The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Musician George Henry Palmer, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism on 20 September 1861, while serving with 1st Illinois Cavalry, in action at Lexington, Missouri. Musician Palmer volunteered to fight in the trenches and also led a charge which resulted in the recapture of a Union hospital, together with Confederate sharpshooters then occupying the same.