By Laura Jowdy, Archivist & Historical Collections Manager, CMOHS

Each of the 3,500-plus Medal of Honor Recipients have their own story. Over 3,500 stories of gallantry and intrepidity. However, some stories connect in unusual ways.

For example, there are two sets of father/son Recipients, two sets of cousins and cases where Recipients became brothers-in-law. The one that never fails to amaze, however, are the seven sets of brothers who have received the Medal of Honor. This seems an unbelievable number in a world with so few awarded Medals of Honor, but it is one of those factual quirks of history that turn up occasionally when one least expects it.

The seven sets of brothers’ stories are below.

• The Black Brothers
• The Capehart Brothers
• The Galloway Brothers
• The Pond Brothers
• The Thompson Brothers
• The Miller Brothers
• The Gaujot Brothers

1) The Black Brothers & the Civil War

John C. and William P. Black were the sons of John C. Black, a minister, and his wife Josephine Culbertson Black, who started their life together in western Pennsylvania but moved to Mississippi to Kentucky before moving back to Pennsylvania. After John and William’s father died in the mid-1840s, their mother moved her family of four young children to be nearer family in Danville, IL. The brothers would both receive the Medal of Honor in October 1893 for their actions during the Civil War.

John C. Black, Jr., was born in 1839 in Mississippi and was attending Wabash College in Crawfordsville, IN, when the Civil War started. He enlisted early in the war with a unit that was absorbed into the 11^th Indiana Regiment. Once that first enlistment ended, he returned to Danville, IL, and recruited a new company for the 37^th Indiana Regiment. He started as a major but by the end of the war was a brevetted brigadier general for gallantry. Decades later, he received the Medal of Honor for his 1862 actions at Prairie Grove, AR, where he led his regiment on a daring drive up a hill to take an enemy emplacement. He was severely wounded and lost the full use of his right arm in that battle.

After the war, John returned to Danville, married, studied law and passed the bar. He eventually made his home in Champaign, IL, and became well-known as a public speaker and political figure. Between 1866 and 1879, he ran four times for Congress and once for Lieutenant Governor of Illinois, all of the attempts unsuccessful. Eventually, in 1892, he was elected to the House of Representatives as a congressman at large. He also served twice as the Commissioner of Pensions, a US Attorney for northern Illinois, and on the board of he US Civil Service Commission. Through it all, he remained active in the Grand Army of the Republic and even served as its Commander in Chief. He died in Chicago, IL, in 1915, where he made his home at the end of his life. His Medal of Honor is at the Special Collections at the Chicago Public Library.

His younger brother, William P. Black, was born in 1842 when the Black family lived in Kentucky. While serving with Company K, 37^th Illinois Infantry in March 1862, he advanced beyond his company’s lines alone with a rifle and halted the enemy’s advance. He would later receive the Medal of Honor for that action.

Like John, he studied law and became an attorney. In 1886, a nationwide effort was underway by labor activists to establish an 8-hour workday. Unionists led a strike that May in Chicago, IL, and on May 3, there was a scuffle while police tried to protect both strikers and strikebreakers during unrest at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company. The next day, anarchist labor leaders called a mass meeting at Haymarket Square to protest what they saw as police brutality. On the tail end of the meeting, someone threw a bomb into the crowd and police responded with gunfire. By the time the chaos ended, about fifteen people were dead, seven of them police officers. Over 100 people were injured.

While the bomber has never been definitively identified, authorities quickly rounded up a group of eight known anarchists to prosecute for the bombing, even though some of them were not present at the event. William P. Black served as their defense attorney. He lost the case, and four of the men were hanged in 1887.

William remained in legal practice in Chicago until his retirement. He died in 1916, leaving behind one son.
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2) The Capehart Brothers & the Civil War

Henry and Charles Capehart grew up in Pennsylvania, sons of John and Sophia. Henry was born in 1825 in Johnston, PA. Charles came along 8 years later after the family had moved to Conemaugh Township, just outside Johnstown. The two grew up in Johnstown before the family moved to Pittsburgh.

By the start of the Civil War, Henry Capehart had graduated from Jefferson College, Washington, PA (now known as Washington & Jefferson College), and set up a medical practice in Bridgeport, OH. He left his wife and four children to join the service as a surgeon with the rank of colonel in the 1^st West Virginia Cavalry. He became known for his fighting acumen, leading several daring maneuvers that sent the enemy fleeing. Henry received the Medal of Honor for saving the life of a drowning soldier while under fire at Greenbrier River, WV, in 1864.

Brevetted a major general in George Armstrong Custer’s division, he was present at the signing of the armistice in 1865 at Appomattox, VA. One of his prized possessions was the chair he claimed that General Ulysses Grant sat in to sign the paper that ended the war.

Henry returned to Bridgeport, but by 1885 moved his family to Fargo in North Dakota Territory. He made his living as a doctor for the rest of his life.

