McMillen
The Medal of Honor is the United States government’s highest and most prestigious military decoration that may be awarded to recognize American military members who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor.
The first medal of Honor was awarded in 1863 and since that time more than 3,500 people have been honored with the MOH.
From the American Civil War to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, 60 Kentuckians have been the recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Among those Kentuckians so honored are two men who claimed the area as their birthplace.
John Samuel Darrough was a Union Army soldier in the American Civil War and a recipient of the Medal of Honor, for his actions during a skirmish near Eastport, Miss.
Born in Maysville, 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, according to information on Wikipedia. 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.
Darrough was born in Maysville, to Samuel Vogan and Ricey Ann Quaintance Darrough. By 1850, the family had moved to neighboring Mason County, where they owned a large farm.
In 1855 the family moved again, this time to Iroquois County, Ill., where Darrough would live the rest of his life.
During his service, Darrough served in Company F of the 113th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment, and by Oct. 10, 1864, had reached the rank of sergeant. On that day, his regiment was dispatched from Memphis, Tenn., to Eastport, to destroy train tracks and a bridge used by the Confederates. The regiment was transported up the Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers by two steam-powered gunboats.
As the men disembarked from the boats onto the south bank of the Tennessee River just downstream of Eastport, they came under fire from a concealed battery of Confederate artillery. The battery was at close range, and its fire proved devastating to both the men and the boats. The gunboats immediately withdrew from the shore and the men on shore, including Darrough, were stranded and under intense fire, according to historical accounts. As one boat engaged the Confederates, the other proceeded downstream and, after reaching a point which was partly out of range of the artillery, pulled alongside the shore and took on all the soldiers who had reached that point.
Darrough was unable to reach the boat in time and was again stranded as it pulled away from shore. He continued to follow the riverbank downstream until a deep bayou blocked his path. As he searched the bank, he found a canoe hidden in the reeds, he jumped in and paddled out into the river, hoping to either catch up with the gunboats, which had headed downstream, or cross to the other side of the river and rejoin the Union forces by foot.
As he paddled, he looked back and noticed a Union man struggling in the water along the Confederate-held shoreline. The soldier, Capt. A.W. Becket of Company B, had attempted to cross the bayou but part-way through found himself too weak to continue; Becket had been ill and had left his sickbed to participate in the mission. Despite the risk, Darrough turned his canoe around and headed back towards the Confederates and the struggling man. He succeeded in getting Becket into the canoe, and then safely reached the opposite shore.
For these actions, he was awarded the Medal of Honor several decades later, on Feb. 5, 1895. Darrough’s official Medal of Honor citation reads simply: “Saved the life of a captain.”
After the war, he returned to Iroquois County where he resided until his death at age 79. He is buried in the GAR Cemetery in Watseka.
There is not as much information available on Francis M. McMillen’s actions which led to his award of the MOH.
However, the Bracken County native was cited for “capture of flag,” on April 2, 1865, in Petersburg, Va., also during the American Civil War.
According to one account, McMillen kept a daily diary and kept the journal in his breast pocket where it eventually played a role in saving his life, also at Petersburg, just a month before his heroics prompted the MOH award.
From the account: “As he charged forward alongside his fellow Buckeyes, McMillen fell with a sharp blow to his chest. The dazed soldier likely gathered his composure on the ground and surveyed his personal effects with relief. He pulled his diary out of his coat pocket and saw the clear impression of a spent minie ball that crushed the back half of the journal. The bullet had deflected away from his chest, bounced off his pocket watch, and then slammed into his belt buckle before falling harmlessly to the ground.
“This book was in my breast pocket and received the ball which was intended to take my life,” he jotted 45 years later for a previously unwritten entry for March 25, 1865, “but thanks to the book, watch, and belt plate I am still alive.”
McMillen was born in Bracken County on March 25, 1832, and served with Company C, of the 110th Ohio Infantry, U.S. Army. He achieved the rank of sergeant major during his service.
McMillen joined the service from Piqua, Ohio. He died on March 8, 1913, in Dayton, Ohio, and is buried in the Washington Cemetery at Washington Court House, Ohio.
