Yesterday's blog brought you the first part of a very complicated story. It involves four men, history's crediting them for having a medal when there is evidence they may have two and lots to confuse enroute to sorting this story out. Over the past six hours, I have sorted through a stack of papers over 5 inches in height on this very story. It is one in which, I have been snooping into for  7 years and, if proven correct, may be the most significant find in the Medal of Honor world in the last century. So says an associate who is a very credentialed researcher in the Medal of Honor world.

The records show today that there have only been 19 double recipients since the medal was created. This is of course nonsence. History likes to forget that Civil War General Mindil  was awarded two, but about 50 years after being so awarded, the government, it would appear,  IN VIOLATION OF THE US CONSTITUTION, decided it would take one of them away. History has also yet to credit another soldier for being a double recipient, but I'll save that story for another day.  History also shows that there were only 2 MOH doubles in the navy in the Civil War. This blog will argue that there are four more. In fact I do believe the dates involved in these four would make them THE FIRST DOUBLE RECIPIENTS ON RECORD.

The story is long so get your coffee first.

Let's begin with two points that could throw the reader off balance. The first deals with the ships involved. Actually it was just one ship. This story begins with the four sailors... Charles Robinson, a Boatswain's Mate, John McDonald also a Boatswain's Mate, Peirre (Peter) Leon, a Captain of the Forecastle and finally Peter Cotton who was a Coxswain. In February of 1862 these four sailors served on a vessel called the USS Saint Louis. While on that vessel they participated in many battles including the most significant battles at Forts Henry and Donelson on Feb 6 and 14.  At the time the ship was owned by the US War Department. But several months later it was transferred to the US Navy Department. And in short order the navy discovered that it had a problem. It already had a Saint Louis... why did it need two of them? It then did the normal thing and changed the new ship's name to Baron De Kalb. (The changing of ship names may not have been  something new to the Navy or War Departments. In fact, a few years later... In June of 1869 they would do it 41 times. Then in Aug of the same year they would do it again 38 more times.)

Often, as you shall soon see, these men and the names of the ship flip back and forth and leads to confusion. Don't let it. It is the same vessel!

The next point of confusion is that there were not one but two fellows names Charles Robinson... and both came from Scotland..and both were said to be born in 1840 (one was acually born in 1832)  And both were awarded Medals of Honor.

You'd think I'm making this up but I'm not.  hehe

The fellow born in 1832 served on the Galena, and in 1864 he earned a MOH for actions at Mobile Bay. (As did several Canadians.) But in the very navy General Order that announced that he had been awarded a MOH, it also took it away from him for desertion. In 1957 the Navy Department tuned over  to the Naval Museum at Washington DC a list of 74 MOH recipients who have failed to claim their medals. It is believed they also turned over the medals as well. On that list is deserter Charles Robinson, but the list says he was on the Baron de Kalb by mistake and noted that his medal was earned at Mobile Bay in 1864. (The De Kalb was sunk in mid 1863. This incorrect entry is systemic in military records of the day as you shall see throughout this blog. (In fact if you investigate by going to this URL...   http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/pers-us/uspers-c/p-cotton.htm  today you will see an image of Peter Cotton's Medal of Honor which clearly shows it was earned for bravery at the Forts and dates mentioned above. Yet the US Navy Historical Center's web site above states RIGHT BESIDE THE IMAGE that the medal was awaded for actions during the Yazoo Expedition in another state and some 300 miles away 8 months after the date enscribed on the medal.    Talk about confusion!

The Charles Robinson above is not the Charles and three others that are the subject of this blog. 

If you go to any MOH website or book that lists the recipients and the reasons for their awards you will probably find the above citation for either Robinson, McDonald, Leon, or Cotton. They seem to be all the same, with just the individual's name inserted in the 2nd last line, as above.

If this citation is correct, how can anyone explain what is engraved on the Cotton medal that can be viewed at the above URL stating the medal for Cotton was earned  at the Forts earlier mentioned, in early February of 1862 and some 365 miles away in another state... that of Tennessee?

Cotton's medal is not the only one that says what it does, but I'll get to that a little later.

I have 2 problems with the above citation for the medal. First... it clearly says the individuals were recommended by the Commanding Officer. That was Lt Commander Walker. While the commander, he could have recommended the four for the medal but a search for years has yet to turn up this recomendation.  And if he made it, it would be knowledge he had while he was the commander of not the USS Saint Louis but the De Kalb. He was the commander of the De Kalb from  October 1862 till Aug 1863, and thus could recommend for the Yazoo Expedition as outlined in the above citation, BUT COULD NOT RECOMMEND FOR ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE SAINT LOUIS EIGHT MONTHS EARLIER WHEN HE WAS NEITHER THE COMMANDER... NOR EVEN ON THE SHIP at the time the Cotton medal says it was for bravery on the Saint Louis at the Forts.

