The 5th Cavalry Regiment ("Black Knights") is a historical unit of the United States Army that began its service in the decade prior to the American Civil War and continues in modified organizational format in the U.S. Army.
Allexander Hand (1836-?)
 was a Quartermaster in the US Navy for the Union during the American Civil War that received the Medal of Honor .
 Prior to the Civil War, he resided in Delaware.
 During the Civil War, while serving aboard the USS Ceres, in a fight near Hamilton on the Roanoke River, Hand was fired upon by the enemy with small arms, and "courageously returned the raking enemy fire."
 His commanding officer later spoke for his "good conduct and cool bravery under enemy fire," which led to him receiving the Medal of Honor.
The Elliott-Donaldson House is a historic mansion in Okolona, Mississippi, U.S..
 It was built in 1850, a decade prior to the American Civil War of 1861-1865.
 By the end of the war, in 1865, Confederate States Army General Nathan Bedford Forrest stayed in the house to rest.
 It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since September 15, 1980.
The history of the United States Army began in 1775.
 From its formation, the United States Army has been the primary land based part of the United States Armed Forces.
 The Army's primary responsibility has been the fighting of land battles and military occupation.
 The Corps of Engineers has a major role in controlling rivers inside the United States.
 The Continental Army was founded in response to a need for professional soldiery in the American Revolutionary War in order to fight the invading British Army.
 Until the 1940s, the Army was relatively small in peacetime.
 In 1947, the Air Force became completely independent from the Army Air Forces.
 The Army was under the control of the War Department until 1947, and the Defense Department since then.
 The U.S. Army fought the War of 1812 (1812–15), American Civil War (1861–65), Spanish–American War (1898), World War I (1917–18), World War II (1941–45), Korean War (1950–53) and Vietnam War (1965–71).
 After the Cold War ended in 1991, the U.S. Army has focused on Western Asia, and was involved in the 1991 Gulf War and war in Iraq, and the war in Afghanistan.
David Lewis Gifford (September 18, 1844 – January 13, 1904) was a Union Army soldier in the American Civil War who received the U.S. military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor.
 He was awarded the Medal of Honor, for extraordinary heroism shown on May 24, 1864, while serving as a Private with Company B, 4th Massachusetts Volunteer Cavalry, at Ashepoo River, South Carolina.
 His Medal of Honor was issued on January 21, 1897.
Charles L. Russell (1844 – June 7, 1910) was an American Corporal in the U.S. Army who served with the 93rd New York Volunteer Infantry during the American Civil War.
 He received the Medal of Honor for extraordinary heroism after capturing the flag of the 42nd Virginia Infantry during the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House.
 He received the Medal of Honor on December 1, 1864.
Thomas Orville Seaver (December 23, 1833 – July 11, 1912) rose to the rank of Colonel in the U.S. Army during the American Civil War and received the Medal of Honor, America's highest military decoration, for his actions at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House.
 After the war Seaver was admitted to the Vermont bar and practiced law, serving as a judge for many years, until his death.
Wilhelm O. Philipsen (1852–1913), a recipient of the Medal of Honor, served as a blacksmith in Company D of the U.S. Army’s 5th Cavalry Regiment during the Battle of Milk Creek in 1879.
 He was among 10 cavalrymen who volunteered to form a skirmish line on September 29, 1879 while Company D retreated from an attack by the White River Utes.
 Philipsen and the other volunteers were awarded the Medal of Honor for bravery in defending their unit during this retreat.
Turkey that had had a relatively friendly relationship with Syria over a decade prior to the start of the civil unrest in Syria in the spring of 2011, condemned the Syrian president Bashar Assad over the violent crackdown on protests in 2011 and later that year joined a number of other countries′ demand that he resign.
 In the beginning of the Syrian Civil War, Turkey trained defectors of the Syrian Army on its territory, and in July 2011, a group of them announced the birth of the Free Syrian Army, under the supervision of Turkish intelligence.
 In October 2011, Turkey began sheltering the Free Syrian Army, offering the group a safe zone and a base of operations.
 Together with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, Turkey has also provided the rebels with arms and other military equipment.
 Tensions between Syria and Turkey significantly worsened after Syrian forces shot down a Turkish fighter jet in June 2012, and border clashes erupted in October 2012.
 On 24 August 2016, the Turkish armed forces began a declared direct military intervention into Syria pursuing as targets both ISIL and the Kurdish-aligned forces in Syria.
Albert Lybrock (18271886) was a German-born architect in the United States.
 The most well known work of his early career is the James Monroe Tomb.
 He was the most important architect in Richmond during the booming decade prior to the American Civil War.
 He also gave financial support for a regiment of local German-Americans in the Confederate States Army.
 He had the Haxall and Morson families as clients and may have been the designer of Morson’s Row and the Bolling Haxall House.
 Carl Ruehrmund worked together with him.

Question: Who received a medal of honor while serving in a historical unit opf the U.S. army that began serving the decade prior to the American Civil War?
Answer: Wilhelm O. Philipsen