The Coast Guard's First Medal of Honor Recipient
By William Thiesen 2019-03-22 13:07:01
Many with knowledge of service history believe Guadalcanal hero Douglas Munro was the Coast Guard’s first and only recipient of the Medal of Honor. Technically, they would be wrong. In fact, Lighthouse Keeper Marcus Aurelius Hanna also received the Medal of Honor, the U.S. military’s highest recognition for combat heroism.
Born in Bristol, Maine, in 1842, Marcus Hanna came from a long line of Maine lighthouse keepers. His grandfather kept the light at Boone Island starting in 1812 and his parents kept the light at Franklin Island when he was a child. In 1853, at the age of 10, Hanna went to sea as a ship’s boy returning home at age 18. Soon, the Civil War began and he enlisted in the Union Navy serving for a year. In 1862, Hanna mustered out of the Navy, enlisted in the 50th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment and, soon after, shipped out to the Gulf Coast for combat operations.
https://www.maritime-executive.com/editorials/the-coast-guard-s-first-medal-of-honor-recipient
