Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 153, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 July 1917 — America’s Medal of Honor for Bravery [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

America’s Medal of Honor for Bravery

It is bestowed for extraordinary valor only, and the officer ' must work harder for the bit of ribbon and bronze than the enlisted man—similar foreign honors come easier

HE Congressional Medal of Honor recognizes no rank. It is awarded to the private or the general, the second class seaman or fireman or to the rear admiral for , extraordinary courage, valor surpass- | Ing even that which is expected from the well-trained, seasoned soldier or sailor, No matter how hazardous

< a duty well performed, that is not enough. To win the medal something more than la demanded by duty must be achieved. Unlike some of the European decorations for bravery, the American Medal of Honor is more difficult for an officer to win than for an enlisted man, because more is expected of an officer. The medal is a bit of bronze suspended from a ribbon. Its intrinsic value, be it what it may, is of no importance. Into the metal disk are welded all the qualities of man. which men admire, even worship. In the archives of the war department are succinct, unimaginative records of the acts which caused the medal to be pinned to the breasts of the men who have won it. The papers will yellow and crumble, the ribbons will rot to dust, the bronze itself will corrode and vanish, but the things the medal stands for will go on and the epic of the Medal of Honor will continue to be inscribed In the hearts of men. ■ ...... There is no doubt the Medal of Honor will be won in this war, but it will not be won easily, and though millions may be fighting under the American flag it will come to but few to wear this distinguishing mark. In the Spanish war less than 20 medals were awarded. In the Philippines ( a few were given. The last two medals to be awarded were presented to Sergt. Maj. Roswell Winans and Corporal Joseph A. Glowin of the marine corps, for their work at the battle of Guayacanes, in Santo Domingo. It is the act Itself which wins the medal for a man, and not only does his rank matter not at all, but he may win it in a skirmish or in a battle like that of Gettysburg or of the Marne. The report of the board of investigation for the navy department in their case follows: “On July 8, 1916, the Twenty-eighth company of marines was engaged with the Dominican armed forces at the battle of Guayacanes. During a running fight of 1,200 yards our forces reached the enemy intrenchment and Corporal Joseph Glowin placed the machine gun of which he had charge behind a large log across the road and immediately opened fire on the trenches. He was struck once but continued firing his gun, but a moment later he was again struck aiiirhad robe dragged out of the position into cover. Sergt. Roswell Winans, U. S. M. C.. then arrived with a Colt’s gun, which he placed in a most exposed position and coolly opened fire on the trenches, and when the gun Jammed he stood up and repaired it under fire. All the time .Glowin and Winans were handling their guns they were exposed to a very heavy fire which was striking into the logs and around, the men, seven men being wounded and one killed within 20 feet. Sergeant Winans continued firing his gun until the enemy had abandoned the trenches.” Sergeant Winan’s .story in his own words is even more modest' than the official report, although it is more vivid and picturesque. —“On the morning of July 3,” he said, “we got under way with every one feeling like a new man. Firing on the advance guard began early sh the day. Our'captain obtained permission, to take our platoon forward. We kept the guns on the carriages until within a few yards of the firing line, then transferred them to the-tripods and immediately opened fire. The enemy was using mostly old-fashioned breechloaders with big lead slugs. "The brush was very thick on both sides of the road. Jams were frequent with us and each gun wore out a couple of shell-extractors. Difficulty had been experienced all along with our ■ammunition. Some of it dated back as far as 1907. It had evidently been reloaded many times. “We fajmd lt good policy to change barrels 4h cake of a jam in the chambers. In that way we would be only a minute out of action. A party of the enemy w’ere seen up the road and Corporal Johnson started tb put his gun in action. A big lead slug (tin cans, we called them) came ricocheting down the road directly for us. Johnson saw it while kneeling behind his gun. * He ducked almost prone, but the thing took a long -skip and hit him in the jaw, passed down and lodged back of the shoulder. “The gun crews promptly gave the place where the shot was fired a good combing. * We continued to advance under cover of the bushes and trees. A battalion of Infantry was deployed as skirmishers on each side ofthe road and we were concealed by a turn In the road and high trees and bushes. , . "Directly across -the road was a huge log. At our end of the log a Benet-Mercier had just commenced roaring, with Corporal Glowins in command of it. ‘The captain ordered a gun in action at the butt of the tree. It had no sooner opened up than all the bullets in the world seemed coming

