On April 29 a new bust of Henry Taylor will be unveiled honoring the Medal of Honor awardee.
Below is from Our Quad Cities:
The dedication of the new bronze bust of Civil War hero Sgt. Henry H. Taylor, who earned the Medal of Honor, will be dedicated Saturday, April 29, according to a news release.
Taylor was born and raised in the Galena area in Jo Daviess County. The memorial will be coordinated with the 2023 U. S. Grant Pilgrimage, Blackhawk Area Council, Boy Scouts of America. The community is invited to the event and brief ceremony.
The Fickbohm-Hissem Post 193, The American Legion Department of Illinois, is the coordinating Post for the event.
The dedication will be held after the 1:30 p.m. Boy Scout parade in downtown Galena, about 2:30 p.m. in Grant Park on Park Avenue in Galena. Visitors are invited to come early and bring lawn chairs.
Civil War Talk member Nathan Stuart writes https://civilwartalk.com/threads/looking-for-information-on-the-sgt.195984/
Don’t know what information is already known. So here goes.
Brief details for Sergeant Henry Harrison Taylor:
Born – July 4, 1841
Enlistment place – Galena, Illinois
Unit – Co. C, 45th Illinois Infantry regiment
Enlistment date – Sept. 5, 1861
Unit – Co. C, 45th Illinois Infantry regiment
Rank – Sergeant
Mustered out date – Sept. 8, 1864
Award – Medal of Honor for actions on June 25, 1863 (Citation read- ‘was first to plant Union colors upon
the enemy works).
Believe the following is a description of the relevant action that the Sergeant was involved to earn his award.
Late during the siege of Vicksburg, Union troops (which included miners from the 45th Illinois) blew up a mine underneath the Confederate salient fort, the Third Louisiana Redan, on June 25. Following the blast, the 45th Illinois (known as the ‘Lead Mine Regiment’) and the 23rd Indiana led the charge into the resulting crater created from the mine explosion.
A correspondent with the Chicago Tribune who was in the field to witness this charge, reported the action as follows:
…”A wide embrasure in the embankment was made into which the noble Lead Mine Regiment, led by Colonel Maltby, rushed in and planted our banner amid a terrific fire from the enemy. The conduct of the 45th Illinois Regiment was grand in the extreme. Universal commendation is bestowed for the gallant manner the regiment performed the duty assigned it, and in no small degree upon the field officers who so nobly inspired the men by taking the advance and marching up to the muzzles of the enemy’s guns, so near that for a time it was a hand-to-hand fight. The colors of the regiment planted on the parapet of the fort are literally torn to pieces by the shots of the enemy. Two of the field officers, Lieut. Col. Smith and Major Fisk are no more. Col. Maltby is still suffering from a severe wound.”…
(Source – ‘With Grant at Donelson, Shiloh and Vicksburg‘ by Wilbur F. Crummer, of the 45th Regt., Ill. Vols., at pp 139-140)
Although his name was not specifically mentioned in this account, think the soldier that planted the colors on the parapet of the fort in the above action was likely to have been, Sergeant Taylor.
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