The Yonkers Statesman
Monday, March 28, 1989
no page number

Medal of Honor for Colonel Heermance

Colonel William L. Heermance received a letter from the War Department, Saturday night, informing him that a medal of honor for special bravery in action had been awarded to him.

The particular service for which the award is made was near Chancellorsville, Va. on April 30, 1863. The Sixth New York Cavalry Volunteers, 200 or 300 strong, were surrounded by Stuart's Cavalry Division. A charge was ordered, and the Lieutenant Colonel commanding was killed. Captain Heermance was left as the senior officer at the head of the column, which cut its way through the opposing force and escaped. The Captain was desperately wounded, and made prisoner by Colonel Mumford, of the Second Virginia Confederate Cavalry.

The circumstances leading to the award are peculiar. Colonel Mumford wrote to Colonel Heermance, recently, asking for particulars of that charge, as he was writing a history of his regiment. He informed him that the services he performed that night were acknowledged and referred to in the report made by the General commanding the brigade, and published in the Records of the Rebellion. Thus it was that a Confederate Colonel was the means of discovering the evidence whereby the subject was brought to the attention of the War Department.

Another interesting and peculiar circumstance in the story relates to Fitz Hugh Lee, Consul General at Havana, upon whom now are the eyes of the world. Soon after the charge was made, General Lee visited the house into which Captain Heermance had been carried. When he learned of the circumstances of the fight, and the gallant conduct of the Lieutenant Colonel who had been killed, he was much impressed; he ordered a detail of Confederates to go to the field where the hero had fallen, and bring in the body. This was accordingly done.

General Lee then instructed his Chaplain to bury the body with religious ceremonies, and that order was also carried out. The body reposed in the battlefield till after the war, when it was removed to the western part of this State. Colonel Heermance has a letter from General Lee, from Havana, written recently, in which the occurrence is pleasantly mentioned.

William L Heermance