His younger brother Charles Capehart saw over 100 battles during the Civil War, having enlisted as a sergeant in Company K, 12^th Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and ended the war as a lieutenant colonel of the 1^st West Virginia Cavalry. He received the Medal of Honor for leading a charge down a hillside in the dark of night in 1863.

Charles married Mary Louise Sawyer in 1866 in Washington, DC. After a few decades, they divorced due to Charles’ erratic behavior, but remarried in 1901. Most of their lives were spent in the areas of Washington, D.C., and Alexandria, VA, with a short detour to Oakland, CA, around 1875. They had four children, two sons and two daughters.

The elder daughter, Lucile, married her cousin Alexander Capehart (son of Henry), and became an accomplished opera singer and actor under the name Lucile Meredith. In 1904, Charles attempted to murder Lucile’s husband (his nephew) in Washington, D.C. Newspapers reported that Alexander was talking with a police officer in the street when Charles approached with a revolver and fired. No one was injured and Charles would only say it was a “family matter.” He pled guilty and was given a suspended sentence.

The Capehart brothers are interred at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, VA.
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3) The Galloway Brothers & the Civil War

George N. and John Galloway were two of John and Mary Galloway’s five children. The family lived in Philadelphia, PA. The senior John Galloway was a hatter who died in his 40s prior to the Civil War, leaving Mary to raise their minor children alone.

George N. Galloway lied about his age when he joined the Army, giving his age as 20 when he enlisted in 1861. His birth date has therefore been recorded as 1841 on all official military records. In reality, he was born in November 1843 and shows up on the 1860 U.S. Census as a brushmaker at 17 years old. He received the Medal of Honor for actions on May 8, 1864, at Alsops Farm, Virginia, when he voluntarily held an important position under heavy fire. After the war, he wrote histories of his regiment and the 6^th Army Corps under the name G. Norton Galloway. He also worked as an actor, singer, and talent manager under the same alias.

John Galloway’s birth date on official military rolls has been estimated to be 1843, but he was born in December 1842, making him almost a year older than George. As a commissary sergeant at Farmville, VA, on April 7, 1865, John provided inspiration and leadership to other soldiers when “his regiment being surprised and nearly overwhelmed, he dashed forward under a heavy fire, reached the right of the regiment, where the danger was greatest, rallied the men, and prevented a disaster that was imminent.” Before the war, he was a butcher, but by 1900, he was an art dealer. He and his wife Margaret had at least six children.

Both the brothers were awarded their Medals of Honor in the 1890s. George died in February 1904 at his brother’s house at 519 Tasker Street in Philadelphia. John followed three months later. Both brothers are buried in their hometown of Philadelphia, in Mount Moriah Cemetery.
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4) The Pond Brothers & the Civil War

James B. and George F. Pond’s parents lived a largely nomadic life. Their 11 children were born across the country, from New York to Illinois, to Wisconsin to Missouri. James and George grew up mostly in the area of Alto, WI, where their father was a farmer.

Three of the Pond sons signed up for service in 1861 at the outbreak of the Civil War. James and George joined up with the 3d Wisconsin Cavalry. Both ended up on the western frontier of the War in Kansas, where independent militias engaged in irregular warfare.

In October 1863, a group of 400 pro-Confederate guerrillas attacked remote Fort Baxter, which housed just under 100 federal troops. James led the defense of the fort, rallying his troops to eject the attackers from the fortifications. He then “went outside the works and, alone and unaided, fired a howitzer three times, throwing the enemy into confusion and causing him to retire.” He later received the Medal of Honor for his leadership.

James B. Pond had been born in Allegheny, NY, and would eventually return to the northeast, but not before an interesting rotation of occupations throughout the country. He worked as a farmer, printer’s apprentice, miner, newspaper editor, and eventually a furniture salesman in Salt Lake City, UT. While there, he found his true calling as a lecture and concert tour manager. His first client was Anna Eliza Young, one of Brigham Young’s many wives, who had rejected Mormonism. The tour was exceedingly successful, and Pond went on to represent other well-known lecturers and performers of the time, including Mark Twain, P.T. Barnum, Henry Ward Beecher, Booker T. Washington, Charles Dickens, and William Lloyd Garrison.

James died suddenly in Jersey City, NJ, in 1903 from gangrene that started in a foot ulcer. He left behind a widow and two children and was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, NY. His Medal of Honor is in the care of the Civil War Museum in Kenosha, WI.

George F. Pond was born in Libertyville, IN, just before the Pond family moved to Wisconsin. During the Civil War, he functioned as a scout and carried dispatches through open Kansas lands. This assignment brought him into a game of “contact and avoidance” with the same types of pro-Confederate guerillas that his brother encountered. On May 15, 1864, at Drywood, KS, George and two companions arrived at one of their clandestine stops to rest and restock on a mission. They found the location had been raided by a group of approximately 60 guerillas. The group had taken 19 prisoners and was heading for the safety of Confederate Missouri. He and his two companions headed out and attacked the much larger group. They freed all but one of the prisoners, who was killed in the skirmish. For this action, George would later receive the Medal of Honor.

