On This Day In Alabama History: Richmond Hobson Received The Medal Of Honor

By Graydon Rust
Alabama 200

April 29, 1933

President Franklin D. Roosevelt awarded Greensboro native Richmond Hobson the Medal of Honor. Hobson received the award for sinking the USS Merrimac in Cuba’s Santiago Harbor nearly 35 years earlier in an unsuccessful attempt to trap Spanish ships during the Spanish-American War. A war hero, Hobson resigned from the Navy in 1903 and became a champion of U.S. naval supremacy and Progressive Era ideals. In 1906, Hobson was elected a U.S. representative from Alabama’s Sixth District and served four terms as he advocated for improved education, women’s suffrage and the prohibition of alcohol and narcotics. Hobson was inducted into the Alabama Men’s Hall of Fame in 1995.

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