Its complete action description is “Distinguished bravery and conspicuous gallantry in action against insurgents.” The citation identifies him as an artificer in Company F (Congressional Medal of Honor Society: https://www.cmohs.org/recipients/sterling-a-galt).

That terse record places Galt's personal conduct within the American campaign through central Luzon. The campaigning continued as Filipino forces adapted their resistance and American columns sought to maintain control of routes and towns. For scouts and infantrymen, the dangers extended beyond combat to disease and the lasting effects of tropical service.

Galt left the volunteers in January 1901. His Medal of Honor was issued on 30 April 1902. In May 1903 he married Minette Ashbrook in Ohio, and the couple lived in Pittsburgh before moving to Missouri. Civilian work and married life followed his military years, but ill health remained a serious burden.

In 1908 his case came before Congress's pension authorities, which considered his documented treatment for rheumatism and other ailments during service in the Philippines. He died in the Kansas City area on 21 October that year, aged forty-two, and was buried at Orient Cemetery in Harrisonville. His widow survived him; they had no children.