CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · History & Society

William Ludgate

American Civil War Medal of Honor recipient

Layered newspapers, civic records and oral-history reels arranged as chronological evidence
History and societyInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 3, 2026
Entity authorityQ16058494
Source-derived summary

William Ludgate (March 11, 1836 – June 14, 1912) was a captain in the Union Army and a Medal of Honor recipient for his actions in the American Civil War.

Ludgate joined the army from New York City in May 1861, and was assigned to the 82nd New York Infantry, rising to the rank of sergeant major. He re-enlisted as a veteran in March 1864, and transferred to the 59th New York Infantry, where he was commissioned as an officer in September 1864. He was ultimately discharged in June 1865.

Medal of Honor citation

Rank and organization: Captain, Company G, 59th New York Veteran Infantry. Place and date: At Farmville, Va., April 7, 1865. Entered service at: New York, N.Y. Birth: England. Date of issue: August 10, 1889.

Citation:

Gallantry and promptness in rallying his men and advancing with a small detachment to save a bridge about to be fired by the enemy.

See also

List of Medal of Honor recipients

List of American Civil War Medal of Honor recipients: G–L

References

This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Army Center of Military History.

Editorial summary

“William Ludgate” enters the record as american Civil War Medal of Honor recipient. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what William, Ludgate and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA strong contextual entry point for chronology, institutions and public events when official records are distinguished from later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1836, 1912, 1861, 1864—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1836-03-11. Its strongest next move is a source search built around William, Ludgate and American.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“William Ludgate” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, William, Ludgate and American provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16058494. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1836, 1912, 1861 and 1864.

Critical limits

Institutional narratives can privilege the records that survived while minimizing voices that were never formally collected. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
Verify next

Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “William Ludgate”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow William Ludgate primary sources, William Ludgate archive and William research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “William Ludgate”?
  2. Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
  3. What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from William Ludgate” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.