My second problem with the citation above is in the wording near the end. It clearly states that the reasons for the awards were for serving bravely throughout this action. The critical words being THIS ACTION. And of course common sense suggests that they refer to the action described above..ie events during the YAZOO EXPEDITION...and not the Forts.

The citation continues with the words... distinguished himself in the various actions. So what actions is he talking about. It would seem clear that they were, amplified already above... being in THIS ACTION... ie again... the Yazoo Expedition... NOT THE FORTS.

So where are the medals for the Yazoo. None have yet to turn up in 7 years of research! But another has also saying the medal was for the Forts..not Yazoo. I'll get to that soon, but a few more points first...

A few years back I located a most industrious researcher who was most interested in this story. The woman was intrigued and noted that she was off to Washington DC to do some research and would look into this case while there. And after considerable efforts she came across a daily journal of a fellow that actually served on the USS Saint Louis up until the summer of 1863  Plowing through page after page she found a notation dated 3 May 1863. It announced that 4 crew members were being escorted off the vessel as their terms of service was then up. One of these was Peter Cotton.

Another entry on 10 June 1863 was more exciting. It said that..."Medals awarded to John McDonald and Charles Robinson, Boatsmen Mates, and Peter Leon C. Forecastle for gallant and meritorious actions in the Battle of Forts Fisher and Donelson and other actions."

Obviously the medal to Cotton could not be presented as he had left the ship. Thus it got turned back over to the Naval department and ultimately to the Navy Museum where it is held and on display I assume.

The journal entry was probably the result of the comments given by the Saint Louis Commanding Officer of that day... as he read out the citation in front of his ship's company and then presented the medals. But again there are the curious words... and other actions.... that have followed from Walker's citation without the benefit of knowing the words are probably a reference to the Yazoo Expedition in the Sate of Mississippi.   And those same words appear on Cotton's MOH.

Several years back I also found relatives of Charles Robinson, and over a period the family discovered in the basement of one of the family homes in the "Button Box" kept for family keepsakes a really interesting keepsake. A Medal of Honor that had been stored away for years. The grandmother who owned it was in her most senior years and was a daughter of Charles. The medal said exactly what the Cotton medal said... ie for the Forts  in Feb of 1862... and other actions. The family also passed along a neat tidbit. They say that the daughter claimed at one point... "there were two medals." But the family could not add what the 2nd one was. It could have been a 2nd MOH but could also have been a campaign badge, or a GAR membership badge that looks almost identical to a MOH or whatever other medals he may have collected over the years.

The third medal went to Pierre Leon. This was lost after the Saint Louis,. became the DeKalb and months later it was sunk by a Confederate mine. Many lost most if not all their possessions. Pierre lost lots of stuff including a medal... or maybe two???? In the 1940's the famly wrote the Navy Bureau of Navigation to say the item(s) were lost when the ship sank and could the navy tell the family what was written on its reverse. The repsonse that came from... none other than... the famed Admiral Nimitz... was that the bureau had no record of what was engraved. He later actually sent them a BLANK MEDAL that they could enscribe presumably anything they wanted.   DAH!!

The fourth fellow was John McDonald, who like so may others had completly disappeared off everyones screen after the war. No one knows what happened to him, where he lived or died, or where his medal is and what it says.

Most recently a claim has come forth that he lived in New Jersey and that he was in fact a black man. This revelation has not been known to any of the usual sites that list the 85 or 87 black men who were awarded the medal. I am attempting to verify this info but still have nothing on his medal. He like Cotton and Leon and Robinson are all in the same boat though... pardon the pun. They all served at the Forts and at Yazoo.

And thus the double staus may well apply to them as well.

But more on this in the final blog on this subject tomorrow.

Please come back back to see this and drop me a note about you comments.

thanks,

Bart

There is a well known building along the Halifax Nova Scotia water front that used to be called the Cornwallis Place. It was named after Lt. General Cornwallis who arrived at that place in June of 1749 to found a new colony in which he would be governor. It would be called Nova Scotia. Within days his fleet of 15 vessels and 2,500 souls arrived to their new lands.

Two Hundred and Forty six years later Cornwallis Place, named after the Governor, and which had stood for years at this part of town,  pictured to the left, would be renamed the Summit building, in honour of the 2,000 delegates, 2,100 members of the media and the seven leaders of major industrialized nations that came to Halifax. It would become known as the G7 Summit building. Had they waited four days, they could have celebrated the anniversary of the  very day of Cornwallis's arrival.

The G7 leaders attending where Canada's PM Chretien, The US's President Clinton, the UK's PM  John Major, Germany's  Chancellor Helmut Kohl, Italy's PM  Lamberto Dini, France's  President-elect Jacques Chirac, Japan's PM Tomiichi Murayama, Russian's President  Boris Yeltsin and from the European Union came President Jacques Santer.

