Thomas A. Blasdel

He Volunteered for the Charge Few Expected to Survive

Thomas A. Blasdel was born on January 2, 1843, in Dearborn County, Indiana. When the American Civil War began, he entered the United States Army and served with Company H of the 83rd Indiana Infantry. He began his military career as an enlisted soldier and would eventually rise to corporal, but the action that defined his legacy came while he was still serving as a private.

The 83rd Indiana Infantry became part of the Union armies operating in the Western Theater, where control of the Mississippi River was central to Federal strategy. By 1863, attention had focused on Vicksburg, Mississippi, one of the Confederacy’s strongest remaining positions along the river. Its capture would sever a major transportation route and help divide the Confederacy geographically.

Major General Ulysses S. Grant’s forces fought their way toward Vicksburg during the spring of 1863. After a series of victories in Mississippi, Union troops reached the fortified approaches to the city. Rather than begin immediately with a prolonged siege, Grant first attempted to break the Confederate defenses through direct assault.

On May 22, 1863, preparations were made for one of the most dangerous attacks of the entire Vicksburg Campaign.

A special volunteer storming party was formed to move ahead of the main Union assault. The soldiers selected for this duty would be exposed to Confederate rifle and artillery fire while approaching heavily fortified positions. Their assignment was recognized as extraordinarily dangerous from the beginning.

Blasdel volunteered.

He joined the storming party and advanced toward the Confederate works during the assault. The men faced defensive obstacles, exposed ground, and concentrated enemy fire as they moved toward the Stockade Redan and surrounding fortifications.

The attack quickly became costly. Confederate defenders were protected by strong earthworks and could fire on the advancing Union troops from prepared positions. The storming party suffered heavily as it attempted to carry out its mission.

Blasdel survived the assault, but the Union attack did not break the Confederate line. The strength of the defenses convinced Grant that another direct assault would likely produce unacceptable casualties. The Union army therefore shifted toward systematic siege operations.

Blasdel’s official Medal of Honor recognition later summarized his conduct in a few direct words: gallantry in the charge of the volunteer storming party. The citation did not credit him with capturing a flag, rescuing an officer, or performing another separate individual feat. His distinction lay in voluntarily joining an exceptionally dangerous advance and displaying gallantry while participating in the charge.

That decision must be understood in the context of the assignment itself. The men of the storming party knew they would move first against a fortified enemy position. Their role placed them ahead of the main body of troops and exposed them to some of the heaviest fire of the assault. By volunteering, Blasdel accepted a level of danger far beyond ordinary battlefield duty.

Although the May 22 attack failed to capture Vicksburg, the campaign continued. Grant’s forces tightened their siege lines, restricted Confederate supplies, and steadily increased pressure on the defenders.

On July 4, 1863, Confederate Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton surrendered Vicksburg. The victory gave the Union control of one of the most strategically important positions on the Mississippi River and helped divide the Confederacy between its eastern and western regions.

Blasdel continued his military service and eventually attained the rank of corporal, the highest verified rank of his Army career. His advancement from private reflected service extending beyond the single day for which he would become best known.

Recognition for his actions at Vicksburg came more than three decades later. On August 11, 1894, Thomas A. Blasdel was awarded the Medal of Honor for his gallantry during the volunteer storming party of May 22, 1863.

The Medal of Honor itself had been created during the Civil War. Congress authorized the Army Medal of Honor in 1862 to recognize soldiers who distinguished themselves through exceptional conduct. Many Civil War actions were reviewed and formally recognized years after the conflict, and Blasdel belonged to that generation of veterans whose battlefield courage received national recognition long after the fighting had ended.

His broader Civil War service is also represented by the Army Civil War Campaign Medal. Established in 1907, the medal recognized qualifying United States Army service during the conflict. Unlike the Medal of Honor, which commemorated Blasdel’s individual gallantry at Vicksburg, the campaign medal represented the larger period of wartime service in which that action occurred.

By the time the Army Civil War Campaign Medal was established, more than four decades had passed since the war. Blasdel was still alive, making him part of the surviving generation of Civil War veterans whose military service extended back to the campaigns that had shaped the nation.

He lived into the twentieth century and died on October 12, 1932, in Sylvia, Kansas. He was buried in Fairlawn Cemetery in Hutchinson, Kansas.

Thomas A. Blasdel’s military legacy rests on a decision made when the outcome of the assault was uncertain and the danger was obvious. He was a private soldier facing one of the Confederacy’s most formidable defensive positions. When volunteers were requested for an advance party expected to endure extreme fire, he stepped forward.

His Medal of Honor preserved that act of gallantry. It represents not an elaborate legend added later, but something documented and direct: he volunteered for the storming party at Vicksburg and went forward in the charge. More than thirty years later, the nation formally recognized the courage of the Indiana soldier who had willingly entered one of the Civil War’s most dangerous assaults.