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Medal of Honor Recipient

Charles Asten

U.S. Navy · Civil War

MOH-RC-002168Source-based record

The award

Representative medal image: early Navy star design and striped ribbon. Not a portrait or a photograph of this recipient’s own medal.
Navy Medal of HonorRecorded presentation: 1864

Portrait not yet available. Representative medal shown.

About this image

Representative form selected from the recorded presentation year (1864), not authenticated medal-object provenance.

Medal imagery and historical designs →

Medal of Honor

May 5, 1864

Red River, Louisiana, USA

Rank at action
Quarter Gunner
Service
U.S. Navy
Conflict
Civil War
Unit or command
USS Signal
Presentation date
December 31, 1864

The Citation

Sources ↓
Served on board the U.S.S. Signal, Red River, 5 May 1864. Proceeding up the Red River, the U.S.S. Signal engaged a large force of enemy field batteries and sharpshooters, returning their fire until the Federal ship was totally disabled, at which time the white flag was raised. Although on the sick list, Q.G. Asten courageously carried out his duties during the entire engagement.

Sources & record notes

General Order comparison: pending. Current-profile review does not mean that the underlying original order has been examined.

  1. Charles Asten — current Society profile ↗Congressional Medal of Honor Society · Checked 2026-08-30

    current identity, service, action metadata, and citation comparison

Transcription, metadata & provenance notes
Award ID
MOH-AW-002178
Transcription status
Legacy full text · current reference profile matched
Last source check
2026-08-30
Recorded order reference (not verified against the original)
45
Accredited to
Illinois
Archive transcription SHA-256
6dfa102054a7cb99a60105ee08e33095d29e5be5212e3562de599275e596d8f9

Legacy transcription retained without substantive editing; rendered current reference profile variants documented in the Phase 10 evidence snapshot.

The inherited rank-1 Society candidate was confirmed by substantive comparison of identity, service, rank, action context, and citation; candidate rank or successful rendering alone was not treated as verification. The current source documents the following alias or alternate identity form on the same controlled identity: Asten, Michael. The current profile records USS Signal; the inherited unit field Not documented remains preserved as a source variant. The previously unnormalized action date is controlled as 1864-05-05 from the current authoritative profile. The controlled historical action place is Red River, Louisiana, USA; the complete inherited geocoder value Red River, NM, USA remains preserved in the audit evidence. The current authoritative profile classifies the action under Civil War; the inherited unclassified value remains preserved in the audit record. No underlying General Order was examined, so the exact-order gate remains pending and no General Order verification is claimed.

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