It is doubtful that any of the attendees knew that while at Halifax those folks  were not only witnessing history take place, they were actually sitting right on top of it.  And half that history has yet to be told.

About 35 miles from where I am standing in the picture to the right, there is a place called Prospect Cove. And there in 1867 a man named Charles Robinson, born in Scotland probably in 1840, married. Within a few years he and his wife would be operating a motel and place for the purchase of spirits at various locations within a few blocks of this location. I am pointing to the location of their 20' frontage lot that went eastbound under the current TD sign at bottom right of above picture and travelled back about 70 feet. The entry to the parking lot in front of me used to be the entry to what was once called Bentley Lane. Charles and his wife raised several children living within blocks of this location for possibly 30 years or more. He also wore the uniform of a Halifax policeman for a short period in the early 1880's.

Charles Robinson came to the US sometime before the Civil War and on 12 April 1861 he enlisted in the US Navy at New York for a three year term of general service. He claimed to be 28 as you can see from the above line from the actual enlistment document and stated, as also above indicated above, that he had already had experience amounting to 14 1/2 years... somethwere! Some feel his age was incorrect and that rather then having a birth around 1842... it was more then likely in the year 1840.

A document found suggests that Charles Robinson first served on the gunboat... the USS Crickett but this may be inaccurate as it appears that vessel was not built till 1862.

His second vessel was the USS Saint Louis that fought during the Battles of Forts Henry and Donelson in February 1862, and several other battles leading up to the Yazoo Expedition in late December of that year. But not long before the December mission, the US Government reliized that it actually had two ships of this name. This one which was recently purchased, and one already in existance. So they did the natural thing. They rennamed the vessel, and it then became the USS Baron De Kalb. It was under this name that the vessel then proceeded on the task to search out any enemy activity, forts, vessels etc along a stretch of the  Yazoo River in the State of Mississippi. The area was known to have torpedoes (underwater mines) and part of the task also involved the very dangerous job of finding and destroying them. (You read what happened to Ben Jackson in a recent blog losing an arm doing this very task, but in another location.)

The Baron De Kalb, pictured to right,  came under enemy fire throughout the mission. Returning fire the enemy was forced to retreat. When the warship came across four enemy steamers that were run up on a bar the vessel opened fire on each and burned them to the ground. Continuing on its way it dealt with the torpedoes and  came across many stashes of enemy supplies, some of which were seized and some destroyed. They also captured several prisoners. 

Robinson and three others on the ship were later awarded Medals of Honor for their bravery. But like so many other cases, it is most difficult to get details about exactly what each did... and when.  The General Order that lists these four sailors... and 41 others is the first ever listing sailors who were awarded the medal but only gives their names, rank and vessels served on at the time of their deed. A later version of the events notes the above and that the four men were...
"serving bravely throughout this action, Robinson, as boatswain's mate, distinguished himself in the various actions."
The citation for each of the four is identical except for the insertion of each man's name and rank.

No further details whatsoever are given. And as you shall see from the next blog on this subject, over the years the story seems to have changed when some took to assuming what they did.

Please tune in tomorrow to hear some more of these four brave sailors.

Bart

Yesterday I brought you some very interesting information about the first days of the Victoria Cross. I mentioned that at the first ceremony to present the medal, 62 men were presented with their VC's and that many were off in many countries around the world at the time and could not attend. Having said that, if you go back to the story of Sergeant Phillip Smith that ran in this space on 14 January, he was one of those who couldn't attend the London ceremony.

Well, as a result of that blog, I received a comment card through this site from a fellow in London England who was aware of the story and in fact even went to the trouble to send me a word for word printout of the story, (that I already had) that was in the newspaper back in 1857. I have tried to get back to him but I am having a problem with his email address. That aside, my point in bringing this to you is that I very much welcome feedback.

One of the purposes of these blogs is to reach out not only with these stories about the Victoria Cross and the Medal of Honor, but also to hope that readers who have information about any of these fellows, or their stories that I am talking about will contact me with this information.

This has happened several times now and I am very glad that is has. These folks are people that I would never have known about and some of their info is new to me... and that helps with the ongoing research on both the VC and the  MOH.

If you have information about the subjects being discussed please feel free to use the contact card on this site that ends up being an email to me. If, on the other hand you wish to leave a comment ON THE SITE, you can use the comment button to click on and post this. Be aware that all readers will see it...please be kind. hehe.

And while on topic, I would love to hear from any relatives of any of these heroes.

I have also had several contacts by email and even phone calls from an avid researcher in Nova Scotia who has spent considerable time looking into Civil War vets from that province. He has apparently gathered quite a lot of information about CW veteran Ben Jackson.  

There is a little on the net about Jackson but I suspect this fellow has tons more.  Ben's entry into the war was rather curious. He was working on one of the vessels plying his trade and at New York found that he could make $300 by signing up with the navy. He did this by becoming a substitute for a man named Lewis who decided for whatever reason that he was not going off to war. So he hired Ben to take his place. Thousands did this and it was legal. But Ben went a step further. He took on Lewis's name and went off to war. Great for them. Horrible for those of us who want to do research today. Canada has no record of Lewis. The US has none of Ben. What a twist when you want to go to an archives!

