Medal of Honor
January 15, 1865
Fort Fisher, North Carolina, USA
- Rank at action
- Coxswain
- Service
- U.S. Navy
- Conflict
- U.S. Civil War
- Unit or command
- U.S.S. Ticonderoga
The Citation
Sources ↓On board the U.S.S. Ticonderoga in the attack upon Fort Fisher on 15 January 1865. As captain of No. 2 gun, stationed near the 100-pounder Parrott rifle when it burst into fragments, killing 8 men and wounding 12 more, Shipman promptly recognized the effect produced by the explosion and, despite the carnage surrounding them, and the enemy's fire, encouraged the men at their guns by exclaiming "Go ahead, boys! This is only the fortunes of war!"
Sources & record notes
General Order comparison: pending. Current-profile review does not mean that the underlying original order has been examined.
- William Shipman — 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-002674
- Transcription status
- Legacy full text · current reference profile matched
- Last source check
- 2026-08-31
- Recorded order reference (not verified against the original)
- 59
- Accredited to
- New York
- Archive transcription SHA-256
- 98cce6e83d794f526b7777f1c6cebb3711f2e4c858d86ee32ff30b81c5786adf
Legacy transcription retained without substantive editing; rendered current reference profile variants documented in the Phase 10 evidence snapshot.
Current reference profile was substantively compared against the inherited identity, service, rank, unit or command, action context, and citation. Candidate rank or successful page rendering alone was not treated as verification.