Present American leader with battle dead... (5)
I believe the answer is:
award
'present' is the definition.
('award' can be a synonym of 'present')
'american leader with battle dead' is the wordplay.
'leader' says to take the initial letters.
'with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'battle' becomes 'war' (I've seen this before**).
'dead' becomes 'd'.
The initial letter of 'american' is 'a'.
'a'+'war'+'d'='AWARD'
(Other definitions for award that I've seen before include "Give, as an honour" , "Oscar, say" , "Prize -- gift" , "Endow" , "Give, grant" .)