Ben/Lewis served on the USS RICHMOND and fought in many battles including at Mobile Bay in August of 1864. Here he lost an arm in battle and saved the ship from destruction probably with his work dismantling torpedoes (underwater mines.) Several Canadians earned Medals of Honor at this battle and will be covered in later blogs.
 
But my interest in Ben is in the fact that most references available indicate that he came back home a hero and had earned medals in the Civil War. Those words were of interest to me because in CW days the only medal that was available was a Medal of Honor and neither Ben's name nor Lewis' is on any lists I can find of MOH recipients. Work needs to be done to discovered what these medals were.

But of  interest as well is the fact that Ben, a hero with or without medals, was a black man from the Hantsport area of Nova Scotia. And so was William Hall who earned a Victoria Cross during the Crimean War (a future blog.) Even more interesting as it turns out, both men were actual neighbours and their farms almost touched each other...and they KNEW EACH OTHER. And if that is not enough to get a researcher excited... how's this. When William Hall's remains were removed from the original grave to Hantsport NS where a monument was erected in his honour, the very next grave at the old site, according to the fellow who contacted me through these blogs, was none other than Ben. Now that folks... is most interesting.

A final note about Ben... sort of.  When I got the above contact, I pulled open my file of one of the Quebec men who earned a Medal of Honor while on the same ship as Ben above mentioned.  Therein was buried a tidbit that I do not recall seeing before. And that was that the Quebecer was also in another the battle between the CSS Merrimack and the USS Cumberland back in 1862. On that ship was yet another Canadian. and both these men would later go on to earn MOH's in other battles.  You have probably heard of the famous battle on the Monitor and the Merrimack. It happened the next day.

Without the contact from Nova Scotia I may have missed that tidbit forever.

So, while I bring you these stories, your communications with me very much helps me to document these forgotten heroes.

And on a final note, I saw the movie Lincoln a few nights back. It is a great movie and you should try to see it. There are several mentions in the movie about Wilmington and the famous battles at Fort Fisher which you have read about in recent blogs here. There is also a great story being told in the movie about President Lincoln's attempts to rid the nation of slavery and how the steps taken during the war were only temporary and in only some parts of the country. The movie gives much dialogue on the later attempts, and the ultimate success in ridding slavery throughout the country FOREVER.

Go see this movie. It is history that we all must not forget. And especially timely. In a few days we will all be celebrating Black History Month.

One final note.... A few questions have arisen about timeliness of my blogs. I announced a few weeks ago that the blogs have now become Monday to Friday only, and that each day's blog will be posted by 4 pm. They were looking earlier for them too early in the day.

Tsh tsh

Bart

Most of us have heard many times the term.."imbedded" which tells us the reporter is right within the lines... on the ship... in the plane or jeep or armoured personnel carrier or on the front lines right beside the men and woman on the front lines of these gun battles.

Well, it wasn't always that way.  It probably began back in the days of the Crimean War and the stories that came home told of the great battles... and also the great blunders. People  were no longer insulated against the true horrors of war. With that war, they could actually be sitting down in their living rooms and reading stories from a reporter about what did... or did not happen at the battle front. And that was because he was right there, and did not have to sift through pages of what someone else thought happened that day.  And the blood and guts were no longer way off in another country. 

The more the public became informed about the horrors the troops were facing...not just from weapons, but from disease, and the stories of the lack of equipment and thousands of needless deaths for all sorts of reasons having nothing to do with the enemy's gun that they demanding  improvements. One of these would be the recognition finally that it was not just the most senior of officers that ought to get promotions and medals and awards for their bravery. It was obviously high time the front line troops... regardless of rank, got their due recognition as well.

Back home in England the politicians of the day started to advance the cause for a medal that would recognize that bravery is not only posessed by the higher-ups,  and that a medal for all those deserving would help to motivate and reward... and promote heroism at those front lines. Soon calls for "an Award of Merit" using these concepts would be advocated. Then a proposal for a "Military  Order of  Victoria." But it would be HRH Prince Albert, The Queen's husband that would finally put his pencil to paper and cross out all except the words..."Victoria Cross" and the rest... as they say... is history!

It would take 1 1/2 years to do all the consulting, approve designs, make medals, thoroughly investigate those nominated for this high honour and finally arrange to have a very spectacular parade with lots of pomp and ceremony and actually make the very first  presentations of the Victoria Cross.

About 111 heroes had been selected for this high honor but some were off in far distant lands when the date for the parade and investiture arrived. But that aside, 62 men in their best uniforms would march before HRH Queen Victoria and she would then bend down from her horse and pin the Victoria Cross on each man's chest. A story has it that one was pinned TO a man's chest by accident, but he took it in stride and waited till he got off parade to say a few words I guess.

