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Medal of Honor Recipient

Martin Freeman

U.S. Navy · U.S. Civil War

MOH-RC-002337Source-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: 1864

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.

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Medal of Honor

August 5, 1864

Mobile Bay, Alabama, USA

Rank at action
1st Class Pilot
Service
U.S. Navy
Conflict
U.S. Civil War
Unit or command
U.S.S. Hartford

The Citation

Sources ↓
As pilot of the flagship, U.S.S. Hartford, during action against Fort Morgan, rebel gunboats and the ram Tennessee, in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. With his ship under terrific enemy shellfire, Freeman calmly remained at his station in the maintop and skillfully piloted the ships into the bay. He rendered gallant service throughout the prolonged battle in which the rebel gunboats were captured or driven off, the prize ram Tennessee forced to surrender, and the fort successfully attacked.

Sources & record notes

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

  1. Martin Freeman — 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-002348
Transcription status
Legacy full text · current reference profile matched
Last source check
2026-08-30
Recorded order reference (not verified against the original)
45
Entered service at
Louisiana
Archive transcription SHA-256
3fcc373b6a592f1bff6ff7a9a9bd35d665244eac460b892ac922957ef74c5752

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 current profile also supplies the separately retained rank, identity, or service-history rendering Highest Rank: Civilian; it is not collapsed into the controlled action rank or canonical identity. The controlled canonical unit or command is U.S.S. Hartford; the current structured profile renders U.S.S. Hartford, and the inherited wording Not documented remains preserved as a separately attributed variant. The current authoritative evidence controls the action date as 1864-08-05 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 Mobile Bay, Alabama, USA; the current structured place Mobile Bay, Alabama, USA and the complete inherited geocoder value Fort Morgan, 51 Alabama 180, Gulf Shores, AL 36542, USA remain preserved in the audit evidence. 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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