b. 31/08/1846 Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. d. 12/03/1915 Collegeville, Pennsylvania.
DATE OF MOH ACTION: 06/02/1865 Hatcher’s Run, Virginia.
John M Vanderslice MOH
Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he was a 16-year old student of Freeland Seminary when he began his Civil War service, being mustered in as a Private in Company F, 49th Pennsylvania Emergency Troops on July 2, 1863.
The regiment was one of a number of militia units raised by Pennsylvania to counter the threat posed by Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s invasion of the state in the June-July 1863 Gettysburg Campaign, and it gave a young John M. Vanderslice his first experience in the Union Army. When he was mustered out on September 2, 1863, he returned to his studies, but a few months later enlisted again, this time as a recruit Private in Company D, 8th Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry.
Wounded at the June 1864 Battle of Cold Harbor, he would go on to be awarded the CMOH for his bravery at the February 6, 1865 Battle of Hatcher’s Run, Virginia; his citation reading “Was the first man to reach the enemy’s rifle pits, which were taken in the charge.” His Medal was awarded to him for his brave act on September 1, 1893, twenty eight years later. He would served through the conclusion of the war, and was briefly a prisoner of the Confederates, having been captured at Farmville, Virginia on April 7, 1865 after his horse was killed from under him during a charge (he would have in total three horses killed during his service). Two days after his capture the Confederates of the Army of Northern Virginia surrendered at Appomattox, and he was released. He was honorably mustered out on July 12, 1865, a little over a month before his 19th birthday.
He returned to his studies once more, and graduated from Freeland Seminary (which is today Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania) in 1866, and became lawyer in Philadelphia, where he rose to prominence as a counsel for a railroad firm. He was very active in Veteran’s affairs his whole life, eventually becoming the Pennsylvania Department Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic. He sat in on the executive committee for the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Commission for seventeen years, and it was on his suggestion that States erect monuments to mark the positions on the battlefield where the individual regiments fought. Through his work on Battlefield committees he came one of the foremost 19th Century experts on the battle itself. He died at age 68 in Collegeville.
MOH CITATION:
Was the first man to reach the enemy’s rifle pits, which were taken in the charge.
BURIAL LOCATION: ST JAMES PERKIOMEN CHURCH CEMETERY, EVANSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.
RIGHT SIDE OF CEMETERY ENTRANCE.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: BELIEVED TO BE FAMILY.
