Famous File 9/13/2012

Maine Medal of Honor Recipient: Albert E. Fernald

By Kim Sawtelle

In July 1862, the United States Congress resolved, “That the President of the United States...is hereby authorized to cause two thousand ‘medals of honor’...be prepared...and...that the same be presented in the name of the Congress to such non-commissioned officers and privates as shall most distinguish themselves by their gallantry in action, and other soldier-like qualities, during the present insurrection (Civil War).”

Among Maine’s 67 total Medal of Honor recipients is Albert E. Fernald of Winterport, whose story, little known at the time of his return from the Civil War, follows:

Determined to cut off the Confederate Army’s last surviving supply line in the spring of 1865, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant ordered Major General Philip H. Sheridan to  capture the cross roads of Five Forks, Virginia and gain control of the Southside Railroad.  Without this imperative supply line, the Confederate army would be trapped without food, ammunition or vital medical provisions behind the defensive entrenchments General Robert E. Lee ordered constructed between Petersburg and Richmond. 

To counter the pending attack and the potential disaster it spelled to the Confederate Army, Lee assigned Major General George E. Pickett to, “Hold Five Forks at all hazards…” with the approximately 10,000 men under his command.  Despite Lee’s orders and the strategic importance of the supply line, Pickett and his junior officer, W.H.F. “Rooney” Lee―Lee’s own son―departed the lines to attend a fish fry at Hatcher’s Run without notifying their subordinates.  In the absence of the Confederate leadership, the Union’s V Corp of the Cavalry, under the direction of Major General Gouverneur K. Warren, advanced on Five Forks through rain and mud, only to encounter their own deployment issues as Warren moved too far east of the Confederate line to launch an effective attack.

Though last to enter the field of battle, due to Warren’s miscalculation, Company F of the 20th Maine Infantry was among the first Union ranks to attack the Confederate entrenchments at White Oak Road.  General Joshua Chamberlain realizing that Warren deployed too far east of Confederate line literally led the Union’s attack into the Confederates’ right flank by commanding his men from the front rather than the rear of the line.  His position on the battle field, and Warren’s own miscalculation, caused Pickett to issue command of the charge down White Oak Road to Chamberlain. 

Warren’s own men joined the battle at Fords Road, attacking the rear of the retreating Confederate line, pinching the Confederates between the two Union lines.  Surrounded and outnumbered, the Confederate army was overwhelmed.  The outcome of the day’s battle was to break Lee’s line of defense and forcing his retreat to Appomattox, where eighth days later, on April 9, he would surrender to Union forces.

According to Walter F. Beyer and Oscar F. Keydel, in Deeds of Valor: How America’s Heros Won the Medal of Honor, as the battle began, 27-year-old First Lieutenant Albert E. Fernald of Winterport, Maine, “…was in the first [Union] line when the works were reached.  The left of the regiment struck the works first, [and Fernald] being somewhat in advance…cleared the breastworks [and] ran toward a body of Confederates with a rebel color-bearer. [Fernald] rushed among the crowd and secured the flag before even his regiment had gotten into the works” (p. 505).

In the heat of battle, young Fernald captured the colors of the 9th Virginia Infantry, a deed considered by his commander and peers to be above and beyond the call of duty, earning him the Congressional Medal of Honor on May 10, 1865.  Fernald was one of 11 men to receive the honor during the Battle of Five Forks and one of 1,500 men to receive the honor throughout the Civil War. 

Born in Frankfort, Maine in 1838, Albert E. Fernald was one of five children of Elbridge, a blacksmith, and Mary W. Fernald.   Young Albert enlisted August 29, 1862 but returned to Winterport during the winter of 1865 to marry his betrothed, Abbie H. Colburn on January 1, 1865.  Fernald died December 3, 1903 and is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, Winterport, Maine.  Fernald’s diary and private papers are among the holdings of the Maine State Archives.

Bayer, W.F. & O.F. Kydel, eds. (1901). Deeds of Valor: How America’s Heroes Won the Medal of Honor.  Personal Reminiscences and Records of Officers and Enlisted Men who were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for Conspicuous Acts of Bravery in Battle (Vol. 1). (Detroit, Michigan: Perrien-Keydel, Co.).  Available online at:  http://openlibrary.org/books/OL7053543M/Deeds_of_valor