3 Modern Variations on the Medal of Honor
Photo credit: Congressional Medal of Honor Society

As reported previously, it is officially called the Medal of Honor (not Congressional….). and it is the highest honor that can be bestowed upon a person in the Armed Services of the United States.

Here are a few other interesting facts about the Medal of Honor:

General History

• The Medal of Honor (MOH) is properly described as having been “awarded”, “earned”, or “received”, not “given” or “won.”
• At this writing, the MOH has been awarded 3446 times.
• There is a Medal of Honor for each of the U.S. military branches. There are three designs of the MOH: one for the Army, one for the Air Force, and one that is shared by the Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard.
• By Acts of Congress, the MOH for the Navy was established on 21 December 1861 and for the Army on 12 July 1862; .
• Surrounding the insignia on the Medal of Honor are 34 stars, one for each of the States as of 1862 (including the 11 who attempted to secede).
• The first action which earned the MOH was on 13 February 1861 by Army Assistant Surgeon Bernard J.D. Irwin. At the time of his action, the medal didn’t exist. It was awarded to him in 1894.
• The first time a person was actually awarded the MOH, was on March 25, 1863. On that date, Pvt. Jacob Parrott was the first of a group of 6 men awarded the MOH for their actions in April 1862.
• The first African-American to be awarded the MOH was Sgt. William Carney of the famous 54th Massachusetts (see the movie Glory) for his actions on July 18, 1863 at Fort Wagner, SC.
• A total of 911 Medals of Honor were revoked in 1917, including those of 864 members of the 27th Maine, 29 members of Lincolns funeral guard, and 6 civilians. The valor of the latter group wasn’t doubted but civilians were judged ineligible.
• As Robert E. Lee headed North towards Gettysburg at the end of June, 1863, about 300 of the 864 members of the 27th Maine agreed to extend their enlistment by a few days in order to defend Washington D.C. on the promise that they would each receive the Medal of Honor. When the danger had past on July 4th, the last of the 27th Maine left for home but no accurate records had been made of who had stayed for the extra few days – so the medal was awarded to all 864 of them! In 1917, all 864 were revoked for failing to meet the criteria for the award.
• One of the civilians whose medal was rescinded was Assistant Surgeon Mary Walker, a contract surgeon during the Civil War and the only woman to ever be awarded the Medal of Honor. Her medal was restored in 1977.
• Another of those civilians whose medal was rescinded was “Buffalo” Bill Cody for his service as a scout in the Indian Campaigns. His award was restored in 1989.
• Captain Jay R. Vargas, a Marine who was awarded the MOH for his service in the Vietnam War, requested that the name of his recently-departed mother be engraved on his medal instead of his own. President Nixon honored the request and the mother, M. Sando Vargas, was thus added to the Honor Roll.
• The youngest person to be awarded the MOH was probably Willie Johnston, a musician in the 3rd Vermont Infantry, who was just 11 years old at the time he earned it for ‘Gallantry in Seven Day Battle and Peninsula campaign” 26 June - 1 July 1862.
• The oldest person to be awarded the MOH was probably General Douglas MacArthur, age 62 when he earned it in 1942 for “For conspicuous leadership in preparing the Philippine Islands to resist conquest, for gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action against invading Japanese forces, and for the heroic conduct of defensive and offensive operations on the Bataan Peninsula”
• The MOH has been awarded to five sets of brothers.
• The MOH has been awarded to two father-son pairs. The first was to 1st Lt. Arthur MacArthur, Jr. for service in the Civil War and General Douglas MacArthur for his service in World War II. (Yes, Gen. Douglas MacArthur was born in 1880 and his father was born in 1845!).
• Theodore Roosevelt is the only President to have received the Medal of Honor. It was for his service at San Juan Hill, 1 July 1898, but it wasn’t awarded until 16 January 2001.
• The sons of two Presidents, Webb Cook Hayes (Philippine Insurrection) and Theodore Roosevelt, Jr, (World War II), have received Medals of Honor.
• The Roosevelts thus became the second father-son pair to have been awarded the medal – and it was awarded to the son in 1944, 57 years before it was awarded to the father!
• It is the only military award in the country that is worn from a ribbon around the neck.
• It is illegal for anyone but the actual recipient to wear the MOH.
• It is illegal to sell a Medal of Honor or to sell, manufacture, or wear a “colorable imitation” of one. Possible punishment includes a fine or imprisonment of up to six months.
• Although not a requirement, it is the custom among military service personnel to salute a MOH recipient out of respect and courtesy, regardless of rank.
• At this writing, the last time a MOH was awarded was on September 17, 2009 to Sergeant First Class Jared C. Monti for his service in Afghanistan.
• At this writing, there are 91 living recipients of the Medal of Honor.

