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« on: March 25, 2015, 05:18:32 PM » |
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The Patriot Post - Alexander's Column 3-25-2015
From The Federalist Patriot
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The First Medals of Honor
At Risk of Life Beyond Call of Duty
By Mark Alexander
Mar. 25, 2015
“There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism.” –Alexander Hamilton (1775)
This year will mark more than 1,000 weeks that The Patriot Post1 has been publishing online – longer than any other journal of news, policy and opinion on the Web. For me personally, that means I am approaching my 1,000th essay on Liberty2 and the evolving threats impeding its extension to the next generation.
Occasionally, the weekday my work is published coincides with a national day of recognition, which allows a pause from the tedious task of analyzing and illuminating the constant assault by “enemies, foreign and domestic” upon our Constitution, which, like many of our Patriot readers, I have sworn “to Support and Defend3.” On those days I focus on some of the many things that make our Republic the greatest example of “endowed freedom4” in the history of mankind.
Today, March 25th, is National Medal of Honor Day. As such, it provides an opportunity to step back and recognize generations of fellow Patriots whose service to our nation has been distinguished through extraordinary heroism and sacrifice.
It was on this date in 1863 that the first Medals of Honor, our nation’s highest military award, were conferred upon a small group of worthy recipients – the men known as “Andrews' Raiders5.” Their valorous acts were immortalized in print and film as “The Great Locomotive Chase6.”
There has been a succession of military medals for meritorious service, beginning with George Washington’s7 Badge of Military Merit in 1782, which was scarcely awarded but familiar because it features a purple heart. Washington’s award was revived as the Purple Heart, including his likeness on the obverse and “For Military Merit” on the reverse. Some 2,450,000 Purple Hearts have been awarded for those wounded or killed in action on or after April 5, 1917.
Side Bar: I must note that this sobering total includes three medals dubiously claimed by John Kerry8 for injuries that would hardly merit a Band-Aid. Here is how Purple Hearts are really earned9 – but I digress.
In 1847, a Certificate of Merit was established to recognize meritorious service by veterans of the Mexican-American War, but at the onset of the War Between the States there was no official medal for merit or valor. That conflict would prove to be the bloodiest in U.S. history, with an estimated 625,000 deaths as compared to 405,000 deaths in our second most lethal conflict, World War II.
There are varied opinions about Abraham Lincoln’s legacy10 as the “Great Emancipator” and the errant assertion that his motive in war was anything other than “preserving the union,” but there is no question that there were many combatants on both sides of the War Between the States, common men, whose valor was unquestionable.
In 1861, Lincoln signed authorization for the Union’s Navy Medal of Valor, followed in 1862 by the Union Army version. That same year, the Confederate States established its Southern Cross of Honor, but the CSA award was not conferred solely for demonstrating acts of extraordinary valor. Unfortunately, by the end of the war, Union medals were similarly distributed, some simply for re-enlisting, as was the case with the 27th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment. (Such medal awards would later be rescinded.)
But the first Medals of Honor awarded in 1863 for actions in 1862 certainly reflected bravery and valor, and the actions in question took place just south of my hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee.
In 1862, Chattanooga was, as it is today, “The Gateway to the Deep South.” At that time, it was a pivotal rail and river supply center, and disabling Chattanooga as such was a major strategic objective for Lincoln’s forces.
In April of 1862, prior to the Chattanooga Campaign of November 1863 when Union Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant defeated Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg, civilian scout James Andrews and his Union Raiders undertook a daring mission to disable the critical rail lines between Chattanooga and Atlanta. The mission’s 22 enlisted Union volunteers knew undertaking a military action in civilian clothes meant that, if they were caught, they would be subject to hanging as spies.
On April 12, 1862, Andrews, a civilian, and his Raiders commandeered a locomotive, “The General,” in Big Shanty (now Kennesaw), Georgia, and drove it north toward Chattanooga. Their objective was to do significant damage to the vital Western and Atlantic Railroad line from Atlanta to Chattanooga – tearing up rails, burning bridges and severing telegraph lines. |
