The Medallic History of the United States of America Part 86

GEORGE FOSTER ROBINSON was born at Hartford, Oxford County, Maine, August 13, 1832. In 1863, he enlisted in the 8th regiment of Maine Volunteers, and was severely wounded at Bermuda Hundred, May 20, 1864.

On the night of April 14, 1865, while acting as sick nurse to the Honorable William H. Seward, then secretary of State, at the imminent peril of his life, and at the cost of serious wounds, he saved Mr.

Seward from the knife of the a.s.sa.s.sin Payne. For his heroic conduct on this occasion, Congress voted him five thousand dollars and a gold medal. He was clerk in the Treasury Department, from June, 1865, to August, 1866, when he resigned. He was appointed in December, 1868, to a similar position in the quartermaster-general's office, Was.h.i.+ngton.

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ORIGINAL DOc.u.mENTS.

_Resolution of Congress Voting a Medal to George F. Robinson._

_Be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress a.s.sembled_: That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, directed to pay to George F. Robinson, late a private in the Eighth Regiment of Maine Volunteers, the sum of five thousand dollars, out of any money in the Treasury of the United States not otherwise appropriated.

SECTION 2. _And be it further resolved_, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, directed to cause to be prepared and presented to the said George F. Robinson a gold medal with appropriate devices and inscriptions, commemorative of the heroic conduct of the said Robinson on the fourteenth day of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, in saving the life of the Honorable William H. Seward, then secretary of State of the United States, the expense of said medal to be paid out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated.

Approved March 1st, 1871.

_The Committee on Foreign Affairs, to whom were referred the (p. 432) resolutions of the legislature of the State of Maine, declaring that the heroic conduct of George F. Robinson, late a private in the Eighth Regiment of Maine Volunteers, in saving the life of Secretary Seward from the knife of an a.s.sa.s.sin, at the imminent peril of his own life, and at the expense of permanent wounds, should receive public recognition by the Congress of the United States, to the end that his n.o.ble deeds may be known and remembered by the American People, and that provision may be made for his future welfare such as right and justice demand, and the generous impulse of a grateful people require, respectfully submit the following report:_[125]

[Footnote 125: Reported by Mr. Porter Sheldon, of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.]

That on the 15th day of August, 1863, George F. Robinson enlisted in the Eighth Regiment of Maine Volunteers. On the 20th day of May, 1864, at an attack at Bermuda Hundred, made on General Butler's lines by the rebels, Robinson was wounded very severely in the leg by a canister shot. He was sent to Douglas Hospital in this city, where he lay nearly a year undergoing great suffering from his wound. On the memorable 14th day of April, 1865, although his wound was not then entirely healed, he was detailed from the hospital to act as nurse to Mr. Seward, the Secretary of State, who, it will be remembered, was confined to his bed by serious injuries--a broken arm and jaw. At 10 o'clock that night Robinson was on duty in Mr. Seward's room, when the a.s.sa.s.sin, Payne, sought that room to murder the feeble, wounded, helpless Secretary, in pursuance of the great conspiracy which ended with filling the whole civilized world with horror. The Secretary was sleeping; the room was darkened. Robinson hearing a disturbance in the hall opened the door; a flood of light streamed on him from the hall. On the threshold stood the athletic a.s.sa.s.sin, a revolver in one hand and a huge bowie knife in the other. He saw against the wall the wounded, crazed a.s.sistant Secretary, with blood pouring from his wound. He caught the gleam of that terrible knife aimed at his throat; instinctively he struck up at the a.s.sa.s.sin's arm to ward off the knife, partially succeeded, but received the blow upon his head, and was prostrated to the floor. Bounding over him, Payne rushed on to the bed, and commenced wildly striking with the knife at the throat of the Secretary. Already he had cut the flesh off from one cheek to the bone, and the blood gushed in torrents over the pillow. This soldier, just from the hospital, with his wounded leg not yet healed, enfeebled from his year of suffering and pain, just prostrated to the floor by a blow from that terrible knife, springs to his feet, and without one moment's hesitation, without one moment's thought for himself, save, as he swears, the thought that he must die to save the Secretary; without a weapon of any description, with a bravery never surpa.s.sed in the annals of any country, he opposed his naked hands, his wounded and enfeebled body, to the terrible knife of the gigantic and desperate murderer. He seized the a.s.sa.s.sin just as the deadly knife was about to bury itself in the throat of the Secretary, and then commenced an unequal struggle which seemingly can only end in the death of the brave soldier. Having succeeded in dragging Payne from off the bed, he receives over his shoulder two deep wounds down his back, inflicting injuries from which one side of (p. 433) his face and two fingers of one hand are still partially paralyzed. He received two more wounds under his left shoulder blade, which proved nearly fatal, and received blows about the head and face from the revolver. At last Payne, probably becoming alarmed for his own safety should he spend more time in the house, wrenched himself loose and fled, stabbing a messenger from the State Department on his way down stairs. Disregarding his own desperate wounds, the blood from which was filling his shoes, with the help of Mr. Seward's daughter Robinson placed the insensible and mangled form of the Secretary on the bed from which he had fallen, and re-covering the gashed cheek with its flesh, he placed his fingers on the wounded artery from which Mr.

