CHESTERFIELD — In recent times of conflict, it’s common to picture young men in their late teens going off to war.
But Samuel Eddy, a Chesterfield blacksmith, was 40 years old when left to fight for the Union in the Civil War. And at 5 foot 7 inches tall and weighing 177 pounds, he looked nothing like Forrest Gump, who was described as a 6-foot, 6-inch, 240-pound man in the novel that was adapted into a movie in 1994.
This stocky soldier saved the life of an assistant of his lieutenant — and himself — from a Confederate soldier. The events that led up to his heroic act were so unbelievable that it was 30 years before he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
To immortalize Eddy, a new monument went up last month in the Chesterfield Gorge to honor the man who for a long time was the only veteran in Hampshire County to be awarded the Medal of Honor.
After being shot in the right knee during the Battle of Petersburg in 1865, Eddy executed his heroic act two weeks later during the Battle of Sailor’s Creek. He refused to get the injury treated, saying that others in his regiment were suffering more than he was.
According to Dee Cinner, who heads Chesterfield Cemetery Commission and who was instrumental in having the plaque installed, the decision to turn down treatment likely saved Eddy’s life due to the poor medical procedures of the time.
“It would have bleed out or we’ll cut it off,” she said.
So Eddy joined his regiment for the 35-mile journey to Sailor’s Creek on April 6, 1865, with the bullet still in his leg. Along the way, Eddy saw a Confederate soldier taking aim at his lieutenant with his rifle, prompting the Chesterfield native to jump into action and shoot the would-be assailant dead with a single bullet.
“As he was walking along, he shot the guy going after his commanding officer,” said Dinner.
To add to Eddy’s pain, another assailant then stabbed him with a bayonet before he shot the man in response.
People who knew Eddy remember him as being strong and reclusive, always in a jacket and tie, and patriotic. And according to a commemorative weekend booklet from 1982, it took 32 years for Eddy to receive the Medal of Honor in part due to to the fact that he was reclusive, and in part because the events that took place were hardly believable.
“Maybe if Samuel Eddy had not been the quiet, unassuming fellow his family says he was, he might not have waited 32 years to receive his Medal of Honor,” the booklet said. “And perhaps if Eddy remained immobile on Sailor’s Creek’s battlefield after a confederate soldier bayoneted him clear through his body, Congress would have opted to believe his heroic deed.”
Eddy was in his 70s when he received the Medal of Honor in 1887, a honor bestowed upon him after countless personal testimonies and physical examinations. The medal was sent to the Chesterfield Post Office in a crumpled brown bag.
When the war was over, blacksmithing was “too much” for Eddy, said Cinner, and so he got a job doing wood work at the H.B. Smith factory in town, and he made his home in what had been the town’s tollhouse, and where the plaque honoring him has been placed.
Eddy, who lived from 1822 until 1909 and moved from Vermont to Chesterfield in his 20s, is buried in the tiny Mount Road cemetery.
There will be a ceremony next spring to dedicate the plaque that costed $891. Labor for installation was donated by Frederica Chisk.
