James Ward (Medal of Honor, 1890)

James Ward (1854–1901) was a United States Army soldier in the American Indian Wars and a recipient of the U.S. military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions at the Wounded Knee Massacre.

James Ward
Born	1854 Quincy, MA
Died	1901 Roxbury, MA
Place of burial	New Cavalry Cemetery
Allegiance	United States
Service / branch	United States Army
Rank	Sergeant
Unit	7th Cavalry Regiment
Battles / wars	Indian Wars  • Wounded Knee Massacre
Awards	Medal of Honor

Biography

James Henry Ward was born in 1854 in Quincy, Massachusetts, as the second of seven children in a family of Irish immigrants.^[1] He first enlisted at the age of 22, leaving behind a job as a bricklayer. After enlisting in Boston on August 3, 1876, he was assigned to the 5th Cavalry stationed at Fort Laramie. Ward returned to civilian life in 1881 after five years of 'excellent' service before enlisting again in New York City in 1883, this time with the 7th Cavalry. This second enlistment again ended with an 'excellent' service record, and Ward quickly followed it with a final enlistment in Boston in 1888, this time with the 4th Cavalry.^[1]

Wounded Knee Massacre and Medal of Honor

Partway through his third enlistment Ward transferred back to the 7th Cavalry, which was deployed on the Pine Ridge Campaign in South Dakota to suppress followers of the Ghost Dance. On December 28, 1890, 7th Cavalry detained several hundred Lakota near Wounded Knee. American soldiers were sent into the Lakota prisoner camp to disarm tribal warriors the next morning. A small scuffle over a rifle quickly escalated to fighting throughout the camp.

Tasked with taking weapons from the Lakota, Ward was knocked to the ground and then stabbed several times with a knife during the first few moments of fighting.^[1] Ward's assailant was killed by another soldier, enabling Ward to survive the initial melee and participate in the massacre.^[2] The 7th Cavalry killed at least 200 men, women and children in encounters ranging from hand-to-hand melees to artillery fire.

Along with 19 other soldiers present at the massacre, Ward was awarded a Medal of Honor. Ward's official Medal of Honor citation reads:

Continued to fight after being severely wounded.^[2]

Later life

Ward was discharged from the Army before completing his final five-year enlistment and returned to Boston, where he took a job as a steamfitter. Ward married Catherine Harrington in 1894 in Boston and had a son in 1898. Suffering from paralysis, Ward was admitted to the Boston Insane Hospital, where he died two years later in 1901. Ward is buried at New Cavalry Cemetery in Mattapan, a neighborhood in southern Boston.^[1]

Controversy

Mass Grave for the Dead Lakota After the Engagement at Wounded Knee

There have been several attempts by various parties to rescind the Medals of Honor awarded in connection with the Battle of Wounded Knee.^[3][4][5] Proponents claim that the engagement was in-fact a massacre and not a battle, due to the high number of killed and wounded Lakota women and children and the very one-sided casualty counts. Estimates of the Lakota losses indicate 150–300 killed, of which up to 200 were women and children. Additionally, as many as 51 were wounded. In contrast, the 7th Cavalry suffered 25 killed and 39 wounded, many being the result of friendly fire.^[6][7][8]

Calvin Spotted Elk, direct descendant of Chief Spotted Elk killed at Wounded Knee, launched a petition to rescind medals from the soldiers who participated in the battle.^[9]

The Army has also been criticized more generally for the seemingly disproportionate number of Medals of Honor awarded in connection with the battle.^[10] For comparison, 20 Medals were awarded at Wounded Knee, 21 at the Battle of Cedar Creek, and 20 at the Battle of Antietam.^[10][11] Respectively, Cedar Creek and Antietam involved 52,712 and 113,000 troops, suffering 8,674 and 22,717 casualties.^{[12][13][14][15][16]} Wounded Knee, however, involved 610 combatants and resulted in as many as 705 casualties (including non-combatants).^[17][6]

