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Medal Name: Defence of Fort Stephenson
Struck for: Colonel George Croghan
Approval: Act of Congress February 13, 1835
OBVERSE
PRESENTED BY CONGRESS TO COLONEL GEORGE CROGHAN 1835.
Bust of Colonel Croghan, in uniform, facing the right.
REVERSE
In a pendant: PARS MAGNA FUIT (His share was great.)
Major Croghan is defending, with one hundred and sixty men, Fort Stephenson against the attack of the British army, one thousand strong.
In the background, three gunboats on Lake Erie.
Exergue: SANDUSKY 2; AUGUST 1813.
BACKGROUND
George Croghan was born near Louisville, Kentucky, November 15, 1791. He was graduated at William and Mary College, Virginia, and in 1811 was aid-de-camp to Colonel Boyd at the battle of Tippecanoe; captain in 1812, major in 1813, and aid-de-camp to General Harrison at Fort Meigs. On August 3, 1813, with a garrison of one hundred and sixty men, he repulsed General Proctor at the head of an army of one thousand British troops and Indians. For this gallant deed Congress, in 1835, gave him a vote of thanks and a gold medal. In 1814 he was appointed lieutenant-colonel; resigned in 1817; was promoted to the rank of inspector-general and colonel in 1825; served under General Taylor in Mexico, and died in New Orleans, January 8, 1849.
Resolution of Congress Voting a Medal to Colonel Croghan, etc.
Resolved unanimously by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled: That the President of the United States be requested to cause a gold medal to be struck, with suitable emblems and devices, and presented to Colonel Croghan, in testimony of the high sense entertained by Congress of his gallantry and good conduct in the defence of Fort Stephenson; and that he present a sword to each of the following officers engaged in that affair: to Captain James Hunter, to the eldest male representative of Lieutenant Benjamin Johnston, and to Lieutenant Cyrus A. Baylor, John Meek, Ensign Joseph Duncan, and the nearest male representative of Ensign Edmund Shipp, deceased.
Approved February 13, 1835
Source: The Medallic History of the United States of America 1776-1876 by J. F. Loubat, LL.D. (1878)