Date of Award: July 21, 1897
Conflict: Civil War
Branch: U.S. Army

Prior to the Civil War, Maj. Gabriel Grant, a prominent physician from Newark, N.J., served on a special health commission to battle the cholera epidemic then spreading throughout the city. At the outbreak of the war, he joined the 2nd Infantry Regiment of New Jersey Volunteers as a surgeon, just before becoming Surgeon to the U.S. Volunteers.

Grant then joined General William French’s brigade. During the battle of Fair Oaks on June 1, 1862, he attended to the wounded on the firing line and removed fallen soldiers beyond the battle lines while exposed to heavy fire. He spent the remainder of the war in command of the United States Army Hospital at Madison, Ind., before resigning from commission in 1865.

Citation: “Removed severely wounded officers and soldiers from the field while under a heavy fire from the enemy, exposing himself beyond the call of duty, thus furnishing an example of most distinguished gallantry.”