May 25, 2019 National Medal of Honor Day

At the time of the American Revolution, European armies bestowed honors, only on high-ranking officers who achieved victory in battle. There was no such honor for the common soldier.  As General, George Washington wrote the “road to glory in a patriot army and a free country is…open to all”.

There was precedent for such an award in the Colonial military, but only under limited circumstances.  Congressional medals were awarded to Washington himself on March 25, 1776, following the British evacuation of Boston;  to General Horatio Gates in November 1777 in recognition of his victory over British General John Burgoyne at Saratoga;  and to Major-General “Light-Horse Harry” Lee, father of Civil War-era Confederate General Robert E. Lee, in recognition of his 1779 attack on the British position at Paulus Hook, New Jersey.

A “Fidelity Medallion” was awarded to three militia men in 1780, for the capture ofJohn André