Seward's life was fast pa.s.sing, and with the same coolness, the same utter self-abandonment, he kept his position, though scarcely able to stand, and believing himself fatally wounded, until relieved by the arrival of the Surgeon-General. After the Secretary's wounds were dressed his own were attended to, and he was the same night carried back to the hospital.

On the 17th day of May following Robinson was honorably discharged from the service. Finding himself unable to labor on a farm, by reason of his wounds, he was obliged to sell his little place for some $1,200, and sought employment as a Government clerk. He is now a clerk in the Quartermaster General's Department, at a salary of $1,200 per year, and has no other means of supporting himself, his wife, and boy, except a pension of $8 per month for wounds received on the field of battle.

Robinson is a modest man, of excellent character, and a faithful and efficient clerk.

The committee unanimously recommend the pa.s.sage of the accompanying joint resolution.

No. 81. (p. 434) PLATE Lx.x.xI.

_August 31, 1872._

By Resolution of Congress February 24, 1873.

LOSS OF THE STEAMER METIS.

[_For Courage and Humanity._]

A man standing in a boat, a coil of rope under his left arm, directs oarsmen with his right hand to pull for the wreck of the Metis. One of the men is lifting a woman from the sea into the boat. To the right, in the background, a light-house.

BY RESOLUTION OF CONGRESS FEBRUARY 24, 1873. Within a wreath of Oak: TO[126] FOR COURAGE AND HUMANITY IN THE SAVING OF LIFE FROM THE WRECK OF THE STEAMER METIS ON LONG ISLAND SOUND AUGUST 31, 1872. W. & C.

BARBER.

[Footnote 126: Blank s.p.a.ce for name.]

CHARLES E. BARBER, son of William Barber, chief engraver to the United States Mint, Philadelphia, was born in London, England, in 1840. He came to America with his parents when very young and studied the fine arts in the city of New York. He engraved for the Government of the United States the Metis and John Horn medals.

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ORIGINAL DOc.u.mENTS.

_Resolution of Congress Voting Medals to Captain Crandall and others._

_Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress a.s.sembled_: That the President of the United States is hereby authorized and requested to cause to be made and presented to each of the following persons such suitable and appropriate medals, as in his judgment shall (p. 435) express the high estimation in which Congress hold the respective merits and services of Captain Jared S. Crandall, Albert Crandall, Daniel F. Larkin, Frank Larkin, Byron Green, John D. Harvey, Courtland Gavitt, Eugene Nash, Edwin Nash and William Nash of the town of Westerly, State of Rhode Island, who so gallantly volunteered to man the life-boat and a fis.h.i.+ng boat, and saved the lives of thirty-two persons from the wreck of the steamer "Metis," on the waters of Long Island Sound, on the thirty-first day of August, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.

