The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Ordinary Seaman Bartholomew Diggins, United States Navy, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving on board the flagship, U.S.S. Hartford, during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, Alabama, 5 August 1864. Despite damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks, Ordinary Seaman Diggins, as loader of a gun, remained steadfast at his post throughout the furious two-hour battle which resulted in the surrender of the rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.