The highest decoration awarded by the United States, and its only national medal for valor of military merit in the 19th century, is the Medal of Honor. Because it is customarily bestowed by the president "in the name of the Congress," it is frequently, and erroneously, called the "Congressional Medal of Honor."
Before the Civil War, the United States, unlike European nations, had no standard medals. On August 7, 1782, during the Revolutionary War, General George Washington authorized the award of a Purple Heart. This was not a medal but a cloth badge of purple silk edged in lace. There is no record of more than three ever having been awarded. Washington was presented with a medal (manufactured in Paris) for driving the British out of Boston in March 1776, and John Paul Jones and Horatio Gates were each given one-of-a-kind medals. Chambers of commerce, citizens and groups of officers sometimes awarded medals, but no national medals or criteria for awarding them were established. Officers were usually rewarded with brevet rank. During the Mexican War (184648) and later, enlisted men who distinguished themselves in battle were given the Meritorious Service Citation Certificate, commonly called the Certificate of Merit.
In 1861, Lt. Col. Edward Davis Townsend, assistant adjutant general in Washington, recommended the creation of a medal for valor. General Winfield Scott, although noted for his love of military finery, rejected the idea as "contrary to the spirit of American institutions." But the Navy liked the idea, and on December 9, 1861, Senator James W. Grimes of Iowa, chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs, proposed it. The bill passed both houses, and on December 21 Lincoln signed it into law. The act authorized 200 Medals of Honor for sailors, and on May 15, 1862, the U.S. Mint was ordered to make 175. The original medal was made of copper coated with bronze, which gave it a somewhat reddish cast, and each one cost $1.85.
On February 17, 1862, Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts, chairman of the Senate Committee on Military Affairs, had proposed a similar medal for the Army, and that bill was signed into law on July 12. The Army medal was to be awarded "to such noncommissioned officers and privates as shall most distinguish themselves by their gallantry in action, and other soldierlike qualities, during the present insurrection." The original purpose of the medal was to improve the efficiency of the troops, and acts of bravery were not necessarily required.
Army officers did not become eligible until March 3, 1863, but the award was made retroactive to the beginning of the war. The revision was largely ignored, however. After the war, three medals were awarded to officers, but they received the award for their service as enlisted men. There were many awards that were conferred upon officers much later--particularly in the 1890s, when the Grand Army of the Republic, a politically powerful veterans' organization, demanded that more medals be presented. After General Arthur MacArthur--Douglas' father--was successful in his claim for a medal in 1890, other officers applied for it. Between 1891 and 1896, there were 67 awards to officers for gallantry during the Civil War, 45 of whom were still on active duty. Not until 1915 were naval officers entitled to the award.
The Army had ordered 2,000 medals made, at a cost of $2 each, in November 1862. The medal was similar to the Navy medal but carried a different design. The first medals were given to the surviving six participants in the Andrews Raid--those involved in the great locomotive chase of April 1862--by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton on March 25, 1863.
The significance later associated with the medal were not attributed to it originally; many were passed out haphazardly. During the Civil War 1,520 were awarded, of which 1,196 were given to soldiers and 17 to Marines. There were many instances of what were later considered inappropriate awards.
The most egregious distribution occurred when medals were awarded to 309 men of the 27th Maine, none of whom had ever been in battle. The 864 men in the regiment had enlisted for only nine months, and on June 30, 1863, they were all to be discharged. Four days before that date, and five days before the Battle of Gettysburg, they were asked to stay at their post, guarding Washington, D.C. All refused until they were offered the Medal of Honor. With that bribe, 309 agreed to remain. Their extended tour was only four days, and they were not required to fight. Nevertheless, they had been promised the medal, and orders were issued to give it to every member of the regiment. The governor of Maine was sent 864. After distributing medals to the 309 who had remained, he refused to hand out any more. The remaining medals were stashed in his barn and were later stolen. In 1917, under the provisions of Section 122 of the Act of Congress of June 3, 1916, 911 awards of the Medal of Honor, including all those awarded to soldiers of the 27th Maine, were revoked.
Only one woman was ever awarded a Medal of Honor--Mary Walker, an army surgeon. Her medal was among those revoked in 1917, but political pressure from women's groups caused it to be posthumously restored in 1977.
Twenty-four African Americans earned the award in the American Civil War (8 sailors and 16 soldiers). The first, Sergeant William Carney, saved the regimental flag of the 54th Massachusetts in an attack on Fort Wagner, S.C., on July 18, 1863. He was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1900.
Sergeant Llewellyn P. Norton of the 10th New York Cavalry was awarded the Medal of Honor on July 3, 1865, for his heroism in the Battle of Sayler's Creek, Va., on April 6, but he did not learn of it until 23 years later when he read his name among a list of recipients in Appleton's Cyclopedia.
Only five soldiers ever received the Medal of Honor twice. One of them was Thomas Ward Custer, younger brother of George Armstrong Custer; both brothers died in the Battle of the Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876. No one has earned it three times.
While the Medal of Honor was undergoing its genesis in the north, the Congress of the Confederate States of America passed a law in 1862, calling for a Roll of Honor to be published after every battle. The names of those who distinguished themselves were to be read on parade, included in official records, and published in newspapers, although only seldom were any of those things actually done. The only Confederate award, the Davis Guard Medal, was awarded to the 44 members of Company F, 3rd Texas Artillery (formed from the Davis Guards), and CSA President Jefferson Davis by the residents of Sabine City for gallantry in the Battle of Sabine Pass on September 8, 1863.
On June 26, 1897, new regulations were adopted regarding criteria for awarding the Medal of Honor. Claimants were required to supply war department records of eyewitnesses. Claims could not be submitted by the intended recipient, and recommendations had to be made within one year of the performance of the act, although the government appears to have been flexible on that point.
In the 19th century, in addition to the 1,520 medals awarded during the Civil War, 15 were awarded for gallantry in the Korean War of 1871, 109 for the Spanish-American War, and 59 for the Boxer Rebellion in China. Only two have been awarded for feats in peacetime, both in the 20th century: One was awarded to General Adolphus Greely in 1935, the year of his death, for his Arctic explorations, and the other to Charles Lindbergh in 1927 for his famous transatlantic flight on May 20-21 of that year.
Unlike the British Victoria Cross and the French Légion d'Honneur, which can be and have been awarded to foreign nationals, the Medal of Honor cannot be awarded to anyone who is not a U.S. citizen. Like the Victoria Cross, the Medal of Honor has become increasingly more difficult to earn, and the esteem given its recipients has dramatically increased. President Harry S. Truman said, "I would rather have that medal than be president of the United States," and General George S. Patton said, "I'd give my soul for that decoration." *