Medal of Honor

In 1861, early in the American Civil War , a proposal for a battlefield decoration for valor was submitted to Lieutenant General Winfield Scott , the Commanding General of the United States Army , by Lieutenant Colonel Edward D. Townsend , an assistant adjutant at the Department of War and Scott's chief of staff. Scott, however, was strongly against the American republic's awarding medals for valor, a European monarchical tradition. After Scott retired in October 1861, however, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles adopted the idea of a decoration to recognize and honor distinguished naval service.

On December 9, 1861, Iowa Senator James W. Grimes , Chairman on the Committee on Naval Affairs, introduced bill S. 82. " On December 21, the bill was passed and signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln .

Secretary Welles directed the Philadelphia Mint to design the new military decoration. S. Mint in Philadelphia with "Personal Valor" inscribed on the back of each one. On February 15, 1862, Senator Henry Wilson , the chairman of the Senate Committee on Military Affairs and the Militia, introduced a resolution (equivalent to a bill) for a Medal of Honor for the Army.

The resolution (equivalent to a modern Act of Congress) was approved by Congress and signed into law on July 12, 1862. 00 each) to be struck at the mint. The Army's version had "The Congress to" written on the back of the medal. " The same legislation also authorized the medal for officers of the Army.

S. Army volunteers in his office. In 1896, the ribbon of the Army's version of the Medal of Honor was redesigned with all stripes being vertical. Again, in 1904 the planchet of the Army's version of the Medal of Honor was redesigned by General George Lewis Gillespie .

The purpose of the redesign was to help distinguish the Medal of Honor from other medals, particularly the membership insignia issued by the Grand Army of the Republic . In 1917, based on the report of the Medal of Honor Review Board, established by Congress in 1916, 911 recipients were stricken from the Army's Medal of Honor list because the medal had been awarded inappropriately. Among them were William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody and Mary Edwards Walker . In 1977, the Army's board for correction of military records unilaterally restored Walker's medal at the request of a relative.

The board had no authority to overturn a statute, and the restoration violated not only the period law during the Civil War, but also the law requiring revocation in 1916, and modern law in 1977. As a reaction to Walker's restoration, a relative of Cody's requested the same action from the Army's board for correction, and it reinstated the medals for Cody and four other civilian scouts on June 12, 1989. Subsequent litigation over the Garlin Conner award, which was recommended by the Army's board for correction of military records in 2015, established that the correction boards lack the authority to unilaterally award Medals of Honor. In Conner's case, the board merely recommended the medal, which was then referred to the Senior Army Decorations Board, and ultimately to the Secretary of the Army , the Secretary of Defense , and the President, who requested a waiver be passed by Congress.

A separate Coast Guard Medal of Honor was authorized in 1963 but was not designed or awarded. A separate design for a version of the medal for the Department of the Air Force was authorized in 1956, designed on April 14, 1965, and first awarded in January 1967. S. Air Force received the Army's version of the medal.