Medal of Honor
December 2, 1864
Fort Fisher, North Carolina, USA
- Rank at action
- Ordinary Seaman
- Service
- U.S. Navy
- Conflict
- U.S. Civil War
- Unit or command
- U.S.S. Agawam
The Citation
Sources ↓On board the U.S.S. Agawam as one of a volunteer crew of a powder boat which was exploded near Fort Fisher, 2 December 1864. The powder boat, towed in by the Wilderness to prevent detection by the enemy, cast off and slowly steamed to within 300 yards of the beach. After fuses and fires had been lit and a second anchor with short scope let go to assure the boat's tailing inshore, the crew boarded the Wilderness and proceeded a distance of 12 miles from shore. Less than 2 hours later the explosion took place, and the following day fires were observed still burning at the forts.
Sources & record notes
General Order comparison: pending. Current-profile review does not mean that the underlying original order has been examined.
- James Sullivan — current Society profile ↗Congressional Medal of Honor Society · Checked 2026-08-31
current identity, service, action metadata, and citation comparison
Transcription, metadata & provenance notes
- Award ID
- MOH-AW-002702
- Transcription status
- Legacy full text · current reference profile matched
- Last source check
- 2026-08-31
- Recorded order reference (not verified against the original)
- 45
- Accredited to
- New York
- Archive transcription SHA-256
- f560c6f3c3033c42fe114b3e6c38c88b6fb82ea653c29e5ca3b79b0b65b6f686
Legacy transcription retained without substantive editing; rendered current reference profile variants documented in the Phase 10 evidence snapshot.
Current reference profile was substantively compared against the inherited identity, service, rank, unit or command, action context, and citation. Candidate rank or successful page rendering alone was not treated as verification.