Thaddeus S. Smith

Six Men Charged the Sharpshooters at Gettysburg

Thaddeus S. Smith was born on May 13, 1847, in Franklin County, Pennsylvania. During the American Civil War, he entered the United States Army and served with Company E of the 6th Pennsylvania Reserve Infantry. He was still very young when his regiment was drawn into the fighting at Gettysburg, where a dangerous volunteer attack against Confederate sharpshooters would later earn him the Medal of Honor.

By the summer of 1863, Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia had advanced into Pennsylvania. Union and Confederate forces converged near Gettysburg, producing the largest battle of the war. Fighting began on July 1 and intensified dramatically the following day as Confederate troops attacked the Union left flank around places such as the Wheatfield, Devil’s Den, and Little Round Top.

On July 2, Smith was serving as a corporal with Company E.

Confederate sharpshooters had taken shelter in a log house near the Devil’s Den area and were firing on Union troops. Their protected position allowed them to continue shooting while remaining difficult to dislodge.

A small volunteer party was organized to deal with the threat.

Smith was one of six men who volunteered.

The group advanced toward the log house despite the danger of enemy fire. Their task required them to cross exposed ground and approach a position occupied by armed Confederate soldiers who had been using the structure as cover.

Smith and the other volunteers continued forward.

They reached the position and compelled the Confederate sharpshooters inside to surrender.

The action was brief compared with the vast scale of the Battle of Gettysburg, but it required exceptional courage. The volunteers had deliberately left the relative security of their own lines and moved toward an enemy position from which accurate rifle fire had already been directed against Union troops.

Smith’s Medal of Honor citation later recognized him as one of the six volunteers who charged the log house and forced the enemy sharpshooters to surrender.

His courage at Gettysburg did not depend on an elaborate story added years later. The official record preserves a direct and powerful act: he volunteered for a small assault party, advanced against a defended position, and helped capture the men occupying it.

The Battle of Gettysburg continued through July 3 and ended with the Confederate army withdrawing from Pennsylvania. The Union victory became one of the most important turning points of the Civil War.

Smith survived the campaign and remained connected to a regiment whose service had placed it in some of the most intense fighting of the Eastern Theater.

Recognition for his actions at Gettysburg came many years later.

On May 5, 1900, Thaddeus S. Smith was awarded the Medal of Honor for his gallantry on July 2, 1863. The award came almost thirty-seven years after the battle.

His Medal of Honor belonged to the Army design period used between the 1896 ribbon change and the major redesign that followed in 1904. Although his heroic action occurred during the Civil War, the medal itself was issued decades later, making the distinction between action date and award date especially important.

Smith’s broader Civil War service is also represented by the Army Civil War Campaign Medal. Established in 1907, the medal recognized qualifying United States Army and volunteer service performed during the Civil War. Smith was still alive when the medal was created, and his documented wartime service clearly fell within the qualifying period.

The two decorations represent different parts of his military history. The Medal of Honor commemorated a specific act of battlefield courage at Gettysburg. The Army Civil War Campaign Medal represented his wider service during the conflict.

Smith lived for many decades after the war and eventually settled in Washington state. By the beginning of the twentieth century, Gettysburg had become one of the most studied and commemorated battlefields in the United States, and veterans who had fought there were increasingly regarded as living links to the Civil War generation.

His Medal of Honor reached him in 1900, many years after the day when he and five other volunteers had moved toward the log house under fire.

Thaddeus S. Smith died on March 14, 1933, in Port Townsend, Washington. He was buried in Laurel Grove Cemetery in the Grand Army of the Republic section.

His legacy rests on a small-unit action that demanded immediate courage.

Six men were asked to move against a dangerous enemy position.

Smith volunteered.

He crossed the exposed ground with the others, reached the log house, and helped force the Confederate sharpshooters to surrender.

In a battle remembered for massive formations, artillery duels, and thousands of casualties, Smith’s Medal of Honor preserved one smaller but deeply personal act of courage—the decision to step forward with only a handful of men and confront an enemy position at close range.