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Thomas H. Cripps was a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania who was awarded the U.S. Medal of Honor during the American Civil War. While serving in the Union Navy as a quartermaster aboard the USS Richmond, he operated one of that's ship's guns under heavy enemy fire for two hours during the Battle of Mobile Bay, Alabama on August 5, 1864, helping to damage the CSS Tennessee and destroy artillery batteries of the Confederate States Army at Fort Morgan, even as the enemy's shell and shot damaged his ship and killed several of his fellow crewmen. For those actions, he was awarded his nation's highest honor for bravery on December 31, 1864.
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References
- ↑ National Archives and Records Administration, p. 571.
- 1 2 Cimbala and Miller, p. 397.
- ↑ National Park Service, p. 8.
- ↑ Moeller and Feldblyum, p. 100.
- ↑ Mary R. Dearing, Veterans in Politics: The Story of the GAR (1974) online.
- ↑ Heywood T. Sanders, "Paying for the 'Bloody Shirt': The politics of Civil War pensions" in Barry S Rundquist, ed., Political Benefits: Empirical studies of American public programs (Lexington Books, 1980) pp. 137-160. online
- ↑ Secretary of the Interior, p. 78.
- ↑ Cumberbatch, p. 63.
