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Medal of Honor Recipient

Thomas Harding

U.S. Navy · U.S. Civil War

MOH-RC-002378Source-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

June 9, 1864

Beaufort, North Carolina, USA

Rank at action
Captain of the Forecastle
Service
U.S. Navy
Conflict
U.S. Civil War
Unit or command
U.S.S. Dacotah

The Citation

Sources ↓
Served as captain of the forecastle on board the U.S.S. Dacotah on the occasion of the destruction of the blockade runner Pevensey, near Beauford, N.C., 9 June 1864. "Learning that one of the officers in the boat, which was in danger of being, and subsequently was, swamped, could not swim, Harding remarked to him: 'If we are swamped, sir, I shall carry you to the beach or I will never go there myself.' He did not succeed in carrying out his promise, but made desperate efforts to do so, while others thought only of themselves. Such conduct is worthy of appreciation and admiration--a sailor risking his own life to save that of an officer."

Sources & record notes

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

  1. Thomas Harding — 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-002389
Transcription status
Legacy full text · current reference profile matched
Last source check
2026-08-30
Recorded order reference (not verified against the original)
45
Later or highest recorded rank
Acting Master's Mate
Accredited to
Connecticut
Archive transcription SHA-256
c01b7571bed35c4982d2dcbbbd75db1826c5dadd7da27093ba5747d27060e674

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 Captain of the Forecastle (Highest Rank: Acting Master's Mate); action and later or highest ranks remain separately attributed. The controlled canonical unit or command is U.S.S. Dacotah; the current structured profile renders U.S.S. Dacotah, and the inherited wording Not documented remains preserved as a separately attributed variant. The current authoritative evidence controls the action date as 1864-06-09 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 Beaufort, North Carolina, USA; the current structured place Beaufort, North Carolina, USA and the complete inherited geocoder value Beaufort, NC, 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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