Henry Sims Morgan is not a name familiar to most modern Valdosta residents, but once it was a name that swelled residents’ chests with pride and lowered their heads in sadness.

Henry Sims Morgan, often referred to as HSM, was Valdosta’s first graduate from West Point.

He was possibly the first Valdostan to play organized football.

Morgan was charged with building a bulwark on Wassaw Island for the defense of Savannah during the Spanish-American War. The ruins of Morgan’s work still linger on Wassaw.

At the age of 24, Morgan risked his life to save sailors on an imperiled ship off the Georgia Coast. Morgan died attempting to save those lives, but his body would not be recovered for eight years, confirming the tragedy of his disappearance.

For many Valdosta residents, HSM was not only “Valdosta’s ‘Forgotten’ First West Point Graduate,” which is how a 2005 Lowndes County Historical Society newsletter referred to Morgan, but he was a person of local lore whom few had any knowledge.

For Historical Society members, the newsletter replaced both the local amnesia and ignorance concerning HSM. Donald Davis, Society Museum administrative director, filled the newsletter with numerous stories, photos and lore about Morgan.

“The story of HSM is fascinating,” noted Davis, who put a great amount of time and research into the study of Morgan. “Valdosta’s ‘forgotten’ first West Point graduate, his brilliance, giving his life attempting to save others, body lost at sea and found many years later … (and), incredibly, that he may be the first Valdostan to ever play on a football team.”

Though Davis spread the word of Morgan through the newsletter based upon months of research, study and correspondence, he credited current knowledge of HSM to Hans Neuhauser, a Savannah resident, former Georgia Conservancy coastal director, executive director of the Georgia Land Trust Service Center and published historian.

In 1998, he wrote an extensive Georgia Journal article on “The Strange Ruins of Wassaw Island,” which is a sharp study of the Georgia Coast’s response to the Spanish-American War, and more specifically the defense battery that Morgan was ordered to build.

The article contains many details of Morgan’s life, his work on the island, his demise and posthumous honors. Neuhauser has also written subsequent articles on Morgan and the ruins.

He advocated adding another honor to Morgan’s name by naming the Wassaw fortifications for HSM. Neuhauser first proposed this designation, something along the lines of “Fort Morgan,” in 1985.

Before his honors and heroism, HSM was a Valdosta boy of unusual intelligence and physical size. No one was surprised by his accomplishments but, as The Valdosta Times noted in a Sept. 3, 1898, article, “the tragic ending of this promising young life is a terrible shock to the family and relatives and the sympathy of all of the people of the community will go out to them.”

On Oct. 14, 1874, Henry Sims Morgan was born in Valdosta to W.L. Morgan and Susan A. Sims Morgan. Henry’s grandfather had moved in 1840 from Macon to what would become Valdosta. The family’s men had a legacy of military service. Ancestor Stokeley Morgan Sr., who is referred to as John in one publication, died during the Revolutionary War at the siege of Savannah. Henry’s father and three uncles fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War as did his maternal grandfather. The Morgan family also had its share of state senators and other prominent citizens.

As a boy, HSM attended Valdosta Institute, “where he made an enviable record in his academic work and early showed his sterling character,” according to a West Point class reunion publication from the early 20th century.

One Valdosta Institute teacher selected a student monitor to keep an extra eye on the class’ behavior. Young Henry was tapped as monitor and the teacher kept HSM in that position for the entire term. Henry did not like being the one to tell on his classmates and shared his displeasure with the teacher. “The instructor replied that it was because he knew he could trust (HSM) entirely to do justice to each pupil whether he liked the boy or not,” Davis noted.

Young Henry grew tall. He would eventually rise to 6-feet-4, which was considered very tall in the late 19th century. But Henry was considered thin for his height. At the end of eighth grade, W.L. Morgan ended Henry’s local schooling. He wanted his son to get more exercise through hunting and fishing to develop his lanky body.

“At that time, leaving school after the eighth grade was not a drastic measure,” Davis noted. “Records archived at the museum show the 10th grade as the graduation year at Valdosta Institute into the early 1900s.”

