James Sheridan

James Sheridan (May 27, 1830 – November 9, 1893) was a Union Navy sailor in the American Civil War and a recipient of the U.S. military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions at the Battle of Mobile Bay. [Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip]

Born on May 27, 1830, in Drogheda, Ireland, NY. His initial enlistment was 23 October 1858 where Sheridan lied about his birth in Newark, New Jersey for reasons unknown, but presumably for higher enlistment bonus or rank / pay grade. Sheridan was living in New York when he joined the Navy the second time after the outbreak of the Civil War. He was a skilled navigator and served during the war as a quartermaster (master of the aft quarterdeck) on the .

At the Battle of Mobile Bay on August 5, 1864, he was captain of Oneida's aft 11-inch gun as the ship took heavy fire from Fort Morgan's Confederate artillery . A shell fragment struck the carriage of his gun and another Confederate shot decapitated a U.S. Marine before denting and cracking the gun itself, Sheridan was wounded in 22 locations. An 1873 account recalled that Sheridan "was badly wounded by the splinters and by pieces of the man's head striking him in various parts of the body, bespattering him with blood and brains." A button from the marine's cap hit him in the chest but was prevented from causing injury by a watch which Sheridan kept in his breast pocket for use in navigation. Despite his wounds, Sheridan oversaw the firing of two more shots from his damaged gun and then took over for the injured signal quartermaster.