James Sheridan

Who was James Sheridan?

James Sheridan was a Union Navy sailor in the American Civil War and a recipient of the U.S. military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions at the Battle of Mobile Bay.

Born on May 27, 1832, in Newark, New Jersey, Sheridan was living in New York when he joined the Navy. He was a skilled navigator and served during the Civil War as a quartermaster on the USS Oneida. At the Battle of Mobile Bay on August 5, 1864, he acted as captain of Oneida's aft 11-inch gun as the ship took heavy fire from Confederate artillery. A shell fragment struck the carriage of his gun and another Confederate shot decapitated a U.S. Marine before denting and cracking the gun itself. An 1873 account recalled that Sheridan "was badly wounded by the splinters and by pieces of the man's head striking him in various parts of the body, bespattering him with blood and brains." A button from the marine's cap hit him in the chest but was prevented from causing injury by a watch which Sheridan kept in his breast pocket for use in navigation. Despite his wounds, Sheridan oversaw the firing of two more shots from his damaged gun and then took over for the injured signal quartermaster.