On this episode of Our American Stories, in February 1861, Assistant Surgeon Bernard John Dowling Irwin volunteered to lead just 11 soldiers on a dangerous mission to rescue troops surrounded by Apache warriors in what became known as the Bascom Affair.

The History Guy shares how Irwin earned the first Medal of Honor by date of action and how one misunderstood confrontation helped spark the Apache Wars, a conflict that would shape the American Southwest for decades.

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