Presentation of Medal of Honor
Awarded to Pvt. Hugh Purvis, U.S.M.C.
to
United States Naval Academy Museum
July 30, 1993
Hugh Purvis was quite a man!
Born in Ireland in 1840, he was brought to Germantown, PA when he was 2 years old. At the age of 16 he enlisted in the Army and at 21 he was assigned to Company P, 28th Regiment of the Pennsylvania Infantry. During the Civil War he participated in the battles at Chickamauga, the Wilderness, Chancelorsville, Gettysburg, and served with Sherman on the "March to the Sea." Upon discharge from the Army, he enlisted in the Marine Corps on October 27, 1869 and served continuously until discharge in 1884. For 35 years thereafter he was Armorer at the United States Naval Academy. Hugh Purvis died in 1922 and is buried here in Annapolis. He was truly a patriot who loved both his country and this Naval Academy. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism during the assault on the fortress Citadel, Kanghoa Island, Korea on June 11, 1871.
Another significant honor was bestowed upon him on December 17, 1944, when the Destroyer DD 709 was christened in his name by his wife, Grandma Purvis. I visited the USS Hugh Purvis in 1964 while she was undergoing regular overhaul in Boston. I had the honor of addressing her crew. I also was a guest at the first reunion of the crew held in Philadelphia in 1991.
There was little or nothing I could tell these men about their ship but I spoke briefly on both occasions about the hightlights of Hugh Purvis' life and the events leading up to the award of the Medal of Honor.
The details of the naval expedition to Korea in 1871 are well chronicled in the display here at the Museum. Fierce fighting accompanied the contingent of those 196 marines and 546 sailors as they stormed the Hermit Kingdoms's Citadel. To quote the October 1980 edition of The Retired Officer "Marine Private Purvis and Navy Lt. Hugh McKee were the first to pull themselves over the parapet. McKee was immediately struck in the groin with a bullet and impaled through the thigh by a Korean spear. In the Academy Chapel there is a plaque in memory of Lt. McKee who gave his life that morning. The fighting was fierce, albeit brief, during which Purvis ran to the flagstaff and loosened the halyards of the Korean flag. According to Marine Corps records he was quickly joined by Cpl. Charles Brown who helped him tear down the flag. Both were awarded a Medal of Honor."
It is about that medal we are here today. Since childhood I had coveted it. For the past 30 years the medal has been in my possession. Mother gave it to me just prior to her death in 1963. But after me, where does it go?
Last summer Dee and I stopped briefly in Annapolis on our way to my 50th class reunion at Princeton. We visited the Museum as I had frequently done while attending the Graduate School here at the Academy in 1945. We viewed the Korean display with its prominent picture of Captain Tilton, Corporal Brown an Private Purvis standing before the flag. But something was missing- there was no Medal of Honor! At that moment the decision was made to present Grandpa Purvis' Medal to the Naval Academy.
The medal, of course, has never been mine. It has always belonged to all of his descendants: the Purvises, Thomases, Eubanks, Innises, Everetts, Ruolettes, Crawleys, Williams and as time passes the list of names will grow. But it must be preserved here at the Naval Academy Museum. It is an appropriate tribute to this brave man to inform the people of this and future generations about his bravery, dedication and devotion to his country in both war and peace.
Hugh Purvis was truly quite a Man!
So, on behalf of all current and future descendants of his, I am both pleased and honored to present his Medal of Honor to be a part of the 1871 Korean Naval Expedition display here at the United States Naval Academy Museum.
Hugh A. Eubank
Grandson