b. 20/06/1844 Fairfield, New York. d. 20/04/1906 Chicago, Illinois.
DATE OF MOH ACTION: 22/05/1863 Vicksburg, Mississippi.
George Kretsinger MOH
Civil War Medal of Honor Recipient. He served as a Private in the Union Army in the Chicago Mercantile Independent Battery, Illinois Volunteer Light Artillery, being mustered in on August 29l 1862. He was awarded the CMOH for his bravery in action on May 22, 1863 during the campaign to capture Vicksburg, Mississippi, with his citation reading “Carried with others by hand a cannon up to and fired it through an embrasure of the enemy’s works.”
During the Union assaults on Confederate positions at Vicksburg that day, Union troops were pinned down at an earthwork known as the 2nd Texas Lunette, where the Confederate defenders were throwing short-fused artillery shells down at them. Private Kretsinger was one of a number of men who volunteered to help lift and place a nearly one-ton Napoleon artillery piece up the hill to fire upon the Confederates, and relieve the pinned down men. The cannon fire they rained down upon the Rebels helped the beleaguered troops be able to retreat back to safety. The six members of the Mercantile Battery who participated in the feat and survived – Private Kretsinger, battery commander Captain Patrick H. White, Corporal James Dunne, Private Charles H. Kloth, Private Patrick McGuire, Private William G. Stephens – were all eventually awarded the Medal of Honor, with Private Kretsinger receiving his on July 20, 1897. He would go on to serve through the balance of the conflict before being honorably discharged due to disability on May 3, 1865.
MOH CITATION:
Carried with others by hand a cannon up to and fired it through an embrasure of the enemy’s works.
BURIAL LOCATION: ROSE HILL CEMETERY, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.
SECTION C.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: BELIEVED TO BE FAMILY.
