Chancellorsville Receives 5th Maine Battery Soldier’s Medal
The soldier Hennessy spoke about, Pvt. John F. Chase of the 5th Maine Battery, fought in a maelstrom of bullets and artillery projectiles at the Battle of Chancellorsville. “And he was fighting to save his guns – these hunks of metal which in the big scheme of things were worthless, but he concluded that day were worth risking his life for, and he did.” This is what the citation says about Chase’s conduct on May 3, 1863: “Nearly all the officers and men of the battery having been killed or wounded, this soldier with a comrade continued to fire his gun after the guns had ceased. The piece was then dragged off by the two, the horses having been shot, and its capture by the enemy was prevented.” Chase and a Corporal Lebroke bought those crucial minutes for the Union forces nearby and also saved the usable guns of their battery before it was overrun. Chase’s conduct at Chancellorsville, as cited, earned him the Medal of Honor, which “is the nation’s highest award, not for the brave, but for the bravest,” Hennessy said during a special ceremony at the NPS Chancellorsville Visitor Center on May 3, the 146th anniversary of the day Chase earned the medal. Pvt. Chase’s great-grandson, Steve Chase, was there from Texas to donate his ancestor’s medal to the National Park Service for display at the battlefield where he earned it. (Interestingly, Lebroke was not similarly awarded that medal. The other man awarded the Medal of Honor for saving the 5th Maine Battery that day was Lt. Louis J. Sacriste, Co. D., 116th Pennsylvania, whose citation in part reads: “Saved from capture a gun of the Fifth Maine Battery.” The 116th came onto the field just in time to rescue the remnants of the Maine battery.) That medal is extremely rare, Hennessy said. After tens of millions of Americans have served in the armed forces of our country since the introduction of the Medal of Honor in 1862, only 3,446 men have received them. People in the military are instructed to pay the highest respect to anyone they see wearing that decoration. When military men are in the presence of a medal holder, they will salute him before they salute the President of the United States. “That is indicative of the honor, the distinction, that this nation conveys on those very few 3,446 men,” according to Hennessy. If a group of flag officers – generals and admirals – walk into a room where a Medal of Honor recipient is, they will all salute that recipient before they salute each other, Hennessy elaborated. Steve Chase’s journey from his home near San Antonio, Texas, to Spotsylvania County began last fall, Hennessy said. Chase contacted him about donating the priceless family heirloom and needed help selecting a good recipient. Hennessy said he tried to be objective and not deliberately steer Chase to the NPS at Chancellorsville, but that’s where Chase ended up. The simple logic of having it displayed where he earned the medal has a compelling logic of its own. Chase said as a child he knew about his ancestor’s special medal, but he didn’t own it until his father died in 1989. “It was a very important family heirloom,” he said. Before he donated it to the NPS, he got the permission of the next Chase man in line to inherit the medal, his son, who “thought it was a great idea to let other people share the story and see the medal.” Russ Smith, Superintendant of the FSNMP, was very pleased Chase chose the Chancellorsville Visitor Center as the new home for the medal. “When we have an object like this, it really makes the battles personal. We’re happy to be able to honor the courage and sacrifice of John Chase,” Smith said. There was a special surprise for everyone at the ceremony. “One of the most remarkable coincidences that I’ve ever encountered,” Hennessy told the packed visitor center theater room. Only two days before the ceremony, Hennessy unexpectedly learned that a Spotsylvania woman had a cane that may have belonged to John F. Chase. Jan VanLandingham told him she got it from an uncle who received it in the course of operating a moving and storage business in St. Petersburg, Fla. That is where Chase retired and died in 1914 at age 71. VanLandingham was in the theater and handed over the cane for the NPS to display with Chase’s medal (it was not clear whether she donated or merely loaned the cane). NPS curator Janice Frye used white gloves to handle the cane as she first showed it to Steve and Nancy Kay Chase during the ceremony. The cane had several elaborate, but small, drawings etched into the fine wood. One was a portrait of Chase, another a drawing of the monument at Gettysburg to Chase’s battery, then an inscription with Chase’s name and the name of his battery, and, lastly, the words “Culp’s Hill.” “Canes were very popular with veterans after the war,” Hennessy said. “We do not know if this belonged to John Chase, but it seems very likely that it did.” After Chase examined it, Hennessy told him, “It’s very likely that your great-grandfather’s hand grasped that.” Frye later placed the cane in the display case in the lobby, next to the medal. Chase received a gift at the ceremony. Andrew Johnson, representing the Spotsylvania American Legion Riders Post 320 and the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, gave him a hand-crafted Fabergé egg pendant. On one side was the U.S. flag and on the other a blue field with a white star and the golden head of an American Eagle. “Over the coming decades it is literally true that millions of visitors to this park will see the Chase Medal of Honor and be able to visit the site where his heroic deeds occurred. What you are doing today is not conveying a gift to the park, but to the nation,” Hennessy told Chase near the end of the ceremony.
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