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Medal of Honor Recipient

John P. Donaldson

U.S. Army · Civil War

MOH-RC-001422Source-based record

The award

Representative medal image: original Army design. Not a portrait or a photograph of this recipient’s own medal.
Army 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

April 9, 1865

Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, USA

Rank at action
Sergeant
Service
U.S. Army
Conflict
Civil War
Unit or command
Company L, 4th Pennsylvania Cavalry

The Citation

Sources ↓
Capture of flag of 4th Virginia Cavalry (C.S.A.).
Separately preserved current-source wording

Captured from the linked current recipient source; it is not a new comparison with an original General Order.

Capture of flag of 14th Virginia Cavalry (C.S.A.).

Sources & record notes

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

  1. John P. Donaldson — current Society profile ↗Congressional Medal of Honor Society · Checked 2026-08-28

    current identity, service, action metadata, and citation comparison

  2. John P. Donaldson — U.S. Army Medal of Honor citation index ↗U.S. Army Medal of Honor citation index · Checked 2026-08-28

    official citation wording identifying the captured flag as the 4th Virginia Cavalry

  3. John P. Donaldson — National Medal of Honor Museum ↗National Medal of Honor Museum · Checked 2026-08-28

    recipient identity, action metadata, and citation wording identifying the 4th Virginia Cavalry

Transcription, metadata & provenance notes
Award ID
MOH-AW-001430
Transcription status
Conflicting official citation variants preserved
Last source check
2026-08-28
Later or highest recorded rank
Commissary Sergeant
Archive transcription SHA-256
81de8620700cc17a211c637b4c4dee57db025d64e8ccf0fc3d9f84ca33ac6d0b

Official institutional sources disagree on a citation detail. The inherited canonical wording and the current Society wording are retained separately with supporting source records; no silent overwrite was performed.

Controlled archival reference search recovered the current John P. Donaldson profile. The current Society citation identifies the captured flag as the 14th Virginia Cavalry, while the inherited citation, official Army citation index, and National Medal of Honor Museum identify the 4th Virginia Cavalry. The canonical citation retains the inherited 4th Virginia wording supported by two additional official/national institutional sources; the Society 14th Virginia wording remains preserved as a conflicting current-profile variant.

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