[M] #9727 Henry William Bigler Mechling ( Aaron Torrence MechlingPhilip MechlingJohn George MechlingJohn Jacob MechlingDiebold "Theobald" MechlingDiebold MechlingMartin Mechling )

Henry was born 14 Oct 1851 in Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania. He died 10 Apr 1926 in Washington, District Of Columbia. He was buried in Arlington, Virginia.

He won the Medal of Honor, and survived, at Little Bighorn. The following is excerpted from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

In June 1876, at the age of 24, he was a blacksmith in the 7th Cavalry, which, in the hours before the battle of Little Bighorn, split into three battalions, headed by Maj. Marcus Reno, Capt. Frederick Benteen and Lt. Col. George A. Custer, all of whom had had higher battlefield ranks during the Civil War.

Company H, to which Mechling was assigned, was under Benteen's command.

...

Mention the Battle of the Little Bighorn, and most people, even those with a cursory knowledge, believe that everyone died. In fact, all 210 soldiers in the five companies under Custer's command were killed.

The two other battalions, those under Reno and Benteen, lost 53 men. But the seven companies that comprised the two battalions had survivors, including Mechling, who along with fellow soldiers found himself under attack early on the morning of June 26, the second day of the fight.

It had begun at 3 p.m. the previous day.

With water in short supply, the situation became more perilous as the sun rose in the sky on that morning.

"If the burning thirst was maddening to the uninjured, its quenching became a question of life and death with the injured. Towards noon, something had to be done at all hazards to obtain water," according to an account of the battle in "Acts of Bravery, Deeds of Extraordinary American Heroism," originally published in 1907 and updated in 1993.

With that in mind, Mechling and 18 other men, all of whom would later be awarded the Medal of Honor, volunteered to try to reach water nearly 100 yards from their battle line.

Mechling and fellow soldiers from Troop H -- Sgt. George Geiger, Pvt. Charles Windolph and saddler Otto Voit -- made their way onto an exposed outcropping, drawing fire from the Indians and returning fire as well.

For hours, they provided cover so the 15 other men could repeatedly dash to a ravine, then down to the river to fill kettles with water. Among those who went for water was Pvt. Peter Thompson, who was from Banksville and who later lived in Indiana County.

Of Mechling's efforts, the Army said, "With three comrades during the entire engagement, [he] courageously held a position that secured water for the command."

Mechling received the Medal of Honor on Aug. 29, 1878.

A training site at Ft. Lee, Virginia was named after him in 1993.

Henry married #11773 Julia Ellen Melissa Stevenson.

Relationship notes

They married 2 Dec 1866 in Fairmont, Virginia.

 

Julia was born May 1868. She died 6 Apr 1919 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny Co., Pennsylvania. She was buried in Conneautville, Pennsylvania.

She was from Blair, Ohio.

Children of this relationship:

#11774MiHenry Frederick Benteen Mechling(1905–1928)
#11775FiiMinnie Grace Mechling(21 Apr 1907–30 Jul 2006)

Caral Mechling Bennett, email to Tad Deffler, dated: 19 Dec 2011.

Caral Mechling Bennett, email to Tad Deffler, dated: 20 Feb 2019.

Johnna A. Pro, "Ellsworth woman is the last living child of a Little Bighorn survivor", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (19 Sep 1999).


Line Generation: 8

Relationship: Fourth Cousins Three Times Removed through Diebold "Theobald" Mechling