Second Battle of Reams Station

Second Battle of Reams Station. Medals of Honor.

"Every hero sooner or later receives his just reward." , Gen. Ulysses S. Grant to Pvt. Patrick J. Ginley, 1st NYLA, USA

, Like so many other battlefields across the world, Reams Station has a connection to our nation's highest award for valor. At the First Battle of Reams Station, Capt. Edward Whitaker of the 1st Connecticut Cavalry, acting as an aide to Gen. James Wilson, carried a dispatch through Confederate lines to Union headquarters. On April 2, 1898, Whitaker was awarded the Medal of Honor for this action., During the second battle, Confederates drove away gunners from a cannon that stood across the railroad (modern Halifax Road) to your right. After having his horse shot out from under him, Pvt. Patrick J. Ginley crept to the gun and "put three charges of canister in... and fired the piece directly into a body of the enemy about to seize the works." Ginley evaded capture and headed for the rear. He later seized the flag of a Massachusetts regiment from a dead color bearer and led a charge that recaptured the other three guns of the battery., For his actions, Ginley received the Medal of Honor., Along the road in the vicinity of the trail's parking lot, Chief Bugler Ferdinand Frederick Rohm of the 16th Pennsylvania Cavalry rushed to rescue the badly wounded Col. James Beaver, who lay in danger of being trampled by cavalry horses. Rohm carried Beaver to safety, helping to save his life, and received the Medal of Honor for his actions., Capt. James Milton Pipes took his company of the 140th Pennsylvania Infantry to halt a Confederate flank movement. He was wounded and lost his right arm. Pipes' quick response and his efforts to rescue a wounded comrade at Gettysburg the previous year were both noted in his Medal of Honor citation., Pvt. Terrence Begley of the 7th New York Heavy Artillery lost his life at the Second Battle of Reams Station. On December 1, 1864, Begley posthumously received the Medal of Honor for his actions at the Battle of Cold Harbor., (captions) , A U.S. Army Civil War-era Medal of Honor., Bugler Ferdinand Rohm remembered: "I noticed a field officer lying on his back...in the middle of the road...I saw he was wounded. I jumped off my horse.... Taking my blanket from under my horse we put him on it, and under heavy fire dragged him back to our retrenchments." James Beaver, the officer that Rohm rescued, later became governor of Pennsylvania. All images courtesy of the Library of Congress