William Bumgarner

Bumgarner was born in Mason County, West Virginia on 12 July 1837. He enlisted into the 4th West Virginia Infantry. He died on 24 December 1911 and his remains are interred at the Mossburg Cemetery in Indiana.

On May 22, 1863, General Ulysses S. Grant ordered an assault on the Confederate heights at Vicksburg, Mississippi.[4] The plan called for a storming party of volunteers to build a bridge across a moat and plant scaling ladders against the enemy embankment in advance of the main attack. This was diversionary charge on the Confederate position known as the Stockade Redan – a charge that was intended to draw fire away from the real planned attack.[5]

The volunteers knew the odds were against survival and the mission was called, in nineteenth century vernacular, a "forlorn hope". Only single men were accepted as volunteers and even then, twice as many men as needed came forward and were turned away. The assault began in the early morning following a naval bombardment.[4]

The Union soldiers came under enemy fire immediately and were pinned down in the ditch they were to cross. Despite repeated attacks by the main Union body, the men of the forlorn hope were unable to retreat until nightfall. of the 150 men in the storming party, nearly half were killed. Seventy-nine of the survivors were awarded the Medal of Honor.

Gallantry in the charge of the volunteer storming party.[1][2]

• List of American Civil War Medal of Honor recipients: A–F
• Battle of Vicksburg
• 4th West Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiment

• "William Bumgarner". Claim to Fame: Medal of Honor recipients. Find a Grave. Retrieved 11 December 2014.
• A Forlorn Hope
• Vicksburg Medal of Honor Recipients