Birth: c. Oct. 30, 1839
Death: Jun. 6, 1905

Medal of Honor recipient. Frederick W. Fout, a successful claim and pension attorney was born in the little town of Meissen, near Buckeburg, Germany. His father, Frederick Wilhelm, was the village

He was filled with an intense patriotism for his adopted country's cause and at the beginning of the war in April 1861 enlisted at Indianapolis as a private in Company O, Seventh Indiana Infantry. The regiment participated in the battles of Philippi, Laurel Hills, and Carrick Fort, all in West Virginia, but as the men had only enlisted for three months, they were ordered back to Indianapolis and mustered out in August. But the young Fout had enlisted in the beginning with determined and patriotic motives, which were not in the least abated by the service he had seen, and he accordingly at once re-enlisted in an artillery regiment. The latter was broken up by internal dissensions but each battery entered the service as an independent organization. In January, 1862, Fout was made an orderly Sergeant of the 15th Indiana Independent Battery, and in August the same year was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant. On September 15, 1862, Fout voluntarily gathered the men of the battery together, remanned the guns (which has been ordered abandoned by an officer), opened fire on the enemy and kept it up until after the surrender of his command. For this action, he was awarded the Medal or Honor on November 2, 1896. In January 1864 he was made 1st Lieutenant and after that time was continuously in command of the Battery. He served under Generals McCleland, Miles, Burnside, Schofield, Sherman, and Cox; and was mentioned incidentally by Sherman (in his papers) that it was Lieutenant Fout's guns that fired the first shell into Atlanta. Fout became a United States Citizen in 1865