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Medal of Honor Recipient

Oliver Albert O'Brien

U.S. Navy · U.S. Civil War

MOH-RC-002571Source-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

November 28, 1864

Sullivan's Island Channel, South Carolina, USA

Rank at action
Coxswain
Service
U.S. Navy
Conflict
U.S. Civil War
Unit or command
U.S. Sloop John Adams

The Citation

Sources ↓
Served as coxswain on board the U.S. Sloop John Adams, Sullvan's Island Channel, 28 November 1864. Taking part in the boarding of the blockade runner Beatrice while under heavy enemy fire from Fort Moultrie, O'Brien, who was in charge of one of the boarding launches, carried out his duties with prompt and energetic conduct. This action resulted in the firing of the Beatrice and the capture of a quantity of supplies from her.

Sources & record notes

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

  1. Oliver Albert O'Brien — current Society profile ↗Congressional Medal of Honor Society · Checked 2026-08-31

    current identity, service, action metadata, and citation comparison

Transcription, metadata & provenance notes
Award ID
MOH-AW-002583
Transcription status
Legacy full text · current reference profile matched
Last source check
2026-08-31
Recorded order reference (not verified against the original)
45
Later or highest recorded rank
Acting Master's Mate
Accredited to
Massachusetts
Archive transcription SHA-256
f556ec725e154420a2ecb8ba59a46c411646f010f84d9a674eb48a2d44e2f2d8

Legacy transcription retained without substantive editing; rendered current reference profile variants documented in the Phase 10 evidence snapshot.

Controlled Society search recovered Oliver Albert O'Brien and confirmed the U.S. Sloop John Adams, November 28, 1864, Sullivan's Island Channel action, and later Acting Master's Mate rank. Recovery provenance: the prior live-verification result is reconstructed because the described P10-C060–P10-C062 restart files were not physically available; the verified P10-C059 authority, retained web-reference metadata, legacy record, and prior session evidence are all preserved.

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