NATCHEZ NATIONAL CEMETERY
Natchez, Mississippi
Resting Place of Landsman Wilson Brown and hundreds Union Army/Navy Civil War soldiers and sailors
Photos by Bennie McRae
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Landsman Wilson Brown is said to have been the only Mississippian, black or white, to be awarded the Medal of Honor during the Civil War.
| Citation: | On board the
flagship USS Hartford during the successful attacks against Fort
Morgan, Rebel gunboats and the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay 5 August 1864.
Knocked unconscious into the hold of the ship when an enemy shellburst
fatally wounded a man on the ladder above him, Brown, upon regaining
consciousness, promptly returned to the shell whip on the berth deck and
zealously continued to perform his duties although 4 of the 6 men at this
station had been either killed or wounded by the enemy's terrific fire.
Reference: William Gladstone, MEN OF COLOR. Gettysburg: Thomas Publications, 1993. Page 189 (Also see pages 148 and 185) |
"Wilson Brown was born in Natchez, Mississippi. He was a slave on the Carthage Plantation, and one day escaped, jumped into the Mississippi River and swam out to a Union Navy gunboat. He subsequently enlisted and was assigned to the USS Hartford," Seshsabheter-C. M. Boxley, Natchez, Mississippi (20 June 2002)
RETURN TO RESTING PLACES OF UNITED STATES COLORED TROOPS
RETURN TO UNITED STATES COLORED TROOPS IN THE CIVIL WAR
GO TO MILITARY HISTORY
GO TO LEST WE FORGET
 | Posted by:
Bennie J. McRae, Jr. |
