7/18/2005
First Black congressional Medal of Honor
While it was nearly forty years after his heroic actions Sergeant William Carney this day took a series of actions that would earn him the Congressional Medal of Honor. Born a slave in Virginia, and purchased from slavery by his runaway father he would go on to joint the Massachusetts 54th. In a Civil War battle on this day he would sustain two separate life threatening injuries in the battle at Fort Wagner.
