The Medal of Honor is the highest United States military award that can be presented to service personnel who distinguish themselves by acts of valor above and beyond the call of duty. It is the oldest continuously issued combat decoration of the United States Armed Forces.
First authorized by an act of Congress signed into law by Abraham Lincoln on December 21, 1861, it was the only military award authorized during the American Civil War. Of the 3,530 Medals of Honor that have been awarded, just over 1,200 were awarded for meritorious acts that occurred during the Civil War.
Nine medals were awarded for actions that occurred in Arkansas.
One of those was in the River Valley.
In January 1865, Confederate troops under Colonel William H. Brooks were harassing Union positions and steamboats traveling the Arkansas River between Little Rock and Fort Smith. To counter the Confederates, Colonel Abraham H. Ryan, the Union commander at Lewisburg (a neighborhood of present-day Morrilton) dispatched a detachment of 276 dismounted cavalrymen from the Seventh Army Corps to Dardanelle.
At 10 a.m. on January 14th, four hours after the detachment occupied stockades commanding roads into town, 1,500 Confederate cavalrymen led by Brooks attacked the Union troops. The Federal troops, which included artillery of a section of the Second Kansas Battery, held off the attackers for four hours before Brooks, unable to overcome the town’s defenders, broke off the attack.
During the engagement, Sergeant William Ellis of the Third Wisconsin Cavalry was struck three times but stayed at his post. He only left it when directed by the detachment’s commanding officer, Major J. D. Jenks of the First Iowa Cavalry, after being wounded for the fourth time.
Months later, Ellis was awarded the Medal of Honor. Its citation reads:
The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to First Sergeant William Ellis, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism on 14 January 1865, while serving with Company K, 3d Wisconsin Cavalry, in action at Dardanelles, Arkansas. First Sergeant Ellis remained at his post after receiving three wounds, and only retired, by his commanding officer’s orders, after being wounded the fourth time.
Ellis’s Medal of Honor is commemorated by a panel at the Arkansas Medal of Honor Monument in Little Rock and is mentioned on “Action at Dardanelle” a historical marker by the entrance to the Dardanelle Rock Nature Area.
The full text of the marker says:
Confederates under Col. Robert Brooks, who were testing Union positions’ strength along the Arkansas River, attacked Federal troops at Dardanelle on Jan. 14, 1865. Maj. J. D. Jenks’ 276 Union soldiers fought Brooks’ 1,500 soldiers for 4 hours before the Confederates withdrew. Sgt. William Ellis of the 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry, who was wounded 4 times in the fight, was awarded the Medal of Honor for valor. Dardanelle Rock, a major landmark on the river, is protected today as part of the state system of natural areas.