Award of Medals and Promotion of the Soldiers.
The
party of Ohio soldiers recently returned from the Southern barbarians, and whose
depositions have been taken by Judge Advocate General Holt, were by appointment
introduced to the Secretary of War by Gen. Hitchcock. After complimenting them
upon their fortitude and devotion to the Union, the Secretary presented to
private Jacob Parrot, the boy who received a hundred lashes on his bare back
without flinching, the first medal given under the recent act of Congress
authorizing the presentation of medals to soldiers for meritorious services.
Sergt.
E. I. Mason, Corp. Wm. Pittenger, Corp. Reddick, and Privates Robert Buffum and
W. Bensinger, were also made the recipients of similar medals. The Secretary
then gave to each the brevet of First Lieutenant, and the sum of $100 in money,
as a slight compensation for the losses they had sustained and the suffering
they had borne. The party then visited President Lincoln, to whom they were
presented by Gen. Hitchcock.
They
were received very cordially by the President, who expressed his gratification
at the opportunity afforded him to thank them personally for their heroic
conduct. The soldiers belong to the 2d, 21st, and 33d Ohio Volunteers.
Ohio boys in Dixie: the adventures of twenty-two scouts
sent by Gen. O. M. Mitchell to destroy a railroad; with a narrative of their
barbarous treatment by the Rebels and Judge Holt's report,
New York: Miller & Mathews,1863
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