William Halstead

Who was William Halstead?

William Halstead 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 January 9, 1837, in Alplaus, New York, Halstead began his seafaring career as a young man. He first worked on whaling ships out of the Pacific Northwest, then sailed the Pacific as a merchant mariner.

Halstead joined the U.S. Navy from his home state of New York and served over two years on the USS Dale, suppressing the slave trade off the coast of Africa in the 1850s. Following the onset of the Civil War, he helped enforce the Union blockade at the mouth of the Mississippi River and was present at the capture of New Orleans in 1862. At the Battle of Mobile Bay on August 5, 1864, he "fought his gun with skill and courage" despite heavy fire as a coxswain on the USS Brooklyn. For this action, he was awarded the Medal of Honor four months later, on December 31, 1864.

Halstead's official Medal of Honor citation reads:

On board the U.S.S. Brooklyn during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee, in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864.