The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to First Lieutenant (Infantry) Frederick V. Burgess, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with Company C, 15th Machine-Gun Battalion, 5th Division, American Expeditionary Forces, near St. Mihiel, France, 13 September 1918. After being painfully wounded by a machine-gun bullet in a particularly intense barrage of machine-gun and shell fire Lieutenant Burgess remained with his platoon, visiting his guns and directing their fire throughout a determined counterattack, refusing to be evacuated until the attack was over.