Right after the Civil War, he served as Justice of the Peace for Richland Township, MO, for six years. He then moved to Kansas, where he lived out the rest of his life. Like his brother, George worked many jobs: tree-miller, farmer, and a salesman of insurance, sewing machines, and newspapers. He married and had six children. He died in 1911 at Fort Scott, KS, and is buried there in Evergreen Cemetery.
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5) The Thompson Brothers & the Civil War

Allen and James G. Thompson received the Medal of Honor for the same action. Both were privates in Company K, 4^th New York Heavy Artillery on March 31, 1865, when their unit arrived at White Oak Road in Petersburg, VA. The brothers were part of a seven-man scouting group sent ahead of their unit to determine if a Confederate work was occupied. They wove through thick underbrush and trees to get close to the location. As they approached, a contingent of approximately 50 Confederate soldiers appeared and demanded the Union scouting group’s surrender. They refused and the Confederates opened fire, killing all but the Thompson brothers. The volleys of fire told the larger Union force waiting at the road that the works were, indeed, occupied. The Thompson brothers received the Medal of Honor in April 1896.

The brothers were born to James, a farmer in Sandy Creek, Oswego County, NY, and Sarah Kelly Thompson. When both their parents died in 1855, Allen, James, and their siblings moved in with their paternal grandparents. Two years later, their grandfather died, and the siblings were separated and moved in with various family members.

Allen Thompson originally enlisted under his legal name of Joseph Allen Thompson at fourteen years old in 1861 and served in Company K, 81^st New York Infantry. He was remembered by his brothers in arms as a prankster. He caught the measles and was discharged for a lingering lung illness. By 1863, he was well enough to enlist in the 4^th New York Heavy Artillery with his younger brother James. By March 1865, the brothers had been discharged from their Civil War units. Allen then reenlisted for a third time, this time in Co. E, 4^th U.S. Infantry, an enlistment that took them to Wyoming Territory.

Allen took a liking to the West. He lived in Wyoming and Colorado the rest of his life, working as a stock-man on the many cattle ranches. He married Cornelia Decker in 1878, and they had five children, three of whom made it to adulthood. Allen died in Cheyenne, WY, in 1906 and was buried there.

James eventually followed his brother out West, bringing along a wife and three children. He had been discharged for disability after he was wounded in action on April 3, 1865. His wife, Esther, died in 1875 in Silver Cliff, CO. Eventually, James settled near Laramie, WY, as a farmer and remarried. Two years before his death in 1921 they moved to San Diego, CA. He was survived by a widow, two daughters from his first marriage, and a son from his second.
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6) The Miller Brothers & the Spanish-American War

Like the Thompson brothers, Willard D. and Harry H. Miller received the Medal of Honor for the same military action. During the Spanish-American War, cables ran under the heavily fortified Cuban bay of Cienfuegos. The cables allowed the Cuban forces to easily transmit news and orders with their capital, Havana, and the outside world. The American naval forces needed to sever these important communication lines. The answer was to send out a few crews in small boats to dredge the cables from the bay floor and sever them.

On May 11, 1898, 57 volunteers from the crews of the USS Nashville and USS Marblehead set out to accomplish the mission. Under heavy fire from the enemy on land, the boats anchored 10 to 15 yards from shore in a heavy sea. The volunteers slowly pulled each cable out of the water, one at a time, and began the arduous task of severing them with a hacksaw. In after action reports, the mission’s commander wrote that each cable was about two inches in diameter and weighed 6 pounds per foot.

The crews then pulled a loose end of each cable out to sea and dropped it into the water so the Cubans couldn’t easily repair them. The whole process took over four hours and three Americans gave their lives.

The Miller brothers were born in Nova Scotia, Canada, to Jacob and Margaret Miller. They both immigrated to the US in the mid-1890s.

Willard D. Miller was born in 1877 and enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1897 after immigrating to New York City. In 1902, he became a US citizen in Massachusetts while serving at the US Naval Yard in Boston. After his discharge in 1908, Willard continued with a life at sea, but eventually joined the US Lighthouse Service. By 1910, he was an assistant lighthouse keeper at the Farallon Island Light in the Farallon Islands off the coast of San Francisco, CA. He worked his way up to lighthouse keeper, and ended his career in Richmond, CA, across the bay from San Francisco. He died at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Salt Lake City, UT, in 1959. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, VA.

