Bernard J. D. Irwin
Bernard John Dowling Irwin was an assistant army surgeon during the Apache Wars and the first Medal of Honor recipient. His actions on February 13, 1861 are the earliest for which the Medal of Honor was awarded.
Irwin was born in County Roscommon, Ireland, and immigrated with his parents to the United States in the 1840s. He attended New York University from 1848 to 1849, and served as a Private in the New York Militia. In 1850 he entered Castleton Medical College, but later transferred to New York Medical College, where he graduated in 1852. He served as a surgeon and physician at the State Emigrant Hospital on Wards Island until his appointment as an assistant surgeon to the US Army in 1856.
Source: Wikipedia