William H. Barringer

William H. Barringer was born on May 27, 1841, at Long Bottom in Meigs County, Ohio. The strongest surviving military records identify him only with the middle initial “H.,” so his name should remain William H. Barringer rather than having the initial expanded without documentary proof. He grew up near the Ohio–Virginia border region and was still a young man when the American Civil War transformed the communities along the Ohio River. Barringer entered Union military service through Jackson County, in what was then western Virginia and would become part of the new state of West Virginia during the war. His service was associated with Company F of the 4th West Virginia Volunteer Infantry. Medal of Honor records also connect his service with Mason City, West Virginia. Throughout his verified military record his rank was Private, and no reliable evidence has established that he later attained a higher military rank. The 4th West Virginia Infantry had been organized during 1861 from companies recruited in western Virginia and neighboring Ohio. The regiment initially operated in the Kanawha Valley and other parts of western Virginia before being transferred west to join the Army of the Tennessee. This movement eventually brought Barringer’s regiment into Major General Ulysses S. Grant’s campaign against Vicksburg, Mississippi. Vicksburg occupied one of the most strategically important positions on the Mississippi River. Confederate control of the city allowed the South to maintain a major defensive stronghold overlooking the river and helped preserve communications between Confederate territory east and west of the Mississippi. Capturing Vicksburg therefore became a central Union objective. Grant’s 1863 campaign successfully carried the Union army into Mississippi and forced Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton’s Confederate army back into the fortified defenses surrounding Vicksburg. After victories at places such as Champion Hill and Big Black River Bridge, Union troops reached the city’s defensive perimeter in May. Grant initially hoped that the shaken Confederate army could be defeated quickly by direct assault. An attack on May 19 failed with heavy casualties, but he ordered another major assault for May 22, 1863. One of the strongest Confederate positions facing the Union army was the Stockade Redan, a large earthwork defending the Graveyard Road approach to Vicksburg. Deep ravines restricted movement around the position, while a defensive ditch and high earthworks made a frontal attack exceptionally difficult. Confederate troops could cover the approach with concentrated musket and artillery fire. To give the main infantry assault a chance of reaching the fortification, Union commanders called for volunteers to form an advance storming party. Approximately 150 men volunteered for this exceptionally dangerous assignment. William H. Barringer was one of them. The volunteers were required to move ahead of the main attacking force carrying wooden planks and scaling ladders. Their task was to race down the exposed Graveyard Road, use the planks to bridge the defensive ditch in front of the Stockade Redan, place ladders against the Confederate works, and create a route for the infantry formations following behind them. Because of the extraordinary danger involved, this group became remembered as the “Forlorn Hope.” At approximately 10:00 a.m. on May 22, the Union artillery bombardment ceased and the volunteers moved forward. Barringer advanced with the storming party toward the Confederate defenses. For much of their approach the Confederate defenders remained protected behind their earthworks. When the Union volunteers came close enough, the Confederates rose and unleashed an extremely destructive volley. The Graveyard Road became a killing zone. Men carrying the bridge materials and ladders were struck as they advanced, while survivors attempted to continue the mission under intense fire. Despite the losses, members of the storming party succeeded in reaching the area immediately below the Confederate works, and some of the materials intended to overcome the ditch and fortifications were carried forward. Two Union color bearers were even able to reach the exterior slope of the Stockade Redan and plant their colors near the fortification. The assault nevertheless failed. Confederate fire was too strong, the defensive position too difficult, and the Union troops who reached the works could not create a sufficient breakthrough. Soldiers became trapped close to the Confederate defenses, unable to advance successfully and unable to withdraw safely while daylight exposed them to enemy fire. The wider Union assaults along the Vicksburg defensive line also failed with heavy losses. For Barringer, simply participating in the volunteer storming party meant accepting one of the most dangerous assignments of the Vicksburg campaign. His official Medal of Honor citation would later summarize his conduct in only a few words: gallantry in the charge of the volunteer storming party. The brevity of the citation should not obscure what the assignment involved. Barringer voluntarily placed himself at the front of a major assault against fortified Confederate positions. He advanced before the main infantry body while carrying out a mission specifically designed to overcome the obstacles protecting the Stockade Redan. The men of the storming party knowingly exposed themselves to concentrated enemy fire so that the larger attacking force might have a route into the Confederate works. The failed May 22 attack also marked an important turning point in Grant’s approach