Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 214, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 September 1917 — ACTS OF HEROISM TO BE REWARDED [ARTICLE]

ACTS OF HEROISM TO BE REWARDED

Men of National Army Will Be Accorded Same Recognition as Regulars. MEDALS OF HONOR PRIZED t # , V. - ' Changes May Be Made In Present Law —How Some Enlisted Men in the United States Army Won Medals for Valor. By EDWARD B. CLARK. Washington. —Young Americans who have been selected for service In the new National army should know that the same recognition for individual acts of personal gallantry In the field will be accorded them under the law that'is now given to officers and men of the regular service. There are enlistecf men Jn the service today who have won medals of honor for conspicuous personal gallantry In the field, and It can be said that the possession of one of these metal tributes to courage is prized above all things else that the government can bestow. By the time that the new American army troops in any numbers strike the Germans In France, it is probable that congress will have made some changes In the laws governing the giving of certificates of merit and medals of honor for high acts of courage on the field of battle. There is a law governing in the matter today, but It is said that army officers believe it to be hedged in with so many requirements that some men who deserve certificates of merit are prevented from getting their earned rewards. The changes which probably are to be made will in no way aid the undeserving to secure prizes which are intended to go only to those whose conduct is of the highest In face of great danger. Young men who are about to enter the training camps should know that in this matter of recognition for courage, they will be on the same footing with commissioned officers. Gallantry in man, not gallantry in rank, is the thing recognized. How Medals Have Been Won. It is possible that men selected for service in the new National army, and perhaps others, may be interested, to learn how a few of the many enlisted men in the United States army have earned their medals “for valor.” When Custer’s expedition struck into the Sioux country in 1878, the commanding officer ordered Major Reno with his squadron of the Seventh to make the detour to the right. Custer then rode into the valley, where with his command he met his death. Reno striking to the right met a huge force of the Sioux and in a bitter battlewhich followed he lost many men. While this engagement was at its height, a pack mule carrying a considerable part of the carbine ammunition of the troopers broke away and galloped toward the Indians. An enlisted man named Hanley knew what the loss of ammunition meant and he left his troop and circling round to the right he managed to capture the mule at a point dlrectl> in front of the Indian line. Hanley threw himself on the animal’s back and lashing lb into a run, made straight back for his command. He was under the close and direct fire of the Indians. Hundreds of rifles barked at him, but he escaped unscathed by a seeming miracle. The ammunition was saved and congress, recognizing the enlisted man’s devotion and gallantry, voted to give him the coveted medal of honor for his high service. The bushwhacking war in the Philippines produced of heroes a hundred, but the world usually was given only the names of the commanding officers in the fights which made individual heroism possible. Who, on reading these lines, can remember ever before having seen or heard the name Louis. Gftdeou? Escape Was Marvelous. Not so long ago “G” company of the Nineteenth infantry went into action near Mount Amla, Cebu, Philippine Islands. The captain of the company was mortally wounded and the fortunes of the fight left him on the 'field defended only by Private Louis Gedeon. A force of the enemy advanced to give the captain his death stroke, but the private soldier faithful to his duty and to Ills officer faced the oncoming band, as array record hath it, ‘‘single handed and alone.” Although exposed to a concentrated fire, Gedeon by his marvelous markmanshlp, aided materially by his coolness in the presence of what seemed certain death, kept the enemy back. Private Gedeon might have escaped. He could have slipped into a ravine and have joined the main body of troops. In fact, it is said that the stricken officer, knowing that his own wound was fatal, ordered Gedeon to leave him, but the private soldier’s answer was to kneel by his officer s .aide and to offer his body as a protection. Gedeon’B escape that day was as marvelous as anything ever set down in the pages of fiction. He held his own and help came before the private’s Wounded charge died. The officer whom the private had saved from the knives and the ballets of the enemy breathed his last, smrounded by the men of his command. . Congress recognized the bravery of George M. Shelton, who was a private of I Company, Twenty-third Infantry. . » 2 _ < - *;'v\

>ln giving the, soldier hls medal It was ordered set down In the records that the reason for the gift wns “most conspicuous gallantry in action.” The Twenty-third infantry went Into a fight at LaPaz, Luzon, Philippine Islands. A soldier of the command was wounded and left on the field. The spot where the infantryman fell was commanded by the rifies of the enemy. Private Shelton saw the plight of hls comrade, and without waiting for orders he advanced alone directly Into the,open, his appearance being a direct and speedily accepted invitation for the enemy to concentrate its fire upon him. Shelton went on with the shots playing about him, picked up the wounded mun and carried him back along a path of fife until he was safe "wltfiln the lines. Had a Soldier's Boul. Augustus Walley of the Tenth cavalry was a cook. He was connected with Troop Eof the Tenth. Augustus Walley, cook, had a soldier’s soul. In the summer of 1881, Troop'E was In the field in pursuit of hostile Apache Indians. The command arrived at the Cuchillo Negro mountains, New Mexico, and ran Into a large band of the liostlles. A sergeant of the troop was shot by the first fire from the concealed reds and he fell from his-horse at “the base of a rock, which luckily protected him from further fire. The troop was compelled to fall back under the suddenness of the attack and the sergeant was left where he fell. Walley, the oook, saw that while the stricken “noncom” temporarily was

safe because of the shelter of the rock, he knew ‘that If the Indiana moved, to either flank they could piek off the wounded man with their rifies, and so Cook Walley charged across the open without waiting any word of ■ command, and ran along a zone of fierce fire to the aide of the sergeant, picked him up, brought hjm back and dropped him inside the lines. For that action congress gave this cook whose spirit was that of a soldier a medal of honor, for he had upheld the best bravery traditions of the American army.