![]() Smith's wait, caused by a missing battle report, was the longest delay of the award for any recipient, until Novemwhen President Obama awarded the Medal of Honor to Union Army First Lieutenant Alonzo Cushing for his actions at the Battle of Gettysburg, taking the longest delay of the award to 151 years. It was common for Civil War Medals of Honor to be awarded decades after the conflict ended and in one case, Andrew Jackson Smith's Medal was not awarded until 2001, 137 years after the action in which he earned it. ![]() At least thirty-two were awarded to African Americans, including sixteen sailors of the Union Navy, sixteen soldiers of the United States Colored Troops, and three soldiers of other Army units. Mary Edwards Walker, a surgeon, became the only woman (and one of only eight civilians) awarded a Medal of Honor it was later revoked, and then reinstated. Andrews himself was a civilian and thus ineligible at the time. The first Medals of Honor were given to many of the participants of the Andrews' Raid, some posthumously. Of the 3,464 Medals of Honor awarded to date, 1,522 were awarded during the American Civil War. In 1916, a board consisting of five retired generals reviewed Army awards and recommended that these 864, as well as others, be revoked. 311 accepted, but because there was no official list of their names, the War Department issued 864 - one for each man in the unit. Stanton promised a Medal of Honor to every man in the 27th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment who extended his enlistment. Thus, it was often awarded for reasons that would not now satisfy the stringent modern criteria. While the Medal of Honor is now the highest military decoration attainable by a member of the United States armed forces, during the Civil War, it was the only one.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |