Samuel Eddy
Samuel E. Eddy, Private, Company D, 37th Massachusetts Infantry.
Samuel Eddy of West Chesterfield. (6/2/1822-3/7/1909)
In the last days of the Civil War, the 37th Massachusetts Regiment found itself in a familiar position, crisscrossing streams and rivers and fighting in the midst of Virginia’s woods and hills. The 37th had crossed Sailor’s Creek, near Fairfield Virginia, and in the face of heavy firing, had driven the enemy from the heights above. Samuel Eddy, still weak from a wound received in the knee only two weeks before, had been unable to keep up with his regiment on the march and arrived on the scene of the battle just in time to shoot a rebel soldier about to deliver a fatal shot to Adjutant Bradley of his regiment. Eddy was then pierced through the breast by a long sabre bayonet in the hands of a rebel wearing a blue coat, whom Eddy had mistaken for a Union man. The thrust passed completely through Eddy’s body, forced him to the ground and pinned him there. While the rebel was trying to wrest his weapon away, Eddy was somehow able to reload his Spencer rifle, shoot his assailant through the heart, remove the bayonet from the horrible wound in his breast, and stagger off to safety. Eddy managed to get back up the hillside to the Hillsman House, which overlooks the battlefield and was used as a field hospital for both sides. To get to the house, Eddy had to again cross the chest-high Sailor's Creek.
Eddy, whose survival was attributed to his indomitable will, and strong constitution, somehow survived this grievous wounding, though the pain would trouble him for the rest of his long life. After a month of hospitalization and miraculous survival, Eddy returned to his unit and then with little fanfare to Chesterfield in June 1865. Weakened by his injuries, he retired from blacksmithing and took up woodturning and lived the rest of his life quietly as he had before the war.
For his heroics in this decisive victory Samuel E. Eddy was awarded the Medal of Honor.
Text from Samuel Eddy's entry in the Post No.86 Personal War Sketches Book:
Eddy, Samuel Edwin - Comrade Samuel Edwin Eddy
Who was born the second day of June A.D. 1822 in Whitington County of ______ State of Vermont
July 20, 1862, he entered the service at Chesterfield, Mass., as a Private in Co. D, 37 Regt. Mass. Vols. and was discharged by general order at Washington D.C. June 9, 1865.
His first engagement was in front of Fort Fisher, Sailor’s Creek, and Fredericksburg.
At Sailor’s Creek Apr. 6, ‘65, he received a bayonet wound through his lungs and body while rescuing the Adjutant who was surrounded with rebels. He was confined in Harwood Hospital, 1863, and in ‘65, in 6th Army Corps. Hospital and Fort Hamilton.
Fredericksburg he considered the most important battle in his service.
{Illegible - Talciol ?} Bancroft, Chesterfield, George Bisbee, Goshen, John Bissell, Goshen, and Charles Bly, Brattleboro, Vt. were his intimate comrades.