page_title: Thomas Cripps
section_title: Civil War
hierarchical_section_title: Thomas Cripps / Civil War
caption_attribution_description: English: During the Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, the CSS Manassas attacks the USS Brooklyn.
context_page_description: Thomas H. Cripps was a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who became a U.S. Medal of Honor winner during the American Civil War. While serving in the Union Navy as a quartermaster aboard the USS Richmond, he operated one of that's ship's guns under heavy enemy fire for two hours during the Battle of Mobile Bay, Alabama on August 5, 1864, helping to damage the CSS Tennessee and destroy artillery batteries of the Confederate States Army at Fort Morgan, even as the enemy's shell and shot damaged his ship and killed several of his fellow crewmen. For those actions, he was awarded his nation's highest honor for bravery on December 31, 1864.
context_section_description: In response to President Abraham Lincoln's call for volunteers to help preserve America's union following the fall of Fort Sumter to Confederate States Army troops in April 1861, Thomas H. Cripps re-enlisted for military service during the fall of that year. According to service record summaries prepared for him by the U.S. Treasury Department in 1892 and 1898, Cripps enlisted on November 29, 1861, and was assigned as a seaman to the USS Ohio until December 3 when he was transferred to the USS Princeton, where he served until December 22, when he was transferred to the USS Brooklyn.
   While serving aboard the USS Brooklyn in 1862, Cripps participated with his shipmates in the Union Navy's attacks on Fort St. Philip, Fort Jackson and the Chalmette batteries in Louisiana under the command of Admiral David Farragut from April 16 to 28. Also present for the resulting surrender of New Orleans to Union forces, he and his shipmates then also engaged with other Union forces in the attack on Vicksburg, Mississippi in late June and early July that same year.
  In September 1863, Cripps transferred to the USS Richmond. Still attached to Farragut's squadron, his ship and others from the Union Navy were subsequently ordered to initiate a blockade of Mobile, Alabama beginning November 1. Less than a year later, he performed the actions for which he would later be awarded the U.S. Medal of Honor. Quartermaster of the USS Richmond, he captained a gun during the Battle of Mobile Bay during the morning of August 5, 1864 and, while under heavy enemy fire which damaged his ship and killed several of his fellow crewmen, displayed "coolness and good conduct" as he continued firing for two hours, helping to damage the CSS Tennessee and destroy the batteries at Fort Morgan.
  Afterward, he and his Richmond shipmates continued to occupy Mobile Bay. Cripps was then honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy on November 30, 1864 (alternate discharge date November 1, 1865).
caption: CSS Manassas attacking the USS Brooklyn during the Battle of Forts St. Philip and Jackson, April 1862.
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