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Medal of Honor Recipient

Nicholas Lear

U.S. Navy · U.S. Civil War

MOH-RC-002474Source-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.

Medal imagery and historical designs →

Medal of Honor

December 24, 1864–January 15, 1865

Fort Fisher, North Carolina, USA

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

The Citation

Sources ↓
Lear 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 order was 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. Nicholas Lear — 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-002485
Transcription status
Legacy full text · current reference profile matched
Last source check
2026-08-30
Recorded order reference (not verified against the original)
59
Other source date wording
1865-01-13
Accredited to
Pennsylvania
Archive transcription SHA-256
7284001ac4cf4f1d774a8aa27606c2e97c55128fbd806f6f5883eb355cf5562f

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 1864-12-24 through 1865-01-15 and classifies the action under U.S. Civil War; the inherited unnormalized date and conflict values remain preserved. The Society structured action-date field is retained separately as 1865-01-13 through 1865-01-15. 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. The Society structured range is January 13–15, 1865, while the rendered citation also describes the December 24–25, 1864 attacks. The complete December-to-January chronology is retained without implying continuous combat on every intervening day. 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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