The Medal of Honor: two recipients, neither by the usual road

1869 – 1902

Enoch R. Weiss (1848–1917): the earlier of the two, and the one whose tie must be stated at its exact strength. Weiss was born in Kosciusko County, Indiana, on 13 February 1848. He served as a private in Company G, 1st U.S. Cavalry, and earned the medal in the Chiricahua Mountains, Arizona, on 20 October 1869; the citation, in the Army's form for the Indian campaigns, reads in full: "Gallantry in action with Indians." The medal was issued 14 February 1870. The Army's list leaves the place of his entry into service blank and gives no South Bend connection in his service record at all. His tie to this city is his end: he died in South Bend on 29 December 1917 and is buried in South Bend City Cemetery, whose National Register listing carries him among its notable burials; the National Medal of Honor Museum's recipient record confirms his unit, his conflict, his year, and his citation. This section prints him as what the record proves — a Medal of Honor recipient who died and lies buried in South Bend — and does not claim a longer residence than the sources reached can state.

Albert Joseph Nolan (1857–1921): the recipient who is this city's by entry into service. Nolan was born at Elkhart, Indiana, on 20 January 1857. In September 1899, aged forty-two, he traveled to South Bend and enlisted — the Army's record states his entered-service place in so many words: "Entered service at: South Bend, Ind." He served as an artificer in Company B, 45th Infantry, U.S. Volunteers, in the Philippine–American War, and earned the medal at Labo, Luzon, Philippine Islands, on 29 May 1900. The citation reads: "Voluntarily left shelter and at great personal risk passed the enemy's lines and brought relief to besieged comrades." The medal was issued 14 March 1902. The South Bend Tribune's own retrospective, published in 2000, told the fight as the record carries it — a column ambushed, its captain, Steinhauser, wounded, and Nolan's passage through the enemy's lines praised by General Bates — and called Nolan, as of that year, the only Michiana resident to earn the Medal of Honor in the wars of the twentieth century. Nolan died on 19 August 1921 at Niles, Michigan, and is buried there; his medal belongs to South Bend by the enlistment he made here, and the file states the tie in exactly those terms.

The Civil War test is negative: no recipient of the Civil War is credited in the Army's roll to either of the regiments organized at South Bend, the 73rd and 87th Indiana, and no Civil War recipient entered service at South Bend. The nearest case is boundary-stated so it is not borrowed: Orville T. Chamberlain of the 74th Indiana earned the medal at Chickamauga on 20 September 1863 and entered service at Elkhart — he is Elkhart County's man, in a regiment raised in the same northern-Indiana district, and he is printed here only to mark where this city's list stops.

Sources:

1. U.S. Army Center of Military History Medal of Honor citation records, as carried in the Military Times Hall of Valor (Nolan, recipient record: birth, entered service at South Bend, unit, place and date, citation text, date of issue) and in the Army-derived list of Philippine–American War recipients.
2. National Medal of Honor Museum, recipient record for Enoch R. Weiss (unit, conflict, year, citation); South Bend City Cemetery National Register listing (Weiss as a notable burial); Army recipient list (birth, Kosciusko County; entered-service place blank).
3. South Bend Tribune, Medal of Honor retrospectives, 2000 (ProQuest index): Nolan's September 1899 enlistment at South Bend at age forty-two, the Labo fight, and the "only Michiana resident" statement as of 2000.
4. Army Medal of Honor roll for Indiana regiments, as transcribed by INGenWeb (the 73rd and 87th Indiana carry no recipient; Chamberlain, 74th Indiana, entered service at Elkhart); regimental history of the 74th Indiana (Peddycord), for Chamberlain's record.