William J. Potter

The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to William J. Potter, Captain, U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in action near Eclisfontaine, France, September 28, 1918. After being painfully wounded by a shell fragment during the night, Captain Potter refused to go to the rear and organized his company for an attack and led it in the advance under heavy machine-gun and artillery fire, freely exposing himself and cheering his men by his presence until he was a second time wounded through the lungs, even then refusing to be evacuated until the company was organized and properly turned over to his successor for another attack which was then impending.