Rank and organization: Corporal, Company A, 1st Vermont Cavalry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, Virginia, October 19, 1864. Entered service at: Burlington, Vermont. Born: June 25, 1843, Williamsburg, Massachusetts. Date of issue: November 26, 1864.
Citation:
The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Corporal Frederick A. Lyon, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism on 19 October 1864, while serving with Company A, 1st Vermont Cavalry, in action at Cedar Creek, Virginia. With one companion, Corporal Lyon captured the flag of a Confederate regiment, three officers, and an ambulance with its mules and driver.[1][11][12][13]
The companion mentioned in his citation was private James Sweeney, who also received the Medal of Honor. Lyon was sent to Washington, D.C., with the captured Confederate battle flag.[10] He was personally introduced to Secretary of WarEdwin M. Stanton by General George Custer. Stanton personally presented the Medal of Honor to Lyon, who was also promoted to sergeant.
Death
Lyon died on September 23, 1911, in Jackson, Michigan. He was buried nearby in Mount Evergreen Cemetery (Soldier's field G-9).[12]
^The mortally wounded general Ramseur, who died the next day, was born in Lincolnton, North Carolina on May 31, 1837. Ramseur studied at Davidson Collegebefore the West Point where he graduated in 1860. An ardent seccessionist and white supremecist, he was assigned to the U.S. Artillery just before the start of the war, but he resigned before his state seceded and joined the developing Confederate States Army in Alabama. An intensely devout man, he justified slavery as a divinely blessed institution, like many in the South, and by the time he entered West Point he bore great hatred for all Northerners.[9] An injury from a horse fall delayed his joining the Army of Northern Virginia until the Peninsula Campaign in the spring of 1862. He had campaigned through all of Lee's campaigns from thence on. For more information see his Wikipedia article here.
Benedict, George Grenville (1886). "The First Cavalry Regiment"(pdf). Vermont in the Civil War: A History of the Part Taken by the Vermont Soldiers and Sailors in the War for the Union, 1861-5. Vol. II. Burlington, VT: Free Press Association. pp. 669–670. LCCN02015600. OCLC301252961. Retrieved September 25, 2015. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
