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Medal of Honor Recipient

William Garvin

U.S. Navy · U.S. Civil War

MOH-RC-002345Source-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

December 23, 1864

Fort Fisher, 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. Agawam

The Citation

Sources ↓
Garvin served on board the U.S.S. Agawam, as one of a volunteer crew of a powder boat which was exploded near Fort Fisher, 23 December 1864. The powder boat, towed in by the Wilderness to prevent detection by the enemy, cast off and slowly steamed to within 300 yards of the beach. After fuses and fires had been lit and a second anchor with short scope let go to assure the boat's tailing inshore, the crew again boarded the Wilderness and proceeded a distance of 12 miles from shore. Less than 2 hours later the explosion took place, and the following day fires were observed still burning at the fort.

Sources & record notes

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

  1. William Garvin — 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-002356
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
Boatswain's Mate
Accredited to
Virginia
Archive transcription SHA-256
60958f0b205e9b331f4161a0fd444c1107b150d048d0330cb409c7c737c6a5c4

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 action rank Captain of the Forecastle remains distinct from the later or highest rank Boatswain's Mate. The controlled canonical unit or command is U.S.S. Agawam; the current structured profile renders U.S.S. Agawam, and the inherited wording Not documented remains preserved as a separately attributed variant. The current authoritative evidence controls the action date as 1864-12-23 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 Fort Fisher, North Carolina, USA; the current structured place Fort Fisher, North Carolina, USA and the complete inherited geocoder value Fort Fisher Historic Museum, 1610 South Fort Fisher Boulevard, Kure Beach, NC 28449, 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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