Harry H. Miller was born two years after Willard. Following his naval service, Harry became a bit of a nomad, part of a great migration of workers in Central America building ships, railroads, and bridges. He finally settled down in Costa Rica, got married and had at least one daughter, Daisy, in 1913. He would occasionally visit his family in Canada or the U.S., but he lived the rest of his life in Costa Rica, dying in 1968. His grave site is in the Central Cemetery in Tres de Rios, Costa Rica.
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7) The Gaujot Brothers & their Two Wars

Antoine and Julien Gaujot were born in Keweenaw County, MI, but their family relocated to Williamson, WV, while they were young. Their parents, Earnest and Susan Gaujot, boasted of seven children. Both Antoine and Julian attended Virginia Polytechnic Institute in Blacksburg, VA, and both would later work as civil engineers, the same as their father.

Antoine Gaujot, though born in 1879, five years later than Julien, was the first of the brothers to be awarded the Medal of Honor. His military record has several interesting occurrences. In the first, in November 1898, while he was serving with the 2^nd West Virginia Volunteers, he was acquitted by general courts martial of the killing of a fellow soldier. Antoine had been told to arrest his fellow soldier but showed up with a pistol. In the scuffle that followed, the other soldier was shot and later died.

The second occurrence was in 1899, in San Francisco, CA, when Antione was with his new unit, Company M, 27^th Infantry, waiting to ship out to the Philippines. He showed up with an unexplained gunshot wound to the foot and was under medical care for a full month.

A few months later in December of 1899 during the Philippine Insurrection, his unit was trying to follow orders to attack San Mateo, Philippine Islands. Their route necessitated crossing the Mariquina River, swollen with monsoon rains. As the unit searched for a ford to cross, they came under attack. Antoine repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire while looking for a ford where they could cross. Unable to find one, he then swam the river to obtain a canoe to aid the crossing. He swam back across the river with the rope to the canoe in his teeth. For this action, he would later receive the Medal of Honor.

In May 1900, he faced a trial by summary court for unspecified violations of the 62d Article of War and forfeited a month of pay. Antoine continued his service in the Army Reserve, serving during World War I, and retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He married Mable “Josey” Vaughn in 1910 in Kentucky and had one son.

Julien Gaujot, born in 1874, received his Medal of Honor with the 1^st US Cavalry in Agua Prieta, Mexico, located directly across the border from Douglas, AZ. The Mexican Revolution was underway, and Agua Prieta became the location of several battles between the federal Mexican forces and the rebels. In April 1911, the first battle for Agua Prieta featured heavy fighting, with the town of Douglas caught in the crossfire. Newspapers reported that three Americans had been killed and seven wounded by stray ordinance that crossed the border, leading to U.S. military intervention. The Mexican federal forces, admitting temporary defeat, crossed the border on April 13, leaving Agua Prieta to the rebels. However, a party of 30 federal soldiers remained on the Mexican side, surrounded by rebel forces, and lacking an officer to properly surrender. The federal commanding officer, now on the U.S. side of the border, gave Captain Gaujot permission to act as liaison for that small party of his troops. Under fire, Gaujot approached both sides and convinced them to cease fighting. He then led the group of 30 federalists and five Americans that had been held prisoner, back to U.S. soil. His Medal of Honor was presented by President William H. Taft at the White House on November 23, 1912. Julien remained in the service, retiring in 1935.

On April 13, 1936, Julien’s 15-year-old son, James, shot Antoine five times in the abdomen at Williamson, WV, during a disagreement about at $12 check (approximately $255 in 2022, accounting for inflation). Antoine died the next day at the local hospital, asking that his nephew not be prosecuted. James was sent to reform school with the caveat that if he re-offended, he would serve five years in the state penitentiary. Antoine was laid to rest at Fairview Cemetery in Williamson. Julien died two years later and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, VA. Reform school must have worked for James, because he later attended college, served four years in the Army during WWII, and found work as an oil broker. He died in a plane crash in rural Montana while flying home to his wife and newborn.
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About the Congressional Medal of Honor Society

The Congressional Medal of Honor Society, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is dedicated to preserving the legacy of the Medal of Honor, inspiring America to live the values the Medal represents, and supporting Recipients of the Medal as they connect with communities across America.

Chartered by Congress in 1958, its membership consists exclusively of those individuals who have received the Medal of Honor.

The Society carries out its mission through outreach, education and preservation programs, including the Medal of Honor Museum, Medal of Honor Outreach Programs, the Medal of Honor Character Development Program, and the Medal of Honor Citizen Honors Awards for Valor and Service. The Society’s programs and operations are funded by donations.

As part of Public Law 106-83, the Medal of the Honor Memorial Act, the Medal of Honor Museum, which is co-located with the Congressional Medal of Honor Society’s headquarters on board the U.S.S. Yorktown at Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, was designated as one of three national Medal of Honor sites.

Learn more about the Medal of Honor and the Congressional Medal of Honor Society’s initiatives at cmohs.org.