Civil War Medal of Honor Soldier Buried in Hebron

“I wouldn’t take a farm for it,” said Joseph R. Prentice, Civil War veteran, in an 1895 article printed in the Hebron Journal.

The prized possession? The medal of honor the veteran received during the war that split the country in half.

Prentice was born on Dec. 6, 1838, in Lancaster, Ohio, and died on August 7, 1908, at the age of 69. He is buried at the Sacred Heart Cemetery in Hebron.

Prentice entered the service of the U.S. Army in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

He earned the medal of honor during the Civil War for heroism  on Dec. 31, 1862, at Stone River, Tenn.

Union and Confederate soldiers were engaged in a battle at Stone River and Private Prentice voluntarily rescued the body of his commanding officer who had fallen mortally wounded. He brought the body off the field under direct and constant fire.

Though a number of medals of honor were earned by soldiers during the war, only a limited amount were bestowed by Congress: Prentice’s was one of them.