Medal of Honor
January 20, 1909
Coquimbo, Chile
- Rank at action
- Boatswain's Mate
- Service
- U.S. Navy
- Conflict
- Interim 1899 - 1910
- Unit or command
- U.S.S. Washington
- Presentation date
- March 19, 1909
The Citation
Sources ↓Sources & record notes
General Order comparison: pending. Current-profile review does not mean that the underlying original order has been examined.
- William Henry Gowan — 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-002367
- Transcription status
- Legacy full text · current reference profile matched
- Last source check
- 2026-08-30
- Recorded order reference (not verified against the original)
- 18
- Accredited to
- New York
- Archive transcription SHA-256
- 8c9ab5dd3333084c27db6a93b12ae2b538a8c826d63911ba2dbfe005c8621ddb
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 controlled canonical unit or command is U.S.S. Washington; the current structured profile renders U.S.S. Washington, and the inherited wording Not documented remains preserved as a separately attributed variant. The current authoritative evidence controls the action date as 1909-01-20 and classifies the action under Interim 1899 - 1910; the inherited unnormalized date and conflict values remain preserved in the audit record. The controlled historical action place is Coquimbo, Chile; the current structured place Coquimbo, Chile and the complete inherited geocoder value Coquimbo, Coquimbo, Coquimbo Region, Chile 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.