There are three men who claim to have been the first recipient in the history of the British Empire's most covetted medal.  Each has a point.  Like the Medal of Honor, there is the date that the medal was presented. A date when the medal was approved and  came out in a General Order (in the US,) or in the Royal Gazette in London, and of course the date of the action that resulted in the award.

At the June 1857 presentation members of the  Royal Navy, being the senior service, would be the first group to receive their medals. The most senior of these was  Commander Henry Raby, who's medal was awarded for actions at the Batttle to take the Redan in the Crimean War on 18 June 1855.

The Illustrated London News had an artist hired to depict battle scenes in that war, and to the left is one of the artist's paintings. The recipient depicted may well have been Raby.

Midshipman Charles Lucas was the fourth sailor to receive the VC. But his actions predates the others and so, his was the first VC by date of action. But because of rank held, he was 4th in line that day.

Lucas joined the navy at the tender age of 14. he would serve on a few ships and six years into his service he found himself in the midst of a battle that ought not to have even happened.  His vessel and two others were in Russian waters and were only on a reconnasance mission. between the three warships they had 38 guns. But the three forts they were checking out had a total of 100 guns and were not in the mood to be messed with.

One of these guns sent them a present... A cannon ball that was about to explode. It landed on the very deck of his shipmates and was still sizzling and about to blow up when Lucas did they most unusual thing. While others dived for cover he dived for the cannon ball...picked it up and tossed it over board and within minutes it exploded. But his ship was saved. And thus, years later he was being awarded his Victoria Cross. He is wearing it in this picture it is the medal on the far left as you view the image.

Up until the Royal Airforce was formed in the early 1900's the Victoria Cross had two seperate "ribands," as they were then called. The red for the army and the blue for the navy. When the RAF was formed that had an option. Create a third  colour or make all the same. They chose the later.

In Canada there are a very few blue ribboned VC's. When they all became red, a recipient was required to change ribbons.

At the above ceremony, after the navy medals were issued, the army stood in line for theirs. The third in this category went to Lt Alexander Dunn of Toronto Ontario, the ONLY officer in the Charge of the Light Brigade to be so awarded. More of him in a future blog.

There have been 1356 awards of the VC, including three being double recipients.

It was less than three months ago that Australia's Cpl. Daniel Keighran was awarded the last VC issued to date.  In a horrible fire fight in Afghanistan his troops were badly outnumbered and pinned down with intensive fire coming at them. The Cpl. set out not once or twice or three times but four times to deliberately expose himself to enemy fire so that he could properly determine their locations, the best points to take up to take them out and also in one of these his taking the enemy off other targets helped some of his troops gain time to work on and secure a wounded comrade. He somehow managed to come out of all of this and still be alive.

If you go to the web URL....
http://www.britishpathe.com/video/making-vcs  you can see a really interesting but brief video during WW11 of the very men who make the Victoria Cross.

Shown to the right is a medal already made and an ingot of bronze capable of making about 150 more medals.

On 29 Jan 1856 the Victoria Cross was born and duly noted in the London Gazette, and that was exactly 157 years ago tomorrow. And your job tomorrow is tell five people about this important date, and why not give them the URL to this site so that they can also read about it.

Bart

It has been fairly well documented and accepted that some 50,000 men... and as we have seen in recent blogs, a few women... had apparently ventured  off to the United States from "British North America" (Canada did not exist yet) during the 1861-1865  US Civil War.

Benjamin Franklin Youngs, named after his grandfather who was named after  the VERY BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, would be one of these soon to be soldiers.  Ben was born in 1844 to very well established farming and carpentry families in and around the Brookdale, Zorra, Embro and Stratford areas of Southern Ontario. In fact the town of Youngsville was named after his grandfather. A portion of the family original holdings of some 1000 acres is still farmed by descendants.

Ben would learn the trades of farming and carpentry. He would also add the skill of being  an expert shot with the family's rifles and/or muskets of the day. Pictured at left in mid life, he would venture off to the US at an early age and lived in a place then called Dearbonville in Michigan. Today we call it Dearborn. At age 19 Ben  would join a well respected regiment of good shots... the 1st Michigan Sharpshooters. He'd get a whopping $25 bonus for signning up. By war's end many were getting almost $3000 as a signing bonus.  And $300 bought you a farm in those days. 

 Over the next 13 months Ben would participate in many battles, would be wounded twice, would become a Prisoner of War, would be admitted several times to hospital, would be promoted twice and would earn a Medal of Honor and falsely accused of being a deserter.  All that in 13 months. Then he would come back home to Canada.

If you dig under the condominiums at the University of Chicago you might find some remnants of years gone by... and of what was in Civil War days the home of Camp Douglas, pictured to right.

