b. 22/07/1846 Fall River, Massachusetts. d. 28/05/1933 Fall River, Massachusetts.
DATE OF MOH ACTION: 13/08 – 31/10/1868 Vicinity of Black Mountains, Arizona Territory.
Michael O’Regan was born in Fall River, Massachusetts on July 22, 1846. He later enlisted in the United States Army in Boston, Massachusetts and joined Company B in the 8th U.S. Cavalry Regiment. A participant in the Apache Wars during the late 1860s, O’Regan was part of a small cavalry group of approximately fifty troopers tasked with protecting settlers from Apache raiding parties in the Arizona Territory between August and October 1868. During that ninety-day period, O’Regan and his colleagues faced the Apaches in heavy fighting, especially in ambushes and sniper attacks, during their patrols. O’Regan was among the thirty-four soldiers who received the Medal of Honor, in one of the U.S. Army’s largest presentations of the medal at the time, for “bravery in scouts and actions against Indians” on July 25, 1869. O’Regan returned to Fall River after leaving the army and died on May 28, 1933, at the age of 86.
MOH CITATION:
Bravery in scouts and actions against Indians.
BURIAL LOCATION: ST PATRICK’S CEMETERY, FALL RIVER, MASSACHUSETTS.
SECTION 19, LOT 324.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: BELIEVED TO BE FAMILY.
