The first Medal of Honor presentation took place in 1863. Since then and as of June 18, 2026, there have been 3,555 Medals of Honor awarded.
For a short video of a behind the scenes look at what goes into the award presentation at the White House check out this video:
For a condensed history of the Medal of Honor, narrated by Gary Sinise, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=MaGxvjdgK2o its about 48 minutes long. For reasons unknown, YouTube has labeled this video age appropriate. We disagree but only the video creator can request a change.
This does not include those revoked by the 1916 review board but it does include 19 double awards and those awarded to the unknown soldiers.
Below is a recap by era, war/conflict:
| Civil War | 1,525 |
| Indian Campaigns | 426 |
| Korea 1871 | 15 |
| Spanish American War | 110 |
| Philippine Insurrection | 82 |
| Samoan Campaign | 4 |
| China Relief Aka Boxer Rebellion | 59 |
| Philippines 1911 | 6 |
| Mexican Campaign Aka Vera Cruz | 56 |
| Haitian Campaign | 6 |
| Dominican Campaign | 3 |
| World War I | 126 |
| 2nd Haitian Campaign | 2 |
| 2nd Nicaraguan Campaign | 2 |
| Interim Awards (3 time periods) | 193 |
| World War II | 473 |
| Korean War | 152 |
| Vietnam | 273 |
| Somalia | 2 |
| War on Terror | 30 |
| Venezuela | 1 |
| Unknowns | 9 |
Sadly, since the passing of Mr. Bruce Crandall, only 65 of these men are still with us today. Mr. Crandall passed on 31 May 2026.
We have set up two options on this site for locating the burial locations of our nations Medal of Honor Recipients. The first is by state which will take you to the page for the state that the Recipient is buried in. That page will include GPS information when it is available and a link to a Google map to help you locate the grave. If you have a GPS listing for a grave that we do not have posted, please send it to us in a N 34.1854, W -118.1486 format.
The second option is an alphabetical listing which will eventually list all the names of those who have passed with a link to the state page for their burial state. Both of these listings are a work in progress.
We do not list the recipient’s citations as the current versions are full of errors, some are downright egregious. This special edition of our newsletter illustrates the problem. July 2025 Special Edition
Questions or comments? Please contact us.
Medal of Honor Historical Society of the United States 