Juan Ortega was born in Spain in 1840. He eventually immigrated to the United States and settled in Pennsylvania. Ortega, who became better known as John rather than Juan, would serve with distinction while fighting for his adopted country during the American Civil War.
Ortega joined the Union Navy — the name for the U.S. Navy throughout that military conflict — in 1863. He was assigned to USS Saratoga, a warship that had been launched in 1842 and was under the command of Commander George Musalas “Colvos” Colvocoresses.
On January 13, 1864, Navy Secretary Gideon Welles ordered Colvocoresses and his crew to make their way to the vicinity of Charleston, South Carolina, and report there to Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren for duty in the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron. The main objectives of this military unit involved enforcing the Union blockade of the ports of the Confederacy and preventing the delivery of supplies to and from that unrecognized breakaway republic.
As part of their contributions to this vital effort, quite a few of those serving on the Saratoga made several raids in that region of the Confederacy in August and September of 1864. Ortega was a member of landing parties along the coast of Georgia on two occasions. During both of these raids, he helped capture a large number of prisoners and also assisted with taking or destroying large quantities of Confederate ammunition and goods.
As a result of his actions during these high-risk operations, Ortega was given the Medal of Honor on December 31, 1864. He was the first Hispanic American serving in the Navy to receive that award, which is the United States’ highest military decoration for heroism in combat.
The citation for Ortega’s Medal of Honor included the following: “Served as seaman on board the U.S.S. Saratoga during action of that vessel on 2 occasions. Carrying out his duties courageously during these actions. Ortega conducted himself gallantly through both periods.” As this citation also confirmed, Ortega was promoted from seaman to acting master’s mate. The accompanying photo shows his Medal of Honor without a suspension ribbon.
Photo Credit: Public Domain
Additional information on John (Juan) Ortega is available at https://www.cmohs.org/recipients/john-ortega and https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/photography/numerical-list-of-images/nhhc-series/nh-series/NH-105000/NH-105926.html
For more information on Hispanic Medal of Honor recipients, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hispanic_Medal_of_Honor_recipients
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