The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to First Sergeant William Henry Mathews, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism on 30 July 1864, while serving with Company E, 2d Maryland Veteran Infantry, in action at Petersburg, Virginia. Finding himself among a squad of Confederates, First Sergeant Mathews fired into them, killing one, and was himself wounded, but succeeded in bringing in a sergeant and two men of the 17th South Carolina Regiment (Confederate States of America) as prisoners.
(First Sergeant Mathews enlisted in 1861 at Baltimore, Maryland, under the name Henry Sivel, and the original Medal of Honor was issued under that name. A new medal was issued in 1900 under true name, William H. Mathews.)