The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pride in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross (Posthumously) to Second Lieutenant (Infantry) Edwin Van Meter Evans, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Division, American Expeditionary Forces, south of Soissons, France, 23 July 1918. When his battalion was forced to fall back before heavy machine-gun and artillery fire, Lieutenant Evans led six runners in an attack on an enemy machine-gun nest. They had progressed about 200 yards ahead of the line when this officer, who was in advance of his men, was instantly killed just as he reached the machine-gun nest.