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Medal of Honor Recipient

Thomas Barton

U.S. Navy · Civil War

MOH-RC-002180Source-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 HonorRecorded presentation: 1863

Portrait not yet available. Representative medal shown.

About this image

Representative form selected from the recorded presentation year (1863), not authenticated medal-object provenance.

Medal imagery and historical designs →

Medal of Honor

October 3, 1862

Franklin, Virginia, USA

Rank at action
Seaman
Service
U.S. Navy
Conflict
Civil War
Unit or command
USS Hunchback
Presentation date
April 3, 1863

The Citation

Sources ↓
On board the U.S.S. Hunchback in the attack on Franklin, Va., 3 October 1862. When an ignited shell, with cartridge attached, fell out of the howitzer upon the deck, S/man Barton promptly seized a pail of water and threw it upon the missile, thereby preventing it from exploding.
Separately preserved current-source wording

Captured from the linked current recipient source; it is not a new comparison with an original General Order.

On board the U.S.S. Hunchback in the attack on Franklin, Va., 3 October 1862. When an ignited shell, with cartridge attached, fell out of the howitzer upon the deck, Seaman Barton promptly seized a pail of water and threw it upon the missle, thereby preventing it from exploding.

Sources & record notes

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

  1. Thomas Barton — 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-002190
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
Ohio
Archive transcription SHA-256
0cc3774f0df3f23252d230fa7cc4e81b796a267206bb6b534bba9e206ec4857f

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, action context, and citation; candidate rank or successful rendering alone was not treated as verification. The current profile records USS Hunchback; the inherited unit field Not documented remains preserved as a source variant. The previously unnormalized action date is controlled as 1862-10-03 from the current authoritative profile. The controlled historical action place is Franklin, Virginia, USA; the complete inherited geocoder value Franklin, VA, USA remains preserved in the audit evidence. The current authoritative profile classifies the action under Civil War; the inherited unclassified value remains preserved in the audit record. No underlying General Order was examined, so the exact-order gate remains pending and no General Order verification is claimed. The rendered current citation’s exact “missle” spelling is preserved as current-source typography rather than silently corrected.