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George W. Leland (1834 – March 18, 1880) was a Union Navy sailor in the American Civil War and a recipient of the U.S. military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for helping to free his grounded ship. Born in 1834 in Savannah, Georgia, Leland was still living in that city when he joined the Navy. He served during the Civil War as a gunner's mate on the .〔〔 On November 16, 1863, ''Lehigh'' was in Charleston Harbor providing support for Union troops on shore when the ship ran aground on a sand bar and came under heavy fire from Fort Moultrie. Despite intense Confederate artillery fire, Leland and fellow sailor Coxswain Thomas Irving rowed a small boat trailing a hawser from ''Lehigh'' to another Union ironclad, the . Both times, the cable snapped due to friction and hostile fire. Officers were about to give an "abandon ship" order when three more sailors, Landsman Frank S. Gile, Landsman William Williams, and Seaman Horatio Nelson Young, volunteered to make one more attempt. This last effort was successful and ''Nahant'' was able to tow ''Lehigh'' off the sandbar to safety. For this action, all five sailors involved in the operation were awarded the Medal of Honor on April 16, 1864.〔〔〔 Leland's official Medal of Honor citation reads: Serving on board the U.S.S. ''Lehigh'', Charleston Harbor, 16 November 1863, during the hazardous task of freeing the ''Lehigh'', which had grounded, and was under heavy enemy fire from Fort Moultrie. Rowing the small boat which was used in the hazardous task of transferring hawsers from the ''Lehigh'' to the ''Nahant'', Leland twice succeeded in making the trip, only to find that each had been in vain when the hawsers were cut by enemy fire and chaffing. Leland died on March 18, 1880, at age 45 or 46 and was buried in Lewiston, Maine.〔 ==See also== *List of American Civil War Medal of Honor recipients: G–L 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「George W. Leland」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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