By Kevin S. Freeman

John Wesley Freeman was born December 16, 1842. He was the son of Oliver and Lucy Maria (Moulton) Freeman. On October 20, 1862 he mustered into military service with the 27th Maine Regiment at Portland, Maine. The 27th was tasked with defending Washington D.C. for a 9 month term during the Civil War. Near the end of their term, President Abraham Lincoln requested that the 25th Maine and 27th Maine Regiments stay in Washington to protect the city as the Battle of Gettysburg was being fought to the north.  

The 25th Regiment declined to stay but more than 300 of the 864 soldiers from the 27th Maine agreed to stay and defend Washington. When Colonel Mark Wentworth delivered this message to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, Stanton informed Wentworth that those who volunteered to stay behind would receive Medals of Honor. With the Battle of Gettysburg soon over, those in the 27th who met Lincoln’s call returned to Portland reuniting with the rest of the Maine Regiment and mustered out on July 17, 1863. 

Unlike the more gallant 20th Maine Regiment, under Joshua Chamberlain, who saved the left of the Union line in Gettysburg, the 27th Maine saw no combat action in Washington, D.C. and yet those who stayed behind were awarded the same Congressional Medal of Honor that General Chamberlain was awarded.

The details of distribution are not exactly clear but it is reported that the medals were sent to Colonel Mark Wentworth of Kittery and he was to oversee that they were awarded appropriately. Each one of the members of the 27th Maine were recipients because there was poor accounting of who stayed in Washington and who came home at the end of their terms. Several lists were compiled but each considered not official. Eventually, an official list was compiled by Maine’s Adjutant General’s Office. John W. Freeman appears on the list in Company D. 

By 1917 the Medals received by the 27th were purged by Congress because the actions did not meet the criteria of the Medal, but the award was valid under the laws in effect during the Civil War, when the award was made.

Nonetheless, John Wesley Freeman, my great grandfather, spent nine months ready to defend the Capital of his country. My father spent many hours searching for the medal that would have had his grandfather’s name inscribed along the edge but to no avail. In May of 1889, John Wesley Freeman’s home at Clay Hill burned down and that precipitated a wildfire that quickly moved toward Ogunquit before the wind shifted. I am sure sure a lot of personal effects were lost which could explain why I have never seen a photo of my great grandfather or his Medal of Honor. 

Sources:

A Shower of Stars, John Pullen

27th Regiment – Those Who Remained, Paul T. Hill