Henry’s lanky body filled out and his mind remained sharp. In June 1893, HSM took a competitive exam and entered West Point.

A headline in the June 24, 1893 edition The Valdosta Times notes, “Passes the Test.” The article continues, “Henry Morgan passed the test examination at West Point with credit and has been admitted into the military academy. The examination is reported as the hardest given in several years and lasted five days. Out of 147 applicants this June, 97 failed. The friends of Henry here expect him to take a high stand in scholarship, and when the class is graduated in 1897 be a leader of his fellows.”

Morgan thrived at West Point. His academic work was deemed as “excellent.” He rose through the ranks from cadet corporal, first sergeant, cadet first-captain. He participated in track and football.

On Dec. 9, 1893, The Valdosta Times published a front-page, funny, first-person account of Morgan’s experiences as a West Point plebe. He writes about how one is proud as punch to get into West Point but is soon put in his place: “He thinks he has the world by the tail, but before he gets through he will think that the tail broke off and he has but a little piece of it at that.” As tough as his first year was, he learned from the experiences and planned for his rise to second-year status.

HSM concludes, “Great is West Point, great are her methods; but greater still the experiences, the joys and ills of a Plebe.”

Among his classmates, many would later share that there was an element of the hero to HSM. For his West Point entry test, Morgan “seemed more informed on the approaching examination than the rest of the candidates.” “His friendship was so true that it was a joy and an inspiration to those who were privileged to have it,” noted one classmate listed only by the initials FWA.

On June 11, 1897, HSM graduated fourth in his class from West Point. Coming from a line of gray Confederates, Morgan was “the first in his family to wear a blue uniform as a graduate” of West Point, Neuhauser notes.

Given Valdosta’s fame for football, a diversion is necessary to note the possibility that Henry Sims Morgan may have been the first Valdostan to play on a football team while attending West Point.

Donald Davis proposed this possibility since HSM played guard for West Point’s Army Black Knights football team in 1896, nearly 20 years before Valdosta High School’s program started in 1913.

Davis discovered this tidbit during his research, finding a sentence reading, “A picture of Henry Morgan, as guard on the West Point football team, attracted the attention of readers of one of the big New York papers this week.”

Davis contacted West Point’s library archives which found a photo of the team with Morgan as well as confirmation of his place on the team roster for 1896-7.

Other Ivy League schools began football programs in the late 1800s, but few Valdosta residents entered Ivy League schools during this period and of the few who did there is no known affiliation to playing football, with the exception of HSM.

“Is Henry Sims Morgan the first person from Valdosta to play on a football team?” Davis didn’t know for certain, but continued, “He is the earliest proof we have of someone from Valdosta playing football.”

Upon graduation, HSM was promoted to Add. 2nd Lieut., Army Corps of Engineers and was stationed in Savannah as assistant to Capt. Cassius E. Gillette. This was 1897, during the escalation of hostilities, as well as big newspaper propaganda, leading to the Spanish-American War, with its cry of “Remember the Maine,” the newspaper battles of Hearst and Pulitzer and “yellow journalism,” the “splendid little war” in Cuba, and the anointing of Theodore Roosevelt as a national war hero at the head of the legendary Rough Riders at San Juan Hill.

Morgan was charged with the construction of fortifications of Fort Screven on Tybee Island.

“When the Spanish-American War broke out, (HSM) made vigorous efforts to go to the front, but was unsuccessful and remained on his fortification work throughout the war, doing a Herculean job that the fortifications might be completed as soon as possible,” notes the 25th anniversary publication.

Morgan was re-assigned from Tybee to supervise the construction of the Wassaw Island fort, Neuhauser notes. The fort’s “basic layout was a standard military design,” he continues in his Georgia Journal article. “The fort was rectangular, measuring 86 feet long (east to west) and 39 feet wide (north to south). … In the center was a single massive ammunition magazine, its walls up to six feet thick. Flanking the magazine were two cylindrical gun platforms, each protected by a semi-circular parapet (which were) protected by sand berms topped with sod and fronted with sabal logs.” An observation station was beside each gun, three-quartered by cement and granite. Stairs led to each platform to the magazine; a second set of steps led to the ground where tents, a mess, etc., were located. A 4.7-inch gun was mounted on each platform.

