Medal of Honor
September 29, 1864
Chapin's Farm, Virginia, USA
- Rank at action
- First Sergeant
- Service
- U.S. Army
- Conflict
- Civil War
- Unit or command
- Company C, 38th U.S. Colored Troops
The Citation
Sources ↓Commanded and gallantly led his company after the commanding officer had been killed; was the first enlisted man to enter the enemy's works.
Sources & record notes
General Order comparison: pending. Current-profile review does not mean that the underlying original order has been examined.
- Edward Ratcliff — current Society profile ↗Congressional Medal of Honor Society · Checked 2026-08-28
current identity, service, action metadata, and citation comparison
Transcription, metadata & provenance notes
- Award ID
- MOH-AW-001048
- Transcription status
- Legacy full text · current reference profile matched
- Last source check
- 2026-08-28
- Later or highest recorded rank
- Sergeant Major
- Archive transcription SHA-256
- c6df5ad30659bc3dce3513fd5bafaadea4a9a292301f2342c9fc6b10a8b9644b
Legacy transcription retained without substantive editing; current rendered profile variants documented in the Phase 10 evidence snapshot.
The current reference profile confirms the identity and award; highest later rank retained as Sergeant Major; legacy citation text, current rendered citation text, provenance, and checksums are preserved in parallel. No General Order verification is claimed.