It would be here as a guard that Ben would get one of his his first tastes of military life. He and others would be guarding almost 7,000 captured Confederate soldiers from the Feb. 1862 Battle of  Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River in Tennessee. (It is here that I believe 4 sailors earned a medal of honor, which would make each a double recipient... and yet credited for such an accomplishment.) (while researching the previous few blogs I discovered that at least one... if not two women were fighting in that battle. ) 

Within 3 months of Guard duty Ben must have gained quit a reputation as he was promoted to Cpl. After about 8 months of guard duty his unit would move on towards Virginia and  would be in fierce battles at the Wilderness (where several Canadians participated and one was awarded a Medal of Honor)  at the NY and Po Rivers, and at Spotsylvania. Ben would be wounded 2... if not 3 times here and would require a short hospital stay of several days.

Retuning to his unit he would probably also be in the battles of North Anna, Totopotomoy Creek, Bethesda Church and Cold Harbor, all in Virgina while on the advance towards Richmond, the Confederates' capitol. During the move towards Richmond, it would be at Petersburg that Benjamin would earn his Medal of Honor.

His unit had pushed the Confederates back from their attack and actually drove them back into their defensive positions. During the advance by the Union troops Benjamin Franklin Youngs actually jumped right into an enemy trench and seized the colors from the enemy soldiers of the 35th North Carolina Volunteers, and made it back to his headquarters to present them to the General. On arrival he was ordered to take them further up the line to a senior general. Upon doing so he was promoted on the spot to Sergeant  for his bravery. The 35th's flag that was captured is pictured on the left.

Within a month Ben was back in hospital from yet another wound. Released within the month he would be back in time to fight his way through the horror known as the Battle of the Crater where thousands were killed within minutes. (more of that battle in a future blog)  Next came the battle of Weldon Railroad where he was listed as Missing in Action. He actually ended up in hospital and not missing at all. Upon release from there he would be granted a 20 day furlough to go home and recover.

He did... and never returned to he war!

Benjamin raised a family in Ontario and several went into the carpentry trade. One actually played a major role in the building of the Stratford City Hall, opened in the early 1900's and still in use today.

In the 1890's Ben had moved back to the United States and took up work as a carpenter. At some point he became aware of the fact that he had been listed as a deserter and  he began a battle with the federal government and the military to have this horrible status reversed. He would argue that it was his impression of being sent on a furlough in late 1864 that his services were terminated. They had made a mistake earlier when they had listed him as being Missing in Action when he was nothing of the sort. Poor communications or paperwork resulted in that staus when clearly he was not missing... but actually in the hospital getting better from battle wounds. The desertion status was yet just another mistake.

During the Civil war it was often a case where men were listed as MIA or POW or deserter when clearly serious investigation would show that such a  status may well have been  inaccurate.

Records were flawed but still showed that in the Union army alone during the later part of the war there were over 7,000 so called deserters. And that was MONTHLY!  Hundreds of these were ultimately hung or shot by firing squads. Who knows how many maybe have been executed without cause???

That aside, the Youngs file contains the above letter from the War department back in 1864, but Ben knew nothing  for decades, that he had actually been awarded a Medal of Honor. It was ultimately withheld, under the official impression that he was a deserter.

In the early 1900's Ben fought this and finally won his case as evidenced by the Congressional record that is pictured to the left, that then revoked the deserter status, granting him a bonus for his service and thus again gave him back all priledges...read MOH... that were due him.

In 1913  Benjamin Franklin Youngs final got his Medal of Honor. It was obviously stored by the authorties for a very long time and the ribbon had deteriorated. But nevertheless it arrived through the mails and even came in its original presentation box. It is quite rare today to find a medal with the box which has long since usually gone missing. It should also be noted that the medal contains no date, rather rare. Further notice should be taken to the fact that it was issued in the WRONG NAME. His surname is in the plural..not singular.

A replacement medal of a later variety was later sent to Ben, with the correct spelling and even the proper dates of the battle involved. Both are now very proudly held by the family... and me most briefly.

In an earlier blog I told you about the ceremony held at his grave side in Los Angeles California in the spring of 2010 where we unveiled a new marker indicating that Ben was a Medal of Honor recipient. The day before unveiling ceremony I escorted about a dozen fellow Canadians to the Medal of Honor memorial at Riverside and was very priviledged to carry the two medals with me there and back and  until the following day as the owner was ill an unavailable to attend the Riverside tour.

He unfortunately asked that I return them and did not for a minute believe my silly story that I left them behind at Riverside... hehe

And there you have it... yet another Canadian war hero.

Bart

This short blog can hardly do the proper justice due to Sarah Emma Edmondson (Edmonds) Seelye. But I shall try my best.

She liked to be called Emma so I will comply.  She became famous for impersonating a man and horses would help her to gain this fame, and the sketch to the left has her apparently impersonating a woman. Hmmm!

