Medal of Honor
March 25, 1899–April 4, 1899
Philippine Islands
- Rank at action
- Private
- Service
- U.S. Marine Corps
- Conflict
- Philippine Insurrection
- Unit or command
- attached to the 8th Army Corps
The Citation
Sources ↓Separately preserved current-source wording
Captured from the linked current recipient source; it is not a new comparison with an original General Order.
Sources & record notes
General Order comparison: pending. Current-profile review does not mean that the underlying original order has been examined.
- Joseph H. Leonard — 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-002490
- Transcription status
- Legacy full text · current reference profile matched
- Last source check
- 2026-08-30
- Recorded order reference (not verified against the original)
- 55
- Other source date wording
- 1899-04-04
- Later or highest recorded rank
- Sergeant
- Accredited to
- New York
- Archive transcription SHA-256
- 3a9bac5f824da097937937d40b97d875bd2f1a519812bc1747709cb144b41bb2
Legacy transcription retained without substantive editing; rendered current reference profile variants documented in the Phase 10 evidence snapshot.
The controlled Society search outside the inherited candidate set 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 current evidence expands or normalizes the inherited display name Joseph Leonard to Joseph H. Leonard; both forms remain preserved. The exact current profile heading is Joseph H Leonard; the controlled display name is Joseph H. Leonard, and both forms remain preserved. Documented aliases or alternate identity forms remain attached to the controlled identity: Joseph Melvin. The action rank Private remains distinct from the later or highest rank Sergeant. The controlled canonical unit or command is attached to the 8th Army Corps; the current structured profile renders attached to the 8th Army Corps, and the inherited wording Not documented remains preserved as a separately attributed variant. The current authoritative evidence controls the action date as 1899-03-25 through 1899-04-04 and classifies the action under Philippine Insurrection; the inherited unnormalized date and conflict values remain preserved. The Society structured action-date field is retained separately as 1899-04-04. The controlled historical action place is Philippine Islands; the current structured place Philippine Islands and the complete inherited geocoder value United States remain preserved. The Society archive explains that he enlisted as Joseph Melvin, using his mother’s maiden name, and corrected the record to Joseph H. Leonard before the Medal was awarded. The structured endpoint and the four non-contiguous citation dates are retained separately. 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.