Civil War

• The MOH has been awarded 1527 times for service in the Civil War.
• The first action of the Civil War which earned the MOH was on 24 May 1861 by Army Private Francis Edwin Brownell.
• Of the 1527 medals awarded for service in the Civil War, the “Issued Date” (the date on which it was actually awarded) is missing for 357.
• Of the remaining 1170, only 204 (17%) were issued before the end of the war. By the end of 1865, there were 362 (31%) issued.
• Thereafter, the year with the most awarded medals was 1894 with 127, followed by 1897 with 119.
• The first posthumous award of the Medal of Honor was in September, 1863, to Sergeant Major Marion Ross of the 2nd Ohio Infantry for his service as one of “Andrews’ Raiders” in Georgia in April, 1862. He was one of 22 participants in “The Great Locomotive Chase”, a daring capture of a Confederate railroad train, an event which inspired a 1956 movie by the same name.
• The date on which the most Medals of Honor were earned during a single engagement was 22 May 1863, at Vicksburg, Mississippi (97).
• The last time a MOH was issued for Civil War service was on 31 January 2001. It was awarded to Corporal Andrew Jackson Smith of the 55th Massachusetts Volunteers who saved the regimental colors at the Battle of Honey Hill, SC, on 30 Nov 1864.
• Only soldiers in the Union Army were eligible for the Medal of Honor.

Gettysburg

• According to the National Park Service, there were 63 Medal of Honor which were awarded for service at Gettysburg. Of those, 8 were for actions on July 1st, 23 were for actions July 2nd, and 30 were for actions on July 3rd. Two others covered more than one of those dates.
• Of the 63, 10 served in the I Corps, 27=II Corps, 6=III Corps, 9=V Corps, 1=VI Corps, 3=XI Corps, 1=XII Corps, 2=Artillery Reserve, and 4=Cavalry Corps.
• The most decorated regiments at Gettysburg were the 19th Massachusetts and the 6th Pennsylvania Reserves with 5 Medals of Honor each.
• The Park Service’s count of 63 medals for service “at Gettysburg” actually includes one for an action in Fairfield, PA (Private George C. Platt (6th U.S. Cav.) and one for an action in Millerstown, PA (Sgt Martin Schwenk, also 6th U.S. Cav.). Both actions were on July 3rd.
• The 63 does not include Maj. Charles E. Capehart (1st WV Cav.) who was awarded his MOH for service on at Monterey Pass (near Fountaindale, PA). Although in the Gettysburg campaign, his action was on July 4th, after the official end of the battle.
• There were two people who received the MOH for service at Gettysburg but whose citation is also for gallantry at another battle — and they aren’t counted as double award recipients. 1st Sergeant George W. Roosevelt, 26th Pennsylvania, was awarded the MOH for service at Bull Run on 30 August 1862 and in Gettysburg on 2 July 1863. Capt James Pipes, 140th Pennsylvania, was awarded the MOH for service in Gettysburg on 2 July 1863 and at Reams Station on 25 August 1864. Unlike four people in the Civil War who received two Medals of Honor each (see below), Roosevelt and Pipes each got one medal for gallantry at two different engagements.
• Of the 63 award recipients for service at Gettysburg, there were 2 Musicians, 12 Privates, 12 Corporals, 16 Sergeants, 2 First Sergeants, 2 Second Lieutenants, 1 Lieutenant, 7 Captains, 3 Majors, 1 Lieutenant Colonel, 2 Colonels, 1 Brigadier General, and 1 Major General.
• Only 7 were awarded to men who commanded regiments/batteries or higher (Chamberlain, Fuger, Huidekoper, Sellers, Sickles, Veazey, and Webb).
• 17 other commanders at Gettysburg would receive the MOH for service elsewhere: 8 for service before Gettysburg and 9 for service after Gettysburg.
• The first awards of the MOH for service at Gettysburg were issued 17 months after the battle (1 Dec 1864)
• None of those who were in command at Gettyburg were awarded a MOH prior to 1890.

