Edwin F. Savacool

Edwin F. Savacool (1835 - 5 June 1865) was a captain in the United States Army who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Honor for gallantry during the American Civil War. He was awarded the medal on 24 April 1865 for actions performed at the Battle of Sailor's Creek in Virginia on 6 April 1865.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

Personal life[]

Savacool was born in Jackson, Jackson County, Michigan to Morrilla Savacool in 1835. His home of record was Marshall, Michigan. He died of wounds received in battle on 2 June 1865 at Armory Square Hospital in Washington D.C. and was buried in Oakridge Cemetery in Marshall. His remains were moved to Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit, Michigan, section A2, lot 59 on 13 January 1883.^[1][3][4][6]

Military service[]

Savacool enlisted in the Army as a private on 29 August 1861 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Service records list his age as 21 at enlistment - however, he was later shown to be several years older. He was mustered into Company K of the 1st New York Cavalry, a regiment containing 10 New York companies, 1 Pennsylvania company, and 1 Michigan company. He was promoted to sergeant on 1 January 1864 after reenlisting in the Army, second lieutenant on 19 March 1864, and captain on 1 February 1865, and was appointed commander of K Company. He was posthumously brevetted major.^[1][2][5][6]

1st New York spent the first years of the war protecting the B&O Railroad near the Potomac River. Savacool acted as a scout, frequently disguising himself as a Confederate regular or mailman to infiltrate enemy lines. On one occasion, he was able to fool the commander of a Confederate raiding party, major Harry Gilmor, into divulging the date and location of his next raid by riding disguised into Gilmor's camp and handing Gilmor a letter from Gilmor's lover; after drinking brandy in celebration, Gilmor informed Savacool of the planned attack on a bridge in Back Creek. This information led to the capture of 36 Confederate raiders the next day.^[5]

Savacool eventually took 72 Confederates prisoner, including future Senator Harrison H. Riddleberger and William L. Wilson, who would become a congressional Representative for West Virginia and eventually Postmaster General under the Grover Cleveland presidency. He killed one Confederate, captain John C. Blackford, and had five horses shot from under him, 3 while acting as a courier during the Second Battle of Kernstown in Virginia. He was captured twice in skirmishes but both times was promptly rescued by Union forces.^[1][5]

On 6 April 1865, at the Battle of Sailor's Creek, Savacool's K Company charged a line of Confederates. As Savacool captured a regimental flag from a color bearer, he was shot by a Confederate soldier. He was extracted to a hospital at City Point, Virginia and eventually to Washington D.C, where he died before dawn on 3 June 1865.^[5]

Savacool's Medal of Honor citation reads:^[3]

The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pride in presenting the Medal of Honor to Captain Edwin F. Savacool, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism on 6 April 1865, while serving with Company K, 1st New York Cavalry, in action at Deatonsville, Virginia, for capture of flag, during which he was wounded and died several days later in Washington, D.C.

— E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War

References[]