FOUT, FREDERICK W. Second Lieutenant, 15th Battery, Indiana Light Artillery. Near Harpers Ferry, W. Va., 15 September 1862 Indianapolis, Ind. Germany 2 November 1896

Voluntarily gathered the men of the battery together, remanned the guns, which had been ordered abandoned by an officer, opened fire, and kept up the same on the enemy until after the surrender

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During the night at Harper’s Ferry on September 14, Sgt. Frederick Wilhelm Fout had gone to the northern end of Bolivar Heights with Capt. J.C.H. Von Sehlen and his four guns. After selecting a covered place for the caissons reporting the positions to the Captain, Frederick remained with Von Sehlen’s for a time until the firing in the rear of the unit on top of Bolivar Heights became most terrific. He rode up to the Captain, saluted him and asked permission to go back to the other guns left in charge of the Austrian Lieutenant on Bolivar Heights. Every gun of the enemy appeared in action, and every part of the present position was unsafe.
After riding about a mile through the iron hail, he reached the section, but to the astonishment of Sgt. Fout he found it abandoned. He looked around for the cannoneers and found some of them sheltered in a deep gully. He asked the Sergeant and Corporal: How is this? Why are you not with your guns and replying to the enemy fire? "Well," said one of the men, "when we were up by the gun and were exposed to the fire from all sides, the Lieutenant that the Captain put over us said "Mein Gott in Himmel! Run boys! Come, and get away from here! And so we left and sought protection. By that time the enemy had ceased most of their firing and Sgt. Fout at once seized up the situation, and asked the men to join with him and open up fire on the rebels.
He soon had the required number to man one gun, and they went out of the gully up to the hill and opened fire. Their aim was directed on School House Hill, near the Winchester Pike. Joel Smith, a lead driver of Gun Number 3, left his team in the fully and came forward voluntarily to act as Number 3, to stop the vent. Not having a thumb stall, he pulled the sleeve of his blouse forward to protect his thumb, which after the first shot was already been burned.
No sooner had they begun firing than every battery and gun of the enemy renewed their action, and the roar of the artillery was most terrific.

Yes he did receive the Medal of Honor for this action, because undirected he re-armed the cannons of another unit (who were cowardly not arming their canoons), their officer fled the area because of the intense firing he was taking. That is the officer that should have been court-martialed.

While reading all 700 pages of the Book "Dark Days of the Civil War, you will find other instances where Frederick talks about that he might have been booted out of the army due to his actions, but remember this was a time that soldiers usually served 90 days or less and Frederick on the other hand served from the first days of the Civil War until the last day of the war. He was seriously injured at the Battle of Nashville with a head and hand injury but yet he stayed in and served. After leaving the military and becoming a U.S. Citizen, he returned to Germany to visit with his parents and the German government in his area attempted to conscript him into their military unit because already he was a decorated officer of the U.S.

Does this sound like he should have been sent to the gallows? hmm, no. Indiana would have never had the 1st Glass bottle making company and the United States would not have had the largest Pension and Claims office west of the Mississippi River based in St. Louis. B.t.w. Frederick's son Albert went on to serve in an artillery unit during the Spanish American War.