John S. Darrough

Who was John S. Darrough?

John Samuel Darrough was a Union Army soldier in the American Civil War and a recipient of the United States military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions during a skirmish near Eastport, Mississippi. Born in Kentucky, Darrough moved to Illinois as a child and enlisted in the Union Army from that state. While participating in a mission to destroy a Confederate railway, Darrough and others were stranded on the shore of the Tennessee River under intense enemy fire. Although he had found a canoe with which to cross the river safely, he voluntarily returned to the Confederate-held shore to rescue a fellow soldier who was in danger of drowning.