Navy Federal Credit Union

Awards Received

  • Medal of Honor

    Service:

    United States Navy

    Rank:

    Ordinary Seaman

    Division:

    U.S.S. Wabash

    Action Date:

    January 15, 1865

    War Department, General Orders No. 59 (June 22, 1865)

    The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Ordinary Seaman Louis Capet Shepard, United States Navy, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving as Seaman on board the U.S.S. Wabash in the assault on Fort Fisher, North Carolina, 15 January 1865. Advancing gallantly through severe enemy fire while armed only with a revolver and cutlass which made it impossible to return the fire at that range, Ordinary Seaman Shepard succeeded in reaching the angle of the fort and in going on, to be one of the few who entered the fort. When the rest of the body of men to his rear were forced to retreat under a devastating fire, he was forced to withdraw through lack of support and to seek the shelter of one of the mounds near the stockade from which point he succeeded in regaining the safety of his ship.