Arthur M Ferguson

Arthur was born on the 11th of December 1877, in Coffey County, Kansas, and there is very little information listed for his life. It is known that he enlisted in the US Army in 1898 and was deployed to the Philippines in support of the Spanish-American War. Arthur was a Corporal on the 26th of April 1899, when he crawled through the supports of a bridge, underneath an insurgent’s outpost, in order to gain a complete description of the bridge’s condition. For these actions he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and five months later, his actions near the town of Porac would earn him the Medal of Honor. The citation reads:

Charged alone a body of the enemy and captured a captain.

Arthur had been promoted to First Lieutenant of Volunteers prior to these actions and was then promoted to Second Lieutenant in the Regular Army after. He received the Medal of Honor on the 8th of March 1902 and although he remained in the Army during the Mexican Campaign, I am unsure if he deployed to the region in support of the conflict in Vera Cruz. During World War 1, Arthur became an instructor at one of the first officer training camps at Fort Riley and then was assigned to another officer training camp at Fort Snelling. His final assignments were at the War Department as an assistant adjutant general and at Fort Leavenworth as the Secretary for the General Service Schools.

Arthur married twice, first to Laura who died in 1913, and second to Sarah. He received the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions in the Philippines, the year after the award had been created in 1918. Arthur Medworth Ferguson died suddenly on the 20th of February 1923, due to complications from a hernia surgery. He had reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and he is buried with both wives in Arlington National Cemetery: Section 3, Lot 4016.