James Knox Sturgeon MOH

b. 05/11/1844 Perry County, Ohio. d. 19/08/1898 Los Angeles, California.

DATE OF MOH ACTION: 15/06/1864 Kenesaw Mountain, Georgia.

James K Sturgeon MOH

Sturgeon was born on 5 November 1844 in Perry County, Ohio to parents James Sturgeon and Esther Radabaugh. He was one of 5 children. He married Minerva Jane Miller and fathered three children.

Sturgeon enlisted in the Army as a private on 9 December 1861 in Lancaster, Ohio and was assigned to Company F of the 46th Ohio Infantry on 16 December 1861.

On 15 June 1864, at the Battle of Kenesaw Mountain in Georgia, the 46th Ohio, along with other Union units, was ordered to assault a well-defended Confederate position a few miles north of the town of Marietta, Georgia. According to Sturgeon, the Confederates scattered during the initial Union charge and much of his regiment was tied up processing those who had surrendered. Sturgeon, along with three other men, rounded up the Confederates who had fled, eventually capturing nearly 30 prisoners. Sturgeon was later wounded in the left forearm at Jonesboro, Georgia on 31 August 1864 and was eventually discharged for wounds on 18 May 1865 at Louisville, Kentucky.

 

MOH CITATION:

Advanced beyond the lines and in an encounter with three Confederates shot two and took the other prisoner.

 

BURIAL LOCATION: EVERGREEN CEMETERY, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.

SECTION J, LOT 1328.

LOCATION OF MEDAL: UNKNOWN.