The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Corporal Wilson Smith, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism on 6 September 1862, while serving with Battery H, 3d New York Light Artillery, in action at Washington, North Carolina. Corporal Smith took command of a gun (the lieutenant in charge having disappeared) and fired the same so rapidly and effectively that the enemy was repulsed, although for a time a hand-to-hand conflict was had over the gun.