The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to First Sergeant Cornelius Cole Smith, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism on 1 January 1891, while serving with Company K, 6th U.S. Cavalry, in action at White River, South Dakota. With four men of his troop, First Sergeant Smith drove off a superior force of the enemy and held his position against their repeated efforts to recapture it, and subsequently pursued them a great distance.