Emma's secretive life seems to have began at the very beginning... (what a concept) with a birth in 1841 or 1842 in Nova Scotia, or Saint John NB or further west at Magaguadavic Settlement in the lower west corner of the province of New Brunswick, Canada.

Her youth was made quite difficult as a result of an abusive father who wanted a son and not a daughter. He had a farm to be worked and already had 4 daughters and no sons.  From the very earliest days Emma was forced to wear boy's clothing and she had to work the fields by day and probably studied  the bible by night. At a very early age she was about to be forced into a marriage that she wanted nothing to do with.  With her mother's blessing she ran away from home... dressed as a small boy.

Emma first started to make money selling hats with her mother's friend. She then branched off to selling bibles door to door and would soon be in the Monton NB area plying her trade. But when her father apparently found her she made an escape to Saint John and continued to sell the books.  But by then she had started using an alias... Frank Thompson.  Business must have been good because she would visit the publisher's facilities in Michigan and would soon be selling the books again door to door at Flint.  But still disgused as a man.

Being in the Unites States, Emma was constantly seeing the repulsive side of the slave trade and vowed that some day she would like to do something about it.  In 1861 she would make a move to move closer to the cause. Emma would take up civilian work as a nurse... a male nurse... still using the name of Thompson and found work in a soldiers' hospital. Soon she would try twice and be rejected both times for enlistment as a soldier because she was  too "slight."  On the third attempt she finally succeeded in being able to join one of the companies of a Michigan Volunteer Infantry regiment.  Emma is pictured here as a civilian in men's clothing.

Using several sources it is difficult to get accurate timelines, but none the less, Emma's life as a soldier was quite interesting. Emma would fight in many battles and skrimishes. At one point she could be found holding the musket and on another the tools of the nursing profession. On yet another she would be  a mail person and courier of the most highest level documents between reigimental and brigade level and still later between Brigade and Washington DC. She was knocked off the horse once, got shot in the arm another time and even contracted Malaria in the midst of all of this.
 
Having heard that a Union spy was put before a Confederate firing squad Emma thought this event would open of a new job opportunity...that of a spy! Obviously they had a vacancy. And indeed the word was out that General McLelland  was looking for a new "man."

Emma went before some sort of a committee and had to prove her knowledge was sufficent, that she was brave enough, fully understood the risks and that she was articulate enough to carry out the missions if selected to work as a spy. She had studied the polictics of the day, the Confederate personalities involved, the geography and other military matters enough that she had the Generals convinced she could do the job... and she got it.

Emma, pictured on left, and now in uniform, would have to resort to several disguises  and new names to pull it all off, and she excelled at her new calling. Heck... she even had to pose as a women in a few of the missions!

In one of these roles Emma would be at the First Battle at Bull Run, at the 2nd Manasas, at Antietam and Fredericksburg. At Antietam she would  be running messgaes from HQ to the front lines repeatedly and after the battle she would be out crawling the battlefield looking for wounded amongst the thousands of dead. In that capacity she would be on site when no less than 8 bodies of females... all wearing uniforms were located. Five of these were quite dead, the rest badly wounded. (There were several women who fought at Gettysburg and some died there as well)

At the siege of Yorktown she would be required to gallop between the front lines and Fortress Monroe several times carrying dispatches. At the Battle of Williamsburg Emma would be carrying a musket. At  the Battle of Seven Pines she was on hospital duty... which also included the depressing duty of burying the dead.

While wearing the hat of a spy, one of her roles called for her using silver nitrate to make a dye to cover her skin so that she looked like a black person. Then donning a wig she rode into the Confederate  lines using the name "Cuff" and spent time snooping about and brought inportant intelligence info back to the Union lines. On another she would use the name Bridget O'Shea and pretend to be an Irish peddler selling apples and soap to the Confederate soldiers and doing her snooping around to find out enemy morale and strength, position of guns etc and brought all that back for the Union General's consumption. Making her escape on this occassion  she was shot in the arm, and fearing her sex being discovered tended to the wound herself.

On yet another mission she was disguised as a Black  laundress and was roaming about snooping when an officer passed by and some important documents fell from his jacket. She grabed them and turned them over to her Union bosses who were quite pleased with her work. On another job she was impersonating a detective but really was out to get some info on a Confederate spy ring. The information was then passed on to McLelland  just before the Battle of Vicksburg took place.

Emma's spying, soldiering and nursing days would come to an end when she contracted malaria for the first time. Knowing full well that any medical care she might get would lead to the discovery that he was a she would end her military service. So she deserted, spent her savings to get a train to Washington DC, dropped the female clothing, and sought medical care there. Once well again she then found a wanted poster for deserter Frank Thompson and decided that she could no longer return to her old unit as either a man or a woman. So she then kept her female identity and went to work at a Washington DC soldiers Home for veterans.

