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Medal of Honor Recipient

John Dempster

U.S. Navy · U.S. Civil War

MOH-RC-002284Source-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 HonorAction-era reference: 1865

Portrait not yet available. Representative medal shown.

About this image

Presentation date is not usable for design selection. This is an action-era reference; a later presentation or replacement medal may differ.

Medal imagery and historical designs →

Medal of Honor

January 13, 1865–January 15, 1865

Fort Fisher, North Carolina, USA

Rank at action
Coxswain
Service
U.S. Navy
Conflict
U.S. Civil War
Unit or command
U.S.S. New Ironsides

The Citation

Sources ↓
Dempster served on board the U.S.S. New Ironsides during action in several attacks on Fort Fisher, 24 and 25 December 1864; and 13, 14, and 15 January 1865. The ship steamed in and took the lead in the ironclad division close inshore and immediately opened its starboard battery in a barrage of well-directed fire to cause several fires and explosions and dismount several guns during the first 2 days of fighting. Taken under fire as she steamed into position on 13 January, the New Ironsides fought all day and took on ammunition at night despite severe weather conditions. When the enemy came out of his bombproofs to defend the fort against the storming party, the ship's battery disabled nearly every gun on the fort facing the shore before the cease-fire orders were given by the flagship.

Sources & record notes

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

  1. John Dempster — 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-002295
Transcription status
Legacy full text · current reference profile matched
Last source check
2026-08-30
Recorded order reference (not verified against the original)
59
Accredited to
Pennsylvania
Archive transcription SHA-256
f02bfcb8c3effb8bc9e2dd67f1a9d95a78fabdb4dafb935a8f6241a80aabebcf

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, unit or command, action context, and citation; candidate rank or successful rendering alone was not treated as verification. The controlled canonical unit or command is U.S.S. New Ironsides; the current structured profile renders U.S.S. New Ironsides, and the inherited wording Not documented remains preserved as a separately attributed variant. The current authoritative evidence controls the action date as 1865-01-13 through 1865-01-15 and classifies the action under U.S. Civil War; the inherited unnormalized date and conflict values remain preserved in the audit record. The controlled historical action place is Fort Fisher, North Carolina, USA; the current structured place Fort Fisher, North Carolina, USA and the complete inherited geocoder value Fort Fisher Historic Museum, 1610 South Fort Fisher Boulevard, Kure Beach, NC 28449, USA remain preserved in the audit evidence. The rendered citation also describes an earlier related Fort Fisher action period; the structured award date range and the complete citation chronology remain separately attributed. The inherited full citation remains canonical and checksum-protected; current rendered wording is preserved separately where transcribed. No underlying General Order was examined, so the exact-order gate remains pending and no General Order verification is claimed.

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