Thomas Irving

Under Confederate fire, with shells tearing across Charleston Harbor, Thomas Irving rowed a small boat toward another Union ironclad not once, but twice. Each trip carried the towing lines that might save USS Lehigh. Each trip could have killed him. His courage that morning would earn him the Medal of Honor.

Thomas Irving was born in England in 1842 and later came to the United States, where he entered U.S. Navy service and was credited to New York. During the American Civil War he served aboard the ironclad monitor USS Lehigh. At the time of the action for which he received the Medal of Honor, Irving held the rate of Coxswain . He later attained the rank of Acting Master's Mate , the highest rank recorded for him by the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.

On 16 November 1863, USS Lehigh was operating in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, supporting Union forces during the long struggle for control of the approaches to Charleston. After a change in the tide forced the ironclad onto a sandbar, the grounded vessel suddenly found itself exposed to Confederate batteries at Fort Moultrie. At daylight the guns opened fire. Hundreds of rounds were directed toward the immobilized ship, several penetrated its armor, and one strike caused a leak below decks. USS *Nahant* and USS *Montauk* moved to assist, but freeing *Lehigh* required men willing to cross open water under direct enemy fire.

That task fell first to Coxswain Thomas Irving and Gunner's Mate George W. Leland . With Navy surgeon William Longshaw accompanying them, Irving and Leland took a small boat from Lehigh toward Nahant, carrying the lines needed to transfer the heavy towing hawsers. Confederate cannon and mortar fire fell around the boat as they crossed the exposed stretch of water. They succeeded in getting the hawser across, but enemy fire severed it before the ship could be pulled free.

Then came the moment that defined Thomas Irving's Medal of Honor story . Knowing exactly what awaited them, Irving and Leland went out again. For a second time they rowed through the Confederate fire, and for a second time they successfully transferred the towing line. Again the hawser was cut before it could save the grounded monitor. Irving's official Medal of Honor citation specifically records that he twice made the hazardous journey while under severe enemy fire as he helped transfer hawsers from USS Lehigh to USS Nahant.

The danger was very real. Seven men aboard Lehigh were wounded during the Confederate bombardment. When Longshaw was needed to treat the casualties, three more sailors, Horatio Young, William Williams and Frank Gile, volunteered for another attempt. Their effort finally succeeded, allowing the towing line to hold and helping pull Lehigh from the sandbar and out of its exposed position. Irving, Leland, Young, Williams and Gile were all recognized for their courage with the Medal of Honor , and each also received advancement for his conduct.

Irving's Medal of Honor citation preserves the essential facts of his heroism. It identifies him as serving aboard USS Lehigh at Charleston Harbor on 16 November 1863 and emphasizes the hazardous task of freeing the grounded ship while it was under heavy enemy fire from Fort Moultrie. Most importantly, it records that Irving twice rowed the small boat carrying the towing hawsers between Lehigh and Nahant, only for both attempts to be rendered unsuccessful when the lines were severed. His decoration was not awarded for a single instant of bravery, but for repeatedly returning to an exposed mission after he already understood its extraordinary danger.

Irving's documented Civil War naval service also qualified him for recognition by the U.S. Navy Civil War Campaign Medal , which was created decades after the war to recognize qualifying naval service during the conflict. Unlike the Medal of Honor, the campaign medal carried no individual gallantry citation. It recognized his wartime service as part of the Union Navy during the American Civil War.

Official Navy records show Thomas Irving remaining in service until his discharge on 6 January 1865 . What happened to him afterward is far less certain. Even modern Department of Defense research has been unable to establish clearly where Irving lived after the war or when he died. That uncertainty makes the surviving record of 16 November 1863 even more significant. His later life may have faded from the documentary trail, but his actions aboard USS Lehigh did not.

Acting Master's Mate Thomas Irving remains one of the U.S. Navy's Civil War Medal of Honor recipients, remembered for an act of courage carried out in a small boat beneath the guns of Fort Moultrie. He crossed that deadly stretch of Charleston Harbor twice because his ship and shipmates needed the line he carried. More than a century and a half later, his Medal of Honor citation still records exactly why his name deserves to be remembered.

Sources: Congressional Medal of Honor Society; Naval History and Heritage Command; U.S. Department of War historical Medal of Honor records.