Double Award Recipients

• 19 people have received two Medals of Honor each.
• 4 of those were for service in the Civil War (none in relation to Gettysburg).
• 1 of those was 2nd Lieutenant Thomas W. Custer, the brother of George Armstrong Custer. (George was at Gettysburg but Tom was not). Both were killed at Little Big Horn in 1876.
• The other 3 double-recipients from the Civil War were in the U.S. Navy.

Sources:
Broadwater, Robert P., Civil War Medal of Honor Recipients (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co, 2007).
Home of Heroes, http://www.HomeOfHeroes.com
National Park Service, http://www.nps.gov/archive/gett/soldierlife/honor.htm
The Congressional Medal of Honor Society, http://www.cmohs.org
U.S. Army Center of Military History, http://www.history.army.mil/moh.html

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The Medal of Honor has been awarded 1527 times for service in the Civil War, including 63 for service at Gettysburg. The recipients have included such well-known participants of the battle as Major General Daniel Sickles, commander of the III Corps, and Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, defender of Little Round Top who was made even more famous by the 1993 movie, Gettysburg.

The medal is awarded to those who distinguished themselves “conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while engaged in an action against an enemy of the United States.” It has been argued that some such medals were awarded for political reasons (e.g., Sickles’) or for frivolous reasons like retrieving the enemy’s battle flag from the deserted battlefield.

But in those earlier years of the award, the Medal of Honor was generally not awarded posthumously. That is, ironically, you had to survive to get it! Some logically argued that, if anything, the soldier was more deserving of recognition if he gave his life in the process — so the policy was changed. But, in the interim, many valiant heroes of the Civil War were denied recognition with the nation’s highest military honor.

One of them was 1st Lt. Alonzo Hersford Cushing, commander of Battery A of the 4th U.S. Artillery at Gettysburg. Now comes word from Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin (Cushing’s place of birth) that 1st Lt. Cushing has been recommended for the Medal of Honor.

Cushing’s battery was positioned at “The Angle”, the focal point of “Pickett’s Charge” on July 3rd, 1863. He was wounded two times by shell fragments, including one which blew a gaping hole in his abdomen. But he survived for a time, refusing to leave the field or delegate his command. Literally holding his intestines in with one hand, according to eyewitnesses, he continued to command his battery against the oncoming waves of Confederates. With Cushing too badly wounded to be heard over the din of battle, his 1st Sgt, Frederick Fuger, began relaying his commands to the battery. Some time later, a third bullet mercifully hit Cushing in the mouth and killed him.

Cushing’s death disqualified him at the time for the Medal of Honor, but, in what some say was a tribute to Cushing’s actions, the medal was awarded to 1st Sgt. Fuger.

Now, finally, Cushing is poised to be recognized by his country for his heroism. 146.5 years late is better than nothing! Senator Feingold’s recommendation was joined by that of John M. McHugh, Secretary of the Army. It now goes to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees and then to the floor where it expected to be passed by a Special Act of Congress.

In recent years, a posthumous Medal of Honor was been traditionally presented to the next of kin at the White House by the President of the United States “in the name of Congress” (which is why it is sometimes erroneously called the Congressional Medal of Honor). We understand that there may be a ceremony at a monument to Cushing in Delafield, Wisconsin or at his grave at West Point.

We hope and expect, however, that there will also be a suitable ceremony on Cemetery Ridge in Gettysburg, where Cushing gave what Lincoln called “the last full measure of devotion.”

[Edited, Mar 12: Since we have found no evidence from the various authorities that any kind of ceremony is yet planned for Gettysburg, we have begun to undertake inquiries with many groups and dignitaries in order to set such plans in motion. If you would like to volunteer to help with the planning process, please contact us.]

