Henry Schutes received Medals of Honor for both actions. This was a new honor created in1861. t the time of the actions, Schutes was 58, making him the oldest Medal of Honor winner.
It is not clear when he left the Navy, but according to the Mount Moriah Cemetery in Philadelphia, a register of employees at the USNA showed him employed there as a civilian watchman in 1865. At some point in the mid-1870s, he moved to Philadelphia to the Naval Asylum, which was a home and hospital for retired seamen.
He broke a leg in 1889, but "refused to keep his splint in place and grew increasingly belligerent about eating." He died on September 10, 1889 and was buried at Mount Moriah.
The cemetery attributes his death to "general failure of willpower."
--Old B-R'er
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