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Medal of Honor Recipient

Peter Howard

U.S. Navy · U.S. Civil War

MOH-RC-002413Source-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: 1863

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

March 14, 1863

Port Hudson, Louisiana, USA

Rank at action
Boatswain's Mate
Service
U.S. Navy
Conflict
U.S. Civil War
Unit or command
U.S.S. Mississippi

The Citation

Sources ↓
Served on board the U.S.S. Mississippi during the action against Port Hudson, 14 March 1863. Running aground during the darkness and in the midst of battle while exposed to a devastating fire from enemy shore batteries, the Mississippi was ordered abandoned after a long and desperate attempt to free her. Serving courageously throughout this period in which a steady fire was kept up against the enemy until the ship was enveloped in flames and abandoned. Howard acted gallantly in his duties as boatswain's mate. Soon after the firing of the Mississippi and its abandonment, it was seen to slide off the shoal, drift downstream and explode, leaving no possibility of its falling into enemy hands.

Sources & record notes

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

  1. Peter Howard — 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-002424
Transcription status
Legacy full text · current reference profile matched
Last source check
2026-08-30
Recorded order reference (not verified against the original)
17
Later or highest recorded rank
Acting Ensign
Accredited to
Massachusetts. G.O. No.: 17, 1
Archive transcription SHA-256
1ac6203909fef43f83c724ffb62d2b5e689020734637de77e7c87bccd767f3ed

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 rendering Boatswain's Mate (Highest Rank: Acting Ensign); action and later or highest ranks remain separately attributed. The controlled canonical unit or command is U.S.S. Mississippi; the current structured profile renders U.S.S. Mississippi, and the inherited wording Not documented remains preserved as a separately attributed variant. The current authoritative evidence controls the action date as 1863-03-14 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 Port Hudson, Louisiana, USA; the current structured place Port Hudson, Louisiana, USA and the complete inherited geocoder value Port Hudson, LA 70791, 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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