Open main menu
Open main menu
Organization: Company B, 1st Michigan Infantry (17th MI at Antietam)
Entered Service: Jackson, Mich.
Birth: 1 February 1835, Dorchester, Mass.
Date Medal Issued: 7 January 1895.
Date of Action: 21 July 1861
Place of Action: Bull Run, Va.
Citation
Remained on the field under heavy fire to succor his superior officer.
More about this award
The 'superior officer' was his regimental and then brigade commander Colonel Orlando Willcox, who himself was later awarded the Medal of Honor for bravery in leading repeated charges at that battle. Withington tended the wounded Colonel through their trial as prisoners of war at Richmond and Charleston, SC.
Willcox was in command of the 1st Division, IX Corps (of which the 17th Michigan was a part) at Antietam.