Our forefathers and mothers found those large stumbling blocks. Instead of going around them, they went though them. That process gave us the paving stones to walk though our generation!

Traveling along those walkways we've survived through another Canada Day on July the first and the 4th of July Independence celebrations south of the 49th Parallel.

We give thoughts to our fallen on  Remembrance Day, we have a Flag Day in the US a Memorial and Veterans Week and many other days to celebrate one theme or another honouring our veterans of today and those long since gone.

But on many of the very days set aside, we are too busy trying to figure out what we will be doing on that day or that long weekend, and, truth be told, many spend considerably more time thinking about getting away to the cottage or wherever, and little, if any, on the very theme of that day.

So, today. I am going to briefly take you back to Canada Day and the 4th and suggest that we all ought to remember those that came before us EVERY DAY of the year.

It is far too soon for me to be looking back over a variety of careers I have had since my mid teens. But I will say that throughout all, I have somehow been blessed with gaining friends who have known of and supported my various endeavors for several decades. Many have appeared in these blogs, though not identified in most cases.

One of these strong supporters sent we a wonderful poem last year on Remembrance Day. It is so fitting that I want to share it share it with you. Here it is...

Canada Day is gone for another year. We  have seen and heard in the media of the events across the country to reflect on where we have been as a nation, where we have come from and where  we hope to go. But how many of us thought of who brought us here.

If you like the work I am doing with this blog I plead with you to pass this poem and even the website along to someone you know this week and encourage them to read and reflect on, yes another day, that we need to remember our heroes, those medaled and not who's bodies shelter ours from harm's way.

Another good friend in Canada, decided to pay his respects on July 4th to a Medal of Honor hero buried at Halifax Nova Scotia.

Charles Robinson was awarded his MOH for actions during the US Civil War and later moved to NS where he married and spent some 30 years raising a family there before passing away. His story had been often noted in this space over the past 4 years and more.

My friend, a credentialed and respected local historian and author to boot, has adopted this grave and ensures that the flags of both countries remain in place. We need to get another Grand Army of the Republic marker as someone in Halifax has decided the one that was in place  was best suited in his or her own living-room  I guess.

Charles is in great company. Within a dozen steps or so, one of Canada's Prime Ministers also lays at rest.

Regulars visitors to this site have also read in past blogs about the Ontario fellow named Dodds who ran away from home as a teen and went south to the US. Fitting I guess because he first came to America from Britain, landed in the US and was later with chased with the rest of the family out of the US because of their support of all things British at the wrong time in US History.

That aside the 16 yr old lied about his age,  joined a cavalry regiment and soon  was awarded  a Medal of Honor for saving the life of his wounded company commander who was trapped under his wounded horse. Later in the Civil War the  Sergeant  would go on to receive three wounds and lose an arm in another battle. Still later, back in Canada he would become an author, printer, entrepreneur and US agent at Peterborough.

Here is an image of his actual Medal of Honor.  His medal was the ONLY ONE anyone in his regiment was awarded. Several other Canadian soldiers had the same distinction in other regiments in that war.

Here is his release document. Look closely at the DATE.

It's at the  bottom of the page and says it was the 4th of July!

While the Medal of Honor saw its birth during Civil War days for both the army and navy,  Britain's Victoria Cross predated the MOH by several years.

Whilst primarily a medal for those born in Britain, it was very soon extended to those from wherever, who fought on behalf of the empire.

Six of these came to six Americans. One in 1921 to the first of the Unknown's at Arlington, four to WWl heroes who were so awarded while fighting in Canadian units and one. for actions of a Maine born sailor who was a serving... illegally... in the Royal Navy during the Shimonoseki Campaign of 1864.

William Seeley's story, also told previously here, had him working his uncle's boat in the area when he decided he wanted to join in on US Independence ceremonies in Japan. Being only 14 yrs old, his uncle forbade it so he just slipped into the waters in early July... It was the 4th... He would soon find himself, illegally, under aged, and in the Royal Navy.

Seeley's final resting place is in Massachusetts were he later lived and died in 1914.

And just before signing off I want to tell you something that you probably have not heard about in the press today..16 July. Have a read first...  

The very document (original handwritten) directing that the capital no longer move about from place to place but be fixed at one spot.

While dated  on the first, it was signed into law, by George Washington on July 16th.  That was 227 years ago TODAY.  .

And speaking of birthdays, you just read my 400th blog.

I hope you like it, continue to support my efforts to preserves Canada's  MOH and VC history, help me to gather more and more information about these. often forgotten heroes, and spread the word about the work being done in this space.

see you next week,
Bart