our way. The enemy was shooting mighty close too. The trenches were awfully hard to pick up, although we were, only about 150 yards away. They were on a hill and had carried their dirt away. “The battalions made slow progress op the flanks on account of the thick underbrush. The enemy had an immensely strong natural position and had they had a few machine guns and some barbed wire they could not have been rooted out without great loss of life. “A call went up for a hospital apprentice, as Corporal Frazee had been shot in the head. He had been working hard getting his gun pointed on the enemy and had just succeeded. “‘You are right on them now; give them fits!’ were the last words he said. “His pointer was also shot in the head and two others were wounded in the arm. A corporal in the Thirteenth company was shot twice while operating a Benet-Mercier. He refused to leave his gun and had to be carried away, struggling to get back into the fight. “While this was going on our other guns began to come up one at a time and we obtained fire superiority over the enemy, who shot very wildly from now on. This last is an after Judgment. At the time they seemed to be just missing me. I don’t know how the other men felt, but I expected to be shot any minute and just wanted to do as much damage as possible to the enemy before cashing in. Several members of our platoon did cool and creditable work in changing cartridge extractors and repairing jams under fire. “We faced the enemy as much as possible while repairing the guns, as we had a horror of being shot in the back.

“One of the sweetest sounds I ever heard was the cheering of the Infantry battalion as it charged the right flank trenches of the enemy. Gunnery Sergeant Ralph was among the first of these. He had a pistol fight with the rebel general in command. Ralph and some other man with a rifle hit him at about the same time. Result —exit general. “We moved up to the trenches after the battle and reformed, getting our equipment together. “Corporal Frazee died soon after being hit and was buried within a few feet of the place where he had fought so well. The enemy lost very heavily, and If Santo Domingo was not an Island some of those birds would be running yet.” Maj. Gen. J. Franklin Bell, now In command of the eastern department, with headquarters on Governor’s Island, won the medal in the Philippines. As colonel of the Thirty-sixth Infantry he was proceeding along the San Antonio Porac road to head off a band of insurgents who had attacked the Ninth infantry at Guagua and Santa Rita. Colonel Bell, mounted, was riding near the head of the advance party and had with him Lieut. Col. William R. Grove. Major Straub, two mounted orderlies and about twelve scouts on foot. Just at dawn the party was fired upon from what seemed a fairly large body of insurgents hidden in the brush. The American fire dislodged the enemy, about seven of them running down the road around a bend. The scouts pursued them, but Colonel Bell saw at once that the men, with their heavy equipment, were being easily outdistanced by the lightly clad Filipinos, and he dashed after them on his horse.

Before Major Straub or the two mounted orderlies knew what he was doing. Colonel Bell was far down the road in the midst of seven struggling insurgents, firing with his revolver and slashing about with his saber. The mounted men galloped to his assistance and the infantry supported him as best they could with,rifle fire, although it was almost impossible to shoot, so tangled up were the insurgents and Colonel Bell. » ' _ The officer would -have been perfectly jdstifled in remaining with Jilr troops, even behind them and merely directing the dislodging assault, and for charging alone and driving into the jungle at least -seven Filipinos, with two officers among them, the Medal of Honor was awarded to him. Two of the few medals awarded in the war against Spain went to a second class fireman and a coppersmith on board the battleship lowa. While the vessel was crdlslng in Cuban waters, July 20, 1898, at about seven o'clock in the morning, a manhole gasket blew out in one of the boilers In fire room No. 2. Under 120-pounds pressure, live steam roared out into the room and boiling water swashed around the floor. In the adjoining compartment were Robert Penn, second-class fireman, and P. B. Keefer, a coppersmith. Hearing the., wild roar of the escaping steam they dashed to the door of fire room No. 2. The men who had been working there, blinded by the escaping steam, floundering in the scalding water, had been so overcome that they could not get out. One of the coal passers had Already sunk to his knees and was dropping forward. In a matter of seconds he would have toppled into the water and been boiled to death. Undaunted by the terrifying roar of the steam

