Sen. Charles E. Schumer announced Tuesday he has sent letters to the secretary of the Navy and the head of the National Archives, urging them to locate a Medal of Honor awarded to a Lockport sailor who died in the Civil War and allow Niagara County to take possession of the medal.

“The first hurdle to overcome is to find out if it was ever created and then to find out where it is,” said Max Young, Schumer’s spokesman.

As for the county’s suggestion that the medal be placed on display in the County Courthouse, “We think it’s a fantastic idea,” Young said.

Michael Huskey, a fireman aboard a gunboat in the Navy, won the Medal of Honor for his action in the rescue of a stranded tugboat under fire in Steele’s Bayou, Miss., in March 1863. He was approved for the medal about a year later but died in October 1984 in a Memphis, Tenn., hospital and never received it.