Lewis J. Ingalls

The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Private Lewis J. Ingalls, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism on 4 September 1862, while serving with Company F, 8th Vermont Infantry, in action at Boutte Station, Louisiana. A railroad train guarded by about 60 men on flat cars having been sidetracked by a misplaced switch into an ambuscade of guerrillas who were rapidly shooting down the unprotected guards, Private Ingalls, under a severe fire in which he was wounded, ran to another switch and, opening it, enabled the train and the surviving guards to escape.