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Medal of Honor Recipient

Peter Cotton

U.S. Navy · U.S. Civil War

MOH-RC-002265Source-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: 1862

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

December 23, 1862–December 27, 1862

Yazoo River, Mississippi, USA

Rank at action
Ordinary Seaman
Service
U.S. Navy
Conflict
U.S. Civil War
Unit or command
U.S.S. Baron De Kalb

The Citation

Sources ↓
Cotton served on board the U.S.S. Baron De Kalb in the Yazoo River expedition, 23 to 27 December 1862. Proceeding under orders up the Yazoo River, the Baron De Kalb, with the object of capturing or destroying the enemy's transports, came upon the steamers John Walsh, R. J. Locklan, Golden Age and the Scotland, sunk on a bar where they were ordered to be burned. Continuing up the river, the Baron De Kalb was fired upon but, upon returning the fire, caused the enemy's retreat. Returning down the Yazoo, she destroyed and captured large quantities of enemy equipment and several prisoners. Serving bravely throughout this action, Cotton, as coxswain "distinguished himself in the various actions."

Sources & record notes

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

  1. Peter Cotton — 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-002276
Transcription status
Legacy full text · current reference profile matched
Last source check
2026-08-30
Recorded order reference (not verified against the original)
11
Accredited to
New York
Archive transcription SHA-256
495da53fbe098cbe566c676eba2f111680e8ade96f7a2d5b5d563604676e23bf

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 or role rendering Coxswain in the rendered citation; it is not collapsed into the controlled action rank Ordinary Seaman. The controlled canonical unit or command is U.S.S. Baron De Kalb; the current structured profile renders U.S.S. Baron De Kalb, and the inherited wording Not documented remains preserved as a separately attributed variant. The current authoritative evidence controls the action date as 1862-12-23 through 1862-12-27 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 Yazoo River, Mississippi, USA; the current structured place Yazoo River, Mississippi, USA and the complete inherited geocoder value Yazoo River, 1, LA, 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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