Over the course of his odyssey back and forth over the unprotected field, Hanna received only a stray pellet in his calf.
The return trip was easier–seeing that he was carrying water, the Confederates no longer used him for target practice. After securing fresh water, Hanna had to cover the same deadly ground to get back to his unit. Carrying a load of a dozen canteens, Hanna leapt out of the trenches and ran a zigzag pattern through fire from enemy sharpshooters. When the company lieutenant called for volunteers to fetch water from Union lines, 150 yards of open ground to the rear, only Hanna volunteered. The Massachusetts men quickly consumed the water in their canteens and faced the threat of heat exhaustion. Hanna’s company found no relief from the summer sun and heat in their uncovered rifle emplacements. On Saturday, July 4, 1863, Hanna found himself positioned with Company B in rifle pits not far from the Confederate positions at Port Hudson, Louisiana. In 1862, Hanna mustered out of the Navy, enlisted in the 50th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment and, soon after, shipped out to the Gulf Coast for combat operations. Soon, the Civil War began and he enlisted in the Union Navy serving for a year. In 1853, at the age of 10, Hanna went to sea as a ship’s boy returning home at age 18.
His grandfather kept the light at Boone Island starting in 1812 and his parents kept the light at Franklin Island when he was a child. military’s highest recognition for combat heroism.īorn in Bristol, Maine, in 1842, Marcus Hanna came from a long line of Maine lighthouse keepers. In fact, Lighthouse Keeper Marcus Aurelius Hanna also received the Medal of Honor, the U.S. Many with knowledge of service history believe Guadalcanal hero Douglas Munro was the Coast Guard’s first and only recipient of the Medal of Honor. The Coast Guard's First Medal of Honor Recipient
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