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Medal of Honor Recipient

William McKnight

U.S. Navy · U.S. Civil War

MOH-RC-002518Source-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: 1862

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

April 24, 1862

Forts Jackson & St. Philip, Louisiana, USA

Rank at action
Coxswain
Service
U.S. Navy
Conflict
U.S. Civil War
Unit or command
U.S.S. Varuna

The Citation

Sources ↓
Captain of a gun on board the U.S.S. Varuna during the attacks on Forts Jackson and St. Philip and in action against the rebel ship Morgan, 24 April 1862. During this action at extremely close range, while his ship was under furious fire and was twice rammed by the rebel ship Morgan, McKnight remained steadfast at his gun throughout the thickest of the fight and was instrumental in inflicting damage on the enemy until the Varuna, so badly damaged that she was forced to beach, was finally sunk.

Sources & record notes

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

  1. William McKnight — current Society profile ↗Congressional Medal of Honor Society · Checked 2026-08-31

    current identity, service, action metadata, and citation comparison

Transcription, metadata & provenance notes
Award ID
MOH-AW-002529
Transcription status
Legacy full text · current reference profile matched
Last source check
2026-08-31
Recorded order reference (not verified against the original)
11
Later or highest recorded rank
Master's Mate
Accredited to
New York
Archive transcription SHA-256
b9e3b0bdd672df60506bc7fc02524ebbd7330b464945ea5f8fdcf3da21fa3c80

Legacy transcription retained without substantive editing; rendered current reference profile variants documented in the Phase 10 evidence snapshot.

Current reference profile confirms Coxswain as the action rank, Master's Mate as the later or highest rank, USS Varuna, and the April 24, 1862 action. Recovery provenance: the prior live-verification result is reconstructed because the described P10-C060–P10-C062 restart files were not physically available; the verified P10-C059 authority, retained web-reference metadata, legacy record, and prior session evidence are all preserved.

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