Morgan had little time to complete the Wassaw fort. So, he took a number of short cuts which, along with the location, “make the fort somewhat unique,” Neuhauser notes. No plans for the Wassaw fort’s construction exist, Neuhauser continues, citing a 1898 chief engineer’s report, noting that no drawings or plans were prepared “owing to the necessity for haste.”

Morgan is believed to have designed the fort in his head and kept the plans there during the construction, Davis noted, adding that “brilliant” was often associated with the strength of Morgan’s mind.

The fort never had to fire its guns, but it was the largest fortification built in Georgia specifically for the Spanish-American War. The ruins of this fort remain a tourist stop and a point of fascination on Wassaw Island.

Following the completion of his Wassaw assignment, Morgan returned to Tybee. On July 5, 1898, he was promoted to second lieutenant.

“He was a very healthy man, but became run down and was granted a leave on account of sickness,” according to the reunion publication. The Historical Society notes that Morgan contracted malaria.

HSM was granted sick leave. Before taking his leave, he spent a night securing property and handling other matters in the fort in the face of a devastating storm. Though ill, HSM kept at these tasks throughout the storm and throughout the night.

Sick and with little rest, daylight of Aug. 31, 1898, greeted Morgan with the sight of “a wrecked Norwegian bark” (which some early reports also claim was Italian) called the Noe in the breakers on the shoals about two and a half miles east of Tybee, a classmate and fellow Tybee soldier wrote. Norwegian sailors clung to the wreck.

Five men under Morgan attempted to mount a rescue mission to help the sailors without HSM’s knowledge. They believed he was too sick to go, but would join them anyway if he learned of their mission. But HSM did learn of the rescue effort and climbed into the boat, despite his weariness and illness. “Just think of those poor devils out there,” Morgan reportedly said as the rescuers approached the Noe.

A heavy breaker swamped Morgan’s boat. He clung to the boat. “It was jerked out of his hands once and he regained it,” according to witnesses, “but after a while it was jerked out the second time he seemed to be too exhausted to make any effort.” He wore his soaked uniform and a bulky raincoat. Weighed down, ill, and exhausted, Morgan was lost. Another would-be rescuer was also lost. Four other men clung to the boat and were washed ashore.

Henry Sims Morgan was 24 years old.

They did not find his body. It did not wash ashore with the men who survived on the boat. There was slight hope for HSM and the other drowned seaman named Smith, but a newspaper article noted they were “almost surely lost.”

HSM’s father and uncle went to Tybee to see what they could learn. Uncle John Sims returned and reported that W.L. Morgan did not plan returning to Valdosta until his son’s body was recovered or all hope was given up.

He would have to come home. HSM’s body was not recovered despite the best of efforts.

In 1903, HSM’s classmates erected a tablet in his honor in a hall at West Point. It listed his birthdate, date of death, date of graduation, and how he died.

In September 1906, eight years after he was lost at sea, a body was discovered on St. Catherine’s Island. The remains were of a man of great height, such as HSM. After a few weeks, the Morgan family was convinced that the remains were those of their son. They were shipped to Valdosta and laid to rest in Sunset Hill Cemetery.

In 1923, these classmates placed a second memorial to HSM on a granite stone on the grounds of Fort Screven at Tybee Island, Davis notes. The memorial was moved to Fort Pulaski in 1950. In 1994, the memorial returned to Tybee Island, where it stands in front of the Tybee Museum.

Twenty-five years after his passing, HSM’s graduating class kept his memory alive. “No member of his class, apparently, had a finer career before him, which made his death seem doubly sad,” one classmate noted years later. “He was a fine man and a good friend, and his death was a great loss, not only to his family and friends, but to the Army and his Country.”

Still, it would seem efforts to rename the fort have been successful. Though some locals called the battery Fort Morgan for years, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources officially named it Battery Henry Sims Morgan in 2006 in honor of a Valdostan who may have been the city’s first football player, but, more importantly, a Valdostan who was a hero and lost too young.