William Halstead (February 9, 1837 – July 25, 1916) was a
Union Navy sailor in the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
and a recipient of the U.S. military's highest decoration, the
Medal of Honor
The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest military decoration and is awarded to recognize American soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, guardians and coast guardsmen who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor. ...
, for his actions at the
Battle of Mobile Bay.
Born on January 9, 1837, in
Schroeppel, New York, Halstead began his seafaring career as a young man. He first worked on
whaling
Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution.
It was practiced as an organized industry ...
ships out of the Pacific Northwest, then sailed the Pacific as a
merchant mariner.
Halstead joined the U.S. Navy from his home state of New York and served over two years on the , suppressing the slave trade off the coast of Africa in the 1850s. Following the onset of the Civil War, he helped enforce the
Union blockade
The Union blockade in the American Civil War was a naval strategy by the United States to prevent the Confederacy from trading.
The blockade was proclaimed by President Abraham Lincoln in April 1861, and required the monitoring of of Atlantic ...
at the mouth of the Mississippi River and was present at the
capture of New Orleans in 1862. At the
Battle of Mobile Bay on August 5, 1864, he "fought his gun with skill and courage" despite heavy fire as a
coxswain on the . For this action, he was awarded the Medal of Honor four months later, on December 31, 1864.
Halstead's official Medal of Honor citation reads:
On board the U.S.S. ''Brooklyn'' during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram ''Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
'', in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Despite severe damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks from stem to stern, Halstead fought his gun with skill and courage throughout the furious battle which resulted in the surrender of the prize rebel ram ''Tennessee'' and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan Fort Morgan can apply to any one of several places in the United States:
*Fort Morgan (Alabama), a fort at the mouth of Mobile Bay
*Fort Morgan, Alabama, a nearby community
*Fort Morgan (Colorado), a frontier military post located in present-day Fo ...
.
After the war, Halstead settled in
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and according ...
, and worked for the
Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway. He died on July 23, 1916, at age 79 and was buried at Forest Cemetery in Toledo. He is one of two Medal of Honor recipients interred in the cemetery, the other being fellow Civil War veteran
Mark Wood.
See also
*
*
Battle of Mobile Bay
Notes
References
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External links
* Find A Grave Genealogy at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/19737487
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Halstead Sr., William
1837 births
1916 deaths
People from Oswego County, New York
People of New York (state) in the American Civil War
Union Navy sailors
United States Navy Medal of Honor recipients
American Civil War recipients of the Medal of Honor