Irwin Shepard

Irwin Shepard (5 July 1843 – 17 April 1916) was a first sergeant in the United States Army who earned the Medal of Honor for gallantry during the American Civil War. On 20 November 1863, he volunteered to join a group of men who were tasked with burning down several farm buildings that Confederate sharpshooters were using to shoot at Union units near Knoxville, Tennessee. For the successful completion of this task, Shepard was awarded the Medal of Honor on 3 August 1897.

Personal life Shepard was born in Skaneateles, New York, to Luman Shepard and Betsy L. Pangburn. He was of mixed English (father's side) and Dutch (mother's side) ancestry. When Shepard was 13, his family moved to Chelsea, Michigan. In 1859, he entered the Michigan State Normal School in Ypsilanti. After the war, Shepard received A.B., A.M., and PhD degrees from Olivet College in Olivet, Michigan. After graduating, Shepard became the Superintendent of Schools in Charles City, Iowa, in 1871. He married Mary Bassett Elmer in 1871 and fathered three children, of which two boys survived to adulthood, with one of them, Elmer, eventually becoming an assistant professor of mathematics at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

Shepard's Medal of Honor citation reads: