Medal of Honor

The Medal of Honor is the highest medal awarded by the United States to recognize heroism among members of the nation’s armed forces. The medal was authorized by US president Abraham Lincoln in the name of Congress in 1862. It was known as the Amy Medal of Honor and was based on the US Navy Medal of Valor that was authorized the previous year. In 1863, the Medal of Honor became a permanent military decoration available to all individuals, including noncommissioned officers, who serve in the nation’s military forces. The award is given to individuals who have distinguished themselves through actions that go beyond the call of duty—such as putting their own life at risk—during times of combat. Since its inception during Civil War, the Medal of Honor has been bestowed on more than 3,400 men and one woman in recognition of their heroic actions during a US military conflict.

Brief History

The first official award for recognizing individual acts of courage demonstrated by the nation’s fighting forces was the Badge of Military Merit, created in 1782 by then general George Washington. While the award served as the basis for the Purple Heart, the original badge fell into disuse following the Revolutionary War. However, the concept of honoring valor during combat never fully disappeared.

During the Mexican-American War, a certificate of merit was created to recognize soldiers who distinguished themselves in action. The honor was discontinued after only a year when the war concluded in 1848, meaning that once again there was no official award to honor the bravery of the nation’s fighting forces.

A medal for individual valor was first proposed during the early days of the Civil War, but the idea was quashed by US Army General-in-Chief Winfield Scott, who felt it was too reminiscent of Old World military behavior. Officials in the US Navy felt otherwise and supported the notion of a medal honoring courage in the fight to save the Union. Language establishing a Navy medal of valor for distinguished service was included in Public Resolution 82, which was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on December 21, 1861. A resolution establishing a similar medal program in the US Army was passed into law on July 12, 1862. As the Civil War raged on, Congress decided in 1863 to make the Medal of Honor a permanent military decoration that recognizes individuals in any branch of the US military who show extraordinary courage and honor, at the potential expense of their own safety and life, in carrying out the duties of their service to the nation.

The first soldiers to receive the nation’s highest military honor were six members of a raiding party for Union forces during the Civil War. In 1862 the men penetrated deep into Confederate territory to destroy critical infrastructure, such as bridges and railroad tracks, extending along key transportation routes between Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Atlanta, Georgia.

The Medal of Honor Today

The Medal of Honor is bestowed only for well-documented cases of exceptional valor by an individual during the course of military service to the country. Since it was first authorized in 1861, more than 3,400 Medals of Honor have been awarded to individuals serving the US military and US Coast Guard. Nearly half of the all recipients of the medal were awarded the honor for their efforts during the Civil War.

Since the late 1990s, a number of Medals of Honor have been awarded to correct past oversights due to administrative errors, faulty judgment, or the discovery of new evidence. In 2014, the US government sought to correct one of those past oversights by granting the Medal of Honor recognition to First Lt. Alonzo Cushing, a then-twenty-two-year-old artillery commander who fought more than 150 years prior on the side of Union forces during the Civil War. The soldier was involved in one of the most pivotal skirmishes of the Civil War—Pickett’s Charge during the Battle of Gettysburg, on July 3, 1863.

The century-and-a-half delay in awarding the Medal of Honor to Lt. Cushing—one of the longest postponements in the history of US military awards—was due to several factors. The initial issue was that at the time of the lieutenant’s death, the Medal of Honor could not be bestowed posthumously. Since Lt. Cushing did not make it back from the war, he was deemed ineligible to receive the honor. By the time the eligibility criteria had been expanded to include extraordinary acts of courage by individuals who had since become deceased, a host of bureaucratic and political hurdles kept the process of bestowing Lt. Cushing’s Medal of Honor lingering in the legislative system for years.

United States government and military leaders have initiated an ongoing effort to reevaluate circumstances involving veterans of other military actions who may have been overlooked for the prestigious medal. In the spring of 2014, President Barack Obama awarded twenty-four veterans of the Korean and Vietnam Wars and World War II, who had been passed over at the time of their service due to their racial or ethnic backgrounds.

Another such effort is to reverse recognition of those who, some believe, should not have received the medals. Since 1996 a number of Lakota Sioux have rallied for the rescindment of twenty Medals of Honor given to US soldiers for their participation in the Wounded Knee Massacre; the government formally apologized in 1990, but as of 2014 none of the controversial awards had been rescinded.

Bibliography

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Collier, Peter, and Nick Del Calzo, eds. Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor beyond the Call of Duty. 3rd ed. New York: Artisan, 2011. Print.

Lone Hill, Dana. “The Wounded Knee Medals of Honor Should Be Rescinded.” Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 18 Feb. 2013. Web. 17 Oct. 2014.

Owens, Ronald. Medal of Honor: Historical Facts & Figures. Paducah: Turner, 2004. Print.

Piehler, G. Kurt. “Medal of Honor.” Encyclopedia of Military Science. Vol. 2. Thousand Oaks: SAGE, 2013. 455–56. Print.

Smith, Larry. Beyond Glory: Medal of Honor Heroes in Their Own Words. New York: Norton, 2003. Print.

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"What Is the Significance of the Medal of Honor?" United Service Organizations, 23 Mar. 2022, www.uso.org/stories/3017-what-is-the-significance-of-the-medal-of-honor-what-to-know-about-this-military-medal-of-america-and-medal-of-honor-recipients. Accessed 24 Jan. 2025.

Widener, Robert. “At the Pinnacle of Heroism: The Medal of Honor”. VFW Magazine June–July 2012: 18–22. Print.

Willbanks, James H. America's Heroes: Medal of Honor Recipients from the Civil War to Afghanistan. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2011. Print.