Valor Tales

AMERICAN AWARDS - A Brief History America, fiercely against many European military traditions, did not have a formal system for any awards or decorations for decades after its forming. In fact, they were so anti-European, that the US Navy didn’t have the rank of admiral until the Civil War (nearly 100 years after the country’s founding) because it was too Imperial. There were two Revolutionary War-era awards however. Both were awarded in exceptionally small numbers (three awards each) and neither were awarded beyond the end of the war. The oldest, and first, American award was the Fidelity Medallion. It was awarded to the soldiers who captured British Major John Andre. Andre was famously the British point of contact for Benedict Arnold (a disaffected American general who turned traitor and gave Britain intelligence in exchange for a British generalcy). Only three men of the New York Militia received the award and it was never bestowed again. Often referred to (incorrectly) as A...

I am always awestruck by the stories of bravery of our fighting men and women. However, to be awarded a medal for any bravery, said bravery must be witnessed. I suppose this is a reasonable caveat as otherwise a lone survivor would be able to write his own story of derring do. It is therefore interesting for me to think of all the people who did obscenely brave things that were never witnessed and thus never rewarded. One example I'll give of this is Private Adolph Metzger, Company C, 2nd US Cavalry. From Württemberg, Germany, he first enlisted in 1855 in Philadelphia, listing his vocation as "laborer". Enlisting the in the Army was somewhat common for German immigrants in this time period so they could better learn English. Germany still operated under a guild system for tradesmen, so once immigrants learned English they could use those learned skills in the open marketplace here. His enlistment noted that he was 21 years old, 5'5" tall, and describ...