Blake Hall
The next time you feel embarrassed about a typo that slipped into your last email, remember that the Pentagon misspelled a Medal of Honor recipient’s name on his grave and didn’t notice for 140 years.
Joseph B. Noil joined the U.S. Navy during the Civil War, but the great act of heroism that earned him the most prestigious military decoration in the United States didn’t occur until 1872. Noil was serving aboard the USS Powhatan around Christmas when his shipmate Boatswain J.C. Walton plunged overboard. Noil dived into the icy Atlantic waters.
A captain’s memo published in Jan. 1873 wrote that Noil “ran on deck, took the end of a rope, went overboard, under the bow, and caught Mr. Walton, who was then in the water, and held him until he was hauled into the boat sent to his rescue. The weather was bitter cold, and had been sleeting, and it was blowing a gale from the northwest at the time. Mr. Walton, when brought on board, was almost insensible, and would have perished but for the noble conduct of Noil, as he was sinking at the time he was rescued.”
Noil retired in 1881 as a Captain of the Hold. He died the following year.
A memorial was erected for the Civil War veteran, but his name was misspelled as Joseph B. Noel. His Medal of Honor was also left off his grave.
The error went unnoticed until 2011 by the Medal of Honor Historical Society of the United States. In April 2016, it was finally replaced and rededicated with the correct honors and spelling. At the ceremony, a flag was also presented to the Medal of Honor recipient’s great-great granddaughter.