Page News & Courier
Heritage and Heraldry
An English "Yank" and the only Medal of Honor earned on Page County soil
Article of June 3, 1999
In the wake of the tragedy that befell Jubal Early’s Confederate Army at Fisher’s Hill, cavalry action throughout the Valley and Page County became almost an everyday occurrence for several months in the fall of 1864. On one late September day, a clash of cavalry occurred just north of Luray in which one seemingly unlikely character would earn a Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroic actions on Page County soil.
An Englishman turned "Yank," Private Philip Baybutt was the son of an English merchant and native of Manchester, England. Listed by occupation as a teamster, 18 year-old Baybutt arrived in the United States in either late 1863 or early 1864. Enlisted by Colonel Charles R. Lowell, Jr. at Fall Creek, Massachusetts on February 25, 1864 (though another record shows him as joining at Vienna, Virginia), Baybutt would have the rare distinction to serve as one of the members Company A, 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry. Formerly known as the “California 100," the original group of 100 men had made their way from the Bear State and were initially attached to the Massachusetts cavalry regiment for service in the eastern theater. As one who enlisted in the company well after its initial organization, Baybutt was recruited to replenish the ranks of the depleted company. Additionally, if Baybutt had come seeking adventure, he had certainly enrolled in the right company as the 2nd Massachusetts would often find themselves in action against Mosby’s famous band of rangers.
On September 24, 1864 however, Mosby was not the issue. Following the fight that had occurred at Milford (Overall), Colonel W.H.F. Payne’s brigade of Confederate cavalry had fallen back to Luray as a result of the Federal withdrawal to Front Royal. Clearly seeing an opportunity, General George A. Custer, accompanied by Colonel Lowell, with two Federal Cavalry brigades (including Baybutt’s regiment) and artillery advanced toward Luray. Somewhere between the county border and Luray, the clash of cavalry occurred. Badly outnumbered and outgunned, the Confederates were quickly overwhelmed, losing several men as prisoners. Additionally, sometime in the heated melee, Baybutt seized the regimental flag of the 6th Virginia Cavalry for which he was later (October 1864) awarded the Medal of Honor.
In all, by the close of the war, the 5' 2 1/2" Englishman participated in seven or eight battles and in excess of 50 skirmishes. Additionally, he had lost two horses killed-in-action and was himself wounded twice (once at Opequon Creek just ten days before the Luray fight) before suffering a hard fall from one of his horses while in the Shenandoah Valley.
Sometime following his discharge at Fairfax Court House on July 20, 1865, Private Baybutt returned to England and worked at his father’s mercantile business. Married to Harriet Jones (listed as a 24 year-old “spinster” of Leicester) on December 26, 1872, the former Federal cavalryman and his wife would raise eight children.
In later years, Baybutt suffered a great deal from the fall from his horse during the war and applied for a veteran’s pension from the United States in January 1904. Though he had at least three former comrades’ written testimony as to the seriousness of the incident, his application was rejected in February 1906. Three years later, on April 17, 1909, the former hero of the little fight near Luray - now a 63 year-old shipping clerk, died from “exhaustion” in addition to other ailments experienced as a result of the war. In the wake of Philip’s death, his wife of over thirty-years applied for a Union Veteran widow’s pension and received an allowance of $8.00 per month by the United States. Ultimately, it was an ironic ending for a man that had been awarded the United States’ highest military medal and had given loyal service in a war which was neither his own fight nor that of his country.
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