The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to First Lieutenant (Field Artillery) John Knight Bucklyn, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism on 3 May 1863, while serving with Battery E, 1st Rhode Island Light Artillery, in action at Chancellorsville, Virginia. Though himself wounded, First Lieutenant Bucklyn gallantly fought his section of the battery under a fierce fire from the enemy until his ammunition was all expended, many of the cannoneers and most of the horses killed or wounded, and the enemy within 25 yards of the guns, when, disabling one piece, he brought off the other in safety.