See also

• List of Medal of Honor recipients for the Indian Wars

References

1. Russell, Sam (16 December 2013). "Sergeant James Henry Ward, B Troop, 7th Cavalry – Extraordinary Heroism". Army at Wounded Knee. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
2. "Civil War Medal of Honor Recipients (M–Z)". Medal of Honor Citations. United States Army Center of Military History. June 26, 2011. Archived from the original on 29 April 2014. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
3. Dana Lone Hill (February 18, 2013). "The Wounded Knee medals of honor should be rescinded". the Guardian. Retrieved March 1, 2015.
4. "No Medals for Massacre: Close the Open Wound of Wounded Knee". The Huffington Post. February 12, 2013. Retrieved March 1, 2015.
5. "Lakota~WOUNDED KNEE: A Campaign to Rescind Medals: story, pictures and information". Footnote.com. Retrieved August 17, 2011.
6. "Plains Humanities: Wounded Knee Massacre". Retrieved December 9, 2014.
7. "The 110th Anniversary of the Wounded Knee Massacre". perspicuity.net. Retrieved March 1, 2015.
8. "Wagner...Part Two". dickshovel.com. Retrieved March 1, 2015.
9. Joseph Huff-Hannon (February 12, 2013). "No Medals for massacre: Close the Open Wound of Wounded Knee". Huffington Post.
10. Green, Jerry (1994). "The Medals of Wounded Knee". Nebraska State Historical Society, also available in Nebraska History #75, pp. 200–208. Nebraska State Historical Society History.
11. Owens, Ronald J. (2004) Medal of Honor: Historical facts and figures. Turner Publishing Company
12. Whitehorne, p. 15. The NPS battle summary lists Union strength of 31,945. Cullen, p. 111, states 35,000 Union effectives, including 10,000 cavalry. Salmon, p. 368, and Kennedy, p. 319, state 32,000 Union.
13. Whitehorne, p. 17. The NPS battle summary and Kennedy, p. 319, list Confederate strength of 21,000. Cullen, p. 112, states 18,000 Confederate effectives, including 4,000 cavalry.
14. Wert, p. 246, Eicher, p. 752. Lewis, p. 288, reports Union totals as 5,764 (569 killed, 3,425 wounded, 1,770 missing), Confederates 3,060 (1,860 killed and wounded, 1,200 prisoners). Kennedy, p. 323, reports 5,672 Union, 2,910 Confederate. The NPS battle summary reports 5,665 Union, 2,910 Confederate. Salmon, p. 372, reports Union "almost 5,700", Confederate "almost 3,000."
15. Eicher, p. 363. Sears, p. 173, cites 75,000 Union troops, with an effective strength of 71,500, with 300 guns; on p. 296, he states that the 12,401 Union casualties were 25% of those who went into action and that McClellan committed "barely 50,000 infantry and artillerymen to the contest"; p. 389, he cites Confederate effective strength of "just over 38,000," including A.P. Hill's division, which arrived in the afternoon. Priest, p. 343, cites 87,164 men present in the Army of the Potomac, with 53,632 engaged, and 30,646 engaged in the Army of Northern Virginia. Luvaas and Nelson, p. 302, cite 87,100 Union engaged, 51,800 Confederate. Harsh, Sounding the Shallows, pp. 201–202, analyzes the historiography of the figures, and shows that Ezra A. Carman (a battlefield historian who influenced some of these sources) used "engaged" figures; the 38,000 excludes Pender's and Field's brigades, roughly half the artillery, and forces used to secure objectives behind the line.
16. Sears, pp. 294–96; Cannan, p. 201. Confederate casualties are estimates because reported figures include undifferentiated casualties at South Mountain and Shepherdstown; Sears remarks that "there is no doubt that a good many of the 1,771 men listed as missing were in fact dead, buried uncounted in unmarked graves where they fell." McPherson, p. 129, gives ranges for the Confederate losses: 1,546–2,700 dead, 7,752–9,024 wounded. He states that more than 2,000 of the wounded on both sides died from their wounds. Priest, p. 343, reports 12,882 Union casualties (2,157 killed, 9,716 wounded, 1,009 missing or captured) and 11,530 Confederate (1,754 killed, 8,649 wounded, 1,127 missing or captured). Luvaas and Nelson, p. 302, cite Union casualties of 12,469 (2,010 killed, 9,416 wounded, 1,043 missing or captured) and 10,292 Confederate (1,567 killed, 8,725 wounded for September 14–20, plus approximately 2,000 missing or captured).
17. Brown, p. 178, Brown states that at the army camp, "the Indians were carefully counted." Utley, p. 204, gives 120 men, 230 women and children; there is no indication how many were warriors, old men, or incapacitated sick like Big Foot.