Francis Snow Hesseltine (December 10, 1833 – February 17, 1916) was a Union Army soldier in the American Civil War who received the U.S. military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor for extraordinary heroism on December 30, 1863, while serving as the lieutenant colonel of the 13th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment, at Matagorda Bay, Texas. His Medal of Honor was issued on March 2, 1895. Early life Francis Hesseltine was born in Bangor, Maine, in 1833 and educated at Colby College in Waterville. While a student at Colby, he was the first citizen of Waterville to volunteer to serve in the Union Army. The sophomore student was elected captain of a company in the 3rd Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment, a unit made up almost entirely of college students. Had the war not intervened, Hesseltine would have graduated from Colby in June 1863. Civil War service By February 1862 Hesseltine was a lieutenant colonel in the Thirteenth Maine Regiment. The regiment was sent to Ship Island, Mississippi, where he was given command of Fort Jackson and Fort St. Phillip, which were located 70 miles south of New Orleans, and protected the approaches to the city. In October 1863 concerns about Mexico possibly entering the war allied with the Confederacy caused the Thirteenth Maine to be shipped to Brownsville, Texas, at the mouth of the Rio Grande River. Medal of Honor action In late December 1863 Hesseltine led a detachment of 100 men in a reconnaissance of the Matagorda peninsula, which covered the approach to the harbor of Corpus Christi, Texas. On December 28, a regiment of 1,000 Confederate cavalrymen discovered his reconnaissance detachment and attacked Hesseltine's command. On the 28th, seven miles from the head of Matagorda peninsula all contact was cut off with the transport ship which could evacuate Hesseltine's force due to heavy surf. The enemy was at his rear and he was, effectively, surrounded. In Hesseltine's own words, "Soon, by the aid of my glass, I was able to discern the head of a body of cavalry moving down the peninsula … their line stretched steadily towards us … in half an hour their skirmishers were swarming up close to mine, slightly heeding the shall and shrapnel … half our skirmishers faced about and gave them a volley … I knew my men. They were cool; and determined rather than the rebels should meet the first encouragement of