The Union Navy worked to seize a number of Confederate forts and block vital trade routes that supplied southern ports during the Civil War. Henry Shutes, a navy sailor, earned his Medal of Honor for his bravery in various battles while spending the majority of the war on the water.
Prior to his enlistment in the Navy, there has n’t been much written about Shutes besides the fact that he was born in Baltimore in 1804. Shutes was a skilled mariner before the Civil War started, according to the Mount Moriah Cemetery where he is interred. He had 22 years of prior experience, according to the earliest enlistment record that was discovered for him, which was from 1858. Shutes would have enlisted in the Navy at around 54 years old, then.  , ++
Before transferring to the USS Wissahickon, Shutes first worked as a gunner’s mate on the Don. He had taken over as the ship’s forecastle captain by April 1862, which was the upper forward deck where sailors slept. That rank was comparable to a petty officer in the modern era.  ,
Late in April 1862, Shutes was carrying out these tasks at the Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip. The forts, which were located 75 miles south of New Orleans on either side of the Mississippi River, provided protection for the city. On April 18, the Union began its bombardment.  , ++
By April 23, some Union ships had breached a river barrier just south of the forts, enabling them to approach and engage enemy ships above them. One of them, the Wissahickon, had to avoid burning rafts and other attempts to destroy them. Shutes ‘ Medal of Honor citation stated that he performed his duties with skill and bravery during the campaign and that his seamanlike qualities as a gunner’s mate were outstanding. In addition to  ,
The ships left the forts by April 24 and 25 and headed toward New Orleans, which was devoid of troops and defenses against the Navy’s guns. The city was taken over by the Union in a matter of days. Forts Jackson and St. Philip gave up a few days later.  ,
On February 27, 1863, almost a year later, Shutes was once more engaged in combat, this time on the Big Ogeechee River, close to Savannah, Georgia. The Rattlesnake, a Confederate blockade runner, was destroyed when the Wissahickon participated in an assault on Fort McAllister.  , ++
However, the Wissahickon below the water line was penetrated by a shot from the fort’s guns, which also entered the explosives and ammunition storage powder magazine. He received praise for acting quickly to save the ship in Shutes ‘ citation. Shutes, who was aware that he might pass away, allegedly locked himself inside the magazine in an 1890 Philadelphia Inquirer article and used water to drown the area to prevent it from exploding.  , ++
He received the Medal of Honor, a brand-new decoration established in 1861, for his actions in both battles. Shutes was the oldest Civil War Medal of Honor recipient at the time of the incidents, being around 58 years old.  , ++
Shutes may have left the Navy at some point, but according to Mount Moriah Cemetery in Philadelphia, a U.S. Naval Academy employee register from 1865 indicates that he was working there as an ordinary watchman. He relocated to Philadelphia’s Naval Asylum, a home and hospital for retired sailors, sometime in the middle of the 1870s.  , ++
Shutes “refused to keep his splint in place and grew increasingly belligerent about eating,” according to the Mount Moriah website, despite breaking a leg in 1889. On September 10, 1889, he passed away and was laid to rest on Mount Moriah. His passing was attributed by the cemetery to a “general failure of willpower.”
The U.S. military’s highest medal for bravery has been awarded to more than 3,500 Medal of Honor recipients, and this article is a part of the weekly series” Medal of Honour Monday.”