[Edited, Mar 13: Sen. Feingold's office has reported that the bill awarding the Medal of Honor will probably be rolled into the next Defense Appropriations Bill sometime this summer. Until then, it seems they have a few other things on their plate . They've promised to keep me informed so that we know when to start putting plans into motion.]

Segway, Inc. of Bedford, NH, was recently sold without much fanfare to its Segway UK distributor.

Various sources tell us that the sale of the company is a very good thing, bringing new management and cash to the business. In particular, we hope that it means new investment in marketing and public relations, areas which we believe have been sorely neglected in recent years.

SegTours, LLC is an independent company, not directly affiliated with Segway, Inc., and therefore not directly affected by this sale. What’s more, our experience in the few weeks since the announcement suggests that we will continue to have access to all of the new equipment, parts, and service that we need.

As the weather begins to warm up and we’re gearing up for our third season, we are encouraged that Segway, Inc., is doing what is necessary to strengthen the company and support us. We’re looking forward to a great 2010 tour season!

The 2010 tour season is nearly upon us and we’re looking for responsible people to serve as full- and part-time customer service representatives and tour escorts. For more information, please see the job announcement.

For the months of December-February, we will still conduct tours with a reservation and when weather permits. And now we’re offering a HALF PRICE for parties of four or more.

That’s right — for these off-season months only, you can take a 2.5 hour Segway tour of the Gettysburg battlefield for just $32.50 per person plus tax if there are four or more people in your party. Watch the weather forecast for a warm day and then invite your friends or neighbors for a unique and educational excursion!

Remember that we don’t have regular off-season hours so call to make a reservation: 717-253-7987.

This offer cannot be combined with other discount offers or promotional prices.

Last weekend marked the Dedication Day and Remembrance Day ceremonies in Gettysburg, the last big events of the season. And what a beautiful weekend it was!

Dedication Day ceremonies (the 146th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address) on Thursday featured speeches by Academy Award-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss and other dignitaries.

Remembrance Day (Saturday) hosted one of the largest parades of the year, including what must have been several thousand Union and Confederate reenactors (photos below).

The weekend also saw the unveiling and dedication of the new Lincoln statue at the Visitor’s Center.

The town has been very busy over the last few days with crowds of reenactors and tourists packing the sidewalks. The good turnout was parting due to the mild weather, a great improvement over recent years.

But as the end of November approaches, so does the end of our regular season for Segway tours in Gettysburg. We’ll start again with regularly-scheduled tours in March but in the interim we will continue to do tours on a reservation-only basis (weather permitting).

Thanks to all those who made our second year a great success! Reservation are already piling up for the Spring so we’re looking forward to an even better year in 2010. We hope that you will join us!

It may surprise you to know that October is one of the busiest months of the year for Segway tours in Gettysburg — and these photos might help you to understand why:

The tourist season is largely over and the weather is turning colder but if you’ll bundle up a little you’ll discover that it is a fabulous time to be in Gettysburg! And there’s no better way to see the battlefield than on a Segway.

We’ll be conducting tours through November, weather permitting. In fact, some weekends in November are already reaching capacity for reservations — so call us as soon as your travel plans are finalized!

Mark Twain famously said, “The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”

In the last few days, several customers have reportedly been told that the National Park Service has recently banned Segways from the Gettysburg battlefield. NOT TRUE!

The truth is that Segtours, LLC and another company have had permits to provide Segway tours of the Gettysburg battlefield for some time but the other company’s permit was recently suspended for failure to follow park regulations. SegTours was not affected by this action. In fact, when SegTours was audited by the Park Service for compliance with its regulations, we passed with flying colors!

With the leaves now starting to turn many colors, the countryside is beautiful and October promises to be one of our busiest months of the year. Do not believe malicious rumors. If you have a reservation with SegTours, then it will be honored. If you don’t yet have a reservation, then we’re open seven days a week and will be happy to accommodate you.

Our video introducing you to SegTours of Gettysburg was previously posted here.

Following is a sample of the videos that were created by our customers to document their Segway tours of the Gettysburg battlefield.

If you’ve created your own video or you know of someone who did, then please let us know so that we post it here!

Renae on her Segway haha