and the killing heat, Penn dashed into the room and, lifting the coal passer, staggered to safety with him, the scalding water above his ankles. Ignoring the frightful pain of his scalded, swollen feet, this second-class fireman dashed back into the hell from which he had just dragged one victim and saved another life. Keefer meanwhile was busy saving the ship from destruction, or at least from the effects of a terrific explosion, for the water escaping from the boiler would soon leave so little there that it would be entirely converted into steam and the pressure would wreck it. Dashing through the blinding, torturing steam, Keefer, the coppersmith, hauled the fires from under the two Inboard furnaces. Meanwhile, Penn, having gotten every one out of the fire room, had turned on the extra feed pump in the after fire hold to keep water in the boilers and built a bridge to the furnaces out of planks laid on top of ash buckets. While Passed Assistant Engineer Stockney held the plank In place Penn hauled the two remaining fires before he was carried to the sick bay where his terribly scalded feet were treated. Both Penn and Keefer received the Medal of Honor for their acts. That it Is only extraordinary bravery which merits the medal accounts forthe faqt that Fireman Smith did not win the bronze for the same day’s work. In helping Keefer he had both legs badly burned, but the opportunity did not offer itself to display the same supercourage which Keefer and Penn exhibited.

Some of the most stirring medal stories are those of the Indian campaigns. For instance, there was Corporal Paul H. Weinert, who expected to be court-martialed for what he did at the battle of Wounded Knee, but instead had the Medal of Honor pinned to his breast. Another Indian fighter to win the covered bronze was Sergt. Bernard Taylor of the Fifth cavalry, engaged In fighting the Apaches in Arizona in 1874. Some of the most distinguished men in the army have w’orn the medal. Lieut. Gen. Nelson A. Miles won it for continually exposing himself to the fire of the enemy as colonel of the Sixtyfirst New York volunteers in the Civil war, for no other purpose than to encourage his men by the example. • AT Fair Oaks Gen. William R. Shafter was wounded, but when a surgeon was seen approaching he climbed a tree In order not to be sent to the rear. After the surgeon passed Shafter came down and continued to fight until he fell unconscious from loss of blood. Those who remember General Shafter only as he was in the Cuban campaign will w’onder how he got Into the tree, but a man can put on a lot of weight in thirty-odd years. Gen. Francis D. Baldwin won the medal while a first lieutenant in the Fifth Infantry. With two companies under him he rescued two white girls from Indians at McClennan’s Creek, Tex., in November, 1874. Although not so well-known as the Victoria Cross, the Iron Cross or the Medaille Militaire, the Congressional Medal of Honor is much more difficult to attain. It is distributed to very few persons and then only after a sweeping investlgation of the circumstances surrounding the act for which it is recommended. The Medal of Honor was authorized by congress by an act of July 12, 1862. The striking of 2,000 medals was ordered, to be conferred upon privates and non-commissioned officers for acts of bravery surpassing those usually demanded of soldiers. One thousand of these medals were voted to a single organization, the survivors of a Maine regiment which volunteered to remain in

service on the eve of the Battle of Gettysburg although their terms had expired. This is the only case of a wholesale distribution of the medal anil has been severely criticized. There are slight variations in the medals as designed for the army, the navy and the marines. The army’s_jnedal, as-modified in 1905, is a-ftve-pointed star with the trefoils on the tips. The star is superimposed on a wreath; In the center of the star is the head of Minerva, surrounded by the words "United States of America?’ The medal is suspended from a trophy representing an eagle on a bar with the word “Valor.” The whole is suspended from a ribbon. The original medal bore in the center of the star a figure of America clad as Minerva. Her left hand rested upon the fasces and with a shield in her right she repelled Discord. A band of stars circled the figures. The trophy whs an eagle perched on two crossed cannons and a number of cannon balls suspended from a red, white and blue ribbon. The medal as presented to the marines today Is practically like the original medal, except that it is joined to the ribbon by an anchor and the ribbon is worn around the neck. ■- The navy receives a medal similar to «that awarded to marines but worn pinned to the breast suspended from a metal bar by a short ribbon. The medal Is worn only on special parade or at ceremonies with the'dress uniform.—New York Herald.