to Vicksburg. After two costly frontal assaults, Union commanders abandoned attempts to capture the city by immediate storming and began systematic siege operations instead. Vicksburg ultimately surrendered on July 4, 1863. The victory gave the Union control of one of the Confederacy’s most important Mississippi River strongholds and, together with Union control farther south, effectively split the Confederacy along the river. The 4th West Virginia Infantry earned recognition for its wartime service beyond the Vicksburg campaign. The state of West Virginia later formally honored the regiment for its actions at Charleston, Vicksburg, Jackson, and Missionary Ridge. Barringer’s individually verified Medal of Honor action, however, remains specifically the May 22 storming party at Vicksburg, and additional battles should not automatically be assigned to his personal record without equally specific evidence. Barringer did not receive the Medal of Honor immediately after the battle. More than thirty-one years passed between the action at Vicksburg and his formal recognition. On July 12, 1894, William H. Barringer was presented with the Medal of Honor for his gallantry on May 22, 1863. This separation between the action date and the award date is important for his historical record. The battlefield action occurred during the Civil War in 1863, while the federal government formally issued his Medal of Honor in 1894. Because the medal was issued in 1894, the correct historical database designation is Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1894. The 1862–1895 date range identifies the historical Army Medal of Honor period applicable to the decoration when Barringer received it. It does not change the date of the action that earned the award. The Army Medal of Honor itself had been authorized by Congress in 1862, during the Civil War. It became the principal national military decoration recognizing extraordinary conduct by Union soldiers. Many Civil War veterans were awarded the medal during the conflict, but others—including Barringer—received recognition decades later after their wartime actions were reviewed and documented. Barringer was part of a particularly notable group of Vicksburg recipients. Dozens of soldiers who participated in the volunteer storming party of May 22 were ultimately awarded the Medal of Honor for their gallantry during the attempt to capture the Stockade Redan. No additional clasp, star, bar, oak leaf cluster, or other device has been verified for William H. Barringer’s Medal of Honor. His verified award is therefore a single Medal of Honor without an additional device. A separate Civil War Campaign Medal has not been included in his verified ribbon rack. Barringer unquestionably served during the Civil War, but the campaign medal was created long after the conflict. Under the evidence standard applied to his record, eligibility based solely on wartime service does not establish recipient-specific issuance or entitlement. No sufficiently strong individual record has been established showing that William H. Barringer personally received or was specifically issued the later Civil War Campaign Medal. It therefore remains excluded from his final verified medal history. His verified medal record consequently consists of one decoration: Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1894. Barringer lived for many decades after the war. The strongest surviving Medal of Honor records provide far more information about his Civil War service than about his detailed civilian occupation and activities, so uncertain postwar details should not be expanded beyond what documentation can support. What is firmly established is that he returned to the Ohio region with which his early life had been associated and survived well into the twentieth century. William H. Barringer died on April 7, 1917, in Oliver Township, Ohio. He was seventy-five years old. He was buried at Mount Olive Church Cemetery in Long Bottom, Ohio, near the community where his life had begun. By the time of his death, more than fifty years had passed since the assault at Vicksburg. Barringer had lived long enough to see the Civil War transformed from a living national crisis into a central part of American historical memory. His military legacy nevertheless remains tied to a single morning in Mississippi. On May 22, 1863, Private William H. Barringer stepped forward as a volunteer for an assault in which the first men were expected to carry bridging materials and scaling ladders directly toward one of Vicksburg’s strongest Confederate fortifications. He advanced with the volunteer storming party down the Graveyard Road toward the Stockade Redan while Confederate defenders waited behind prepared earthworks. When the defenders opened fire, the volunteers were subjected to devastating close-range musketry. The assault failed, but the courage of the men who attempted it became one of the most remembered episodes of the Siege of Vicksburg. Thirty-one years later, the United States formally recognized Barringer’s part in that attack with the Medal of Honor. William H. Barringer is therefore remembered as a Private of Company F, 4th West Virginia Infantry, a Union veteran of the Vicksburg campaign, a volunteer member of the famous storming party of May 22, 1863, and a Medal of Honor recipient whose courage was demonstrated at the very front of one of the Civil War’s most dangerous assaults. His single verified decoration, Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1894, remains the official recognition of his gallantry in the charge of the volunteer storming party at Vicksburg, Mississippi.