First Sergeant Gaines Lawson was born in Hawkins County in 1841. At age 21, he enlisted as a private with the Union, serving in the 4th (East) Tennessee Infantry. The majority of campaigns in which Lawson participated were efforts to push Confederate forces from East Tennessee. His last combat engagement was on October 3, 1863, at McMinnville, where his company was ordered to defend the streets leading to the courthouse. During the fight, Lawson rushed through Confederate musket fire to retrieve a comrade who had been shot in the chest and carried him to safety. Lawson was then captured as a prisoner of war.

After the Civil War, Lawson continued his military career, eventually receiving a commission and serving as the commanding officer of the 25th Infantry Regiment of “Buffalo Soldiers.” He died of complications from pneumonia in California on September 12, 1906, and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, DC.

Born in Kingston in 1841, George Lewis Gillespie, Jr., was selected to attend West Point in 1858 and graduated second in his class in 1862. Because of his standing, he joined the United States Army Corps of Engineers and was assigned as a cavalryman in the Army of the Potomac.

In May 1864, the Army of the Potomac attempted to turn the right flank of Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, which, in turn, led to a series of movements and battles. The cavalry, as the advance party, was charged with identifying enemy weakness and forewarning of danger. Gillespie served as a messenger for the cavalry, running communications back and forth
behind enemy lines despite the constant threat of capture. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for this dangerous work.

After the American Civil War, Gillespie continued with the Army Corps of Engineers and oversaw harbor and river improvement, including six years as head of the Mississippi River Commission on levee construction. In 1901, he was promoted to brigadier general and head of the corps; three years later, he became assistant chief of staff. Gillespie redesigned the Medal of Honor in 1904, replacing
“Minerva Repelling Discord” with “Minerva.” He died in retirement in 1913 and is buried in the post cemetery in West Point, New York.

Harrison Carl Collins was born on March 10, 1836, in Sneedville. Married with one child and working as a farmer by 1861, Harrison volunteered to fight for the Union soon after the outbreak of the American Civil War. A non- commissioned officer in Company A, 1st Tennessee Cavalry by 1864, Collins fought in the Battle of Nashville.

During the retreat of Confederate General John B. Hood’s forces following the battle, Collins’s cavalry regiment faced off with Brigadier General James Chalmers’s cavalry at Richland Creek on December 24, 1864. Collins, who noticed the Southern
standard bearer attempting to rally his troops, led a final charge to route the Confederate forces and capture the enemy flag. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for this action.

Collins was discharged as a sergeant in the spring of 1865 and returned home to his farm in Sneedville, where he fathered nine children by 1882. In 1890, he passed away at the age of 54 in Isabella, Missouri.

Corporal Oliver Hughes was born in Fentress County on January 21, 1842. He joined the Union in nearby Kentucky and was assigned to Company C, 12th Kentucky Infantry.

Hughes was awarded the Medal of Honor for actions taken on the morning of February 20, 1865. When his company was ordered to attack heavily defended Confederate emplacements at Town Creek, North Carolina, Hughes immediately caught sight of the Confederate flag bearer and rushed towards him. He captured the 11th South Carolina’s flag, which inspired his company to seize a brigade of Confederate soldiers, as well as a number of artillery pieces.

He died on January 5, 1911, and is buried in Callao, Missouri.

Joseph Samuel Cecil was born on January 11, 1878, in New River. The Cecils are one of the most decorated military families in the United States for service between American Civil War and World War II.

Cecil began his military career as an enlisted man but became a commissioned officer, an impressive and well-respected career move that earns an individual the title “Mustang” in military slang. Cecil served in the Spanish-American War, but it was during the Philippine-American War that he was awarded the Medal of Honor. While in a dangerous position, he carried a wounded man and the body of a man killed beside him to a sheltered position. He was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1913.

U.S. Highway 27 bridge across New River is named for Cecil. He reportedly died of suicide in 1940. For reasons unknown, Cecil’s citation lists his name as "Josephus,” but his grave lists his name as “Joseph.”

Born on November 23, 1882, in Maryville, Robert Earl Bonney enlisted in Nashville at the age of 18. Bonney is Tennessee’s only peacetime Medal of Honor recipient.

On February 14, 1910, the USS Hopkins was off the coast of California. A boiler plate blew out and caused a large explosion. Chief Bonney faced the dangerous steam and pulled an unconscious sailor to safety. He then risked his own life by going back into the boiler room to clear the room of steam. The boiling hot steam
caused severe damage to his vocal cords. He was awarded the Medal of Honor a month later.

Bonney retired from the Navy in 1930 and served as a custodian at an elementary school near Seattle, Washington. At the start of World War II, even though he was in his 50s, he returned to active duty as an inspector in the Seattle shipyards. Bonney’s military career also included service during the Philippine campaign of the Spanish-American War, in Nicaragua during the Mexican intervention, and in both World Wars I and II. He died in 1967.