The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Sergeant James S. Roantree, United States Marine Corps, for extraordinary heroism in action on board the U.S.S. Oneida during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Despite damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks and penetrated her boilers, Sergeant Roantree performed his duties with skill and courage throughout the furious battle which resulted in the surrender of the rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.