The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Corporal John Shiel (Shields), United States Army, for extraordinary heroism on 13 December 1862, while serving with Company E, 90th Pennsylvania Infantry, in action at Fredericksburg, Virginia. Corporal Shiel carried a dangerously wounded comrade into the Union lines, thereby preventing his capture by the enemy.