Approved February 24, 1873.

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_Captain David Ritchie to the Secretary of the Navy._

United States Revenue Steamer Moca.s.sin, To the Honorable Newport, Rhode Island, September 1st, 1872.

George S. BOUTWELL, Secretary of the Treasury, Was.h.i.+ngton, District of Columbia.

Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report of the services rendered by this vessel, her officers and crew to the pa.s.sengers and crew of the wrecked steamer Metis on the morning of August 30th, 1872.

On the evening of August 29th, while cruising to the westward, weather threatening, ran in for a harbor behind the Stonington breakwater, where we anch.o.r.ed. My gla.s.s falling and there being every indication of a storm, I prepared my vessel for it.

At 8 P.M. the gale began, and continued to increase throughout the night from southeast with heavy sea and blinding rain.

At daylight the gale moderated and it stopped raining, the wind hauling by south to westward.

At 9.20 A.M. the first officer of the steamer "Stonington" of the New York and Stonington Line, came alongside, and reported that the steamer "Metis" of the New York and Providence Line, was wrecked off Watch Hill, Rhode Island, the fate of which, together with her one hundred and fifty pa.s.sengers and crew, was unknown.

I ordered steam as quickly as possible, and at 10.15 A.M. got under way and proceeded to the scene of the disaster, stationing lookouts aloft and upon the house.

I soon descried two boats loaded with helpless men, women and children, near the edge of the surf at Watch Hill Light House, and with great difficulty and danger, on account of the heavy sea, succeeded in getting them on board of the "Moca.s.sin."

I then stood down for the wreck, lowered boats and picked up the living and dead, continuing this sad duty until 3.45 P.M., when night coming on and medical aid being required for those of the rescued who were exhausted, I put the vessel back for Stonington, the nearest port, having no hope of finding any more living persons and seeing no dead bodies remaining afloat. I reached Stonington at 6 P.M. with forty-two rescued persons and (p. 436) seventeen dead bodies which we had recovered from the deep.

Being a stranger in Stonington, I was at a loss to know what I should do with my precious cargo, but at the wharf I met with unexpected aid in the person of Mr. J. P. Bigelow, chief of the Loan Division of the Treasury Department, who, upon my wants being made known to him, procured proper relief, obtaining through Mrs. Bigelow and ladies in the town, clothing and proper care for five women who were rescued in a state of entire nudity.

The men rescued were taken charge of by the citizens, who did all in their power to relieve their distress. All the rescued were greatly exhausted, having been in the water several hours.

I take great pleasure in informing the Department of the n.o.ble and untiring exertions of 1st Lieutenant Joseph Irish, 2d Lieutenant A. D. Littlefield, Chief Engineer Whittaker, Pilot Joseph Case, Boatswain E. F. R. Denison, and each of the crew in saving life, recovering bodies of the drowned and caring for the sick and wounded.

In the cases of several of the s.h.i.+pwrecked life was apparently extinct, but by the efforts of those on board they were resuscitated. The women were rolled in blankets, and all in our power was done to make them comfortable. Many of the rescued were very weak, and I doubted my ability to get them into port alive.

I was ably seconded in my work of boating by Captain Crandall, light house keeper at Watch Hill, and his n.o.ble crew, they having picked up fourteen living and dead.

After the last body had been taken on board a sea caught their boat under this vessel's quarter and split her open.

The boat was the private property of Captain Crandall, who, on beholding her destruction, simply remarked, "She has well paid for herself."

Five of the dead bodies were identified by those saved on board, and when the living women were clothed and brought to identify their friends, a sad scene presented itself, one recognizing a lost husband, another a sister, two men their wives, and one man his two children.