In 1865 Emma wrote a book called...  Nurse and Spy in the Union Army. It sold a wopping 175,000 copies. Over the years it has been reproduced under various titles.

Still later she would return to Ontario Canada, meet up with an old flame by the name of Seelye, get married and later return to the US and start a family.

In the mid 1880's she petisioned the federal government to have the deserter catagory withdrawn, and won her case. She was then given a bonus for her Civil War work and also a pension of $12 per month. A few years later she would actually join the Grand Army of the Republic. The ONLY women ever to do so. And within about a year she passed away as a result of again contrating malaria. She was given a full military funeral and a few years later her remains were actually relocated to a GAR cemetery, the only women, some say, that  apparently is resting in any GAR cemetery in the country. 

Not bad for a 15 year old runaway girl... ooops I mean guy... eh!

Bart 







,

Because of the nature of this blog, 99.999999 percent of it will  be about the men who went off to war and earned either the Victoria Cross or the Medal of Honor. But the men were clearly NOT the whole story. There are hundreds of cases of women serving in various capacities during the Cvil War... including being at the front lines with musket in hand right beside their male counterparts. 

The heroism and the flaunting of the rules of the day were the main stay attributes of Doctor Mary Walker whom you may have heard a little about and whom a future blog will be dedicated entirely. Yesterday's blog brought you the little known story of  Juliet Opie Hopkins, nurse adminstrator and recipient of the Confederate Medal of Honor.

Still with this theme, today's column is about some men who went into battle who were not men!

Here are two of about 500 women who served between 1861 and 1865, 300 with the Union armies of the North and 200 with the Confederate armies of the South.

The high percentage of combatants on both sides were young men. Women would not have a lot of trouble strapping down their chests, padding their uniforms to look muscular, chopping of most of their hair, and in some cases adding fake moustaches and with deepened voices, so for the most part they could blend in quite well.  Getting past physicals on joining was little more than a joke as most did not have to strip down and the recruiter was most interested in obvious disabilities that would preclude service. Throughout the war men would often go for weeks without bathing and even then would usually leave their shorts on when they finally found a river to dive into.  The women would  sneak out in the middle of the night to meet their own needs.

Some would act in nursing capacities or light duties, that would help them to blend in. And many if not most took up the same arms and went into the same battles and lay dead in the same fields as their comrades. It was often only after a serious injury or illness or actual death that their sex would be detected, but many went throughout the entire war without being detected.

The casualty rate of men during the Civil War was about 30%, yet for women it was 44%.  Three out of four of the female deaths were as a direct result of combat, while that number for the men was only about 18%. The rest would be attributed mostly to disease.
 
These women obviously carried their weight... and more... be it on the battle field, back at base camp or on the march. More so for the Union Sergeant that one site says was 5 months pregnant when she went  into battle.

These women served an avareage of about 18 months.

Little information seems available about  an 18 year old woman by the name of Marian McKenzie. She is supposed to have been from Canada and  may have served in several different units in Kentucky and Ohio infantry regiments.  Serving under the name of either Henry or Harry or Hery Fitzallen, or Fitz-Ellen, Marian had light complexion and only stood 5"2" tall. Begining early in 1862 till the following year Marian would fight in over a dozen skirmishes and battles in the Shenandoah Campaign. She would survive them all and it was said that..."no soldier has been more dutiful or is better drilled."  

One interesting story about Marian  tells of a day she must have had off and was standing on a street corner in Chicago. An officer coming along did not like the looks of her and thought she may have been up to something other than simpy resting for a spell. She was escorted to the police station then the court house but later released as being nothing more than what she claimed.  But then the next day the same police officer again saw her, but this time she was in men's clothes..a uniform. She was then arrested for being a woman in man's clothes. Again hauled off to court she was tried and found guilty and given a $20 fine, under the ordinance,  a serious matter in those days. She was given a day to get out of town and the fine would be cancelled. 

The story does not tell what she did, either hanging around Chicago or going off to war again.

A little more is known about Lizzie Compton.

Lizzie was orphaned at a very early age and was raised by a farming family that forced her to wear boys clothing and work the fields. She received no religious or other education and by age 13 she ran away from home to work on steam boats in the western rivers of the US. By age 14 she had  lied about her age, taken on a man's name and after numerous tries got accepted into a Union Infantry unit. It would be the first of SEVEN, and is said to be a US record. She loved the camp comaraudery and got along with the men and would see fighting at serious actions including Fort Donelson, the Battle of Shiloh and even at Gettysburg. She would be wounded twice, the later being at Gettysburg. During medical attention she was discovered as being a woman, was allowed to get better and then kicked out, only to relocate, change names and sign up again. 

Lizzie was caught by police in Rochester and like so many other cases, was arrested, taken to court and fined for being a "disorderly". Because she cooperated the fine was dropped and she boarded a train to Ontario Canada where she apparently made her home. 

She had by then already served a total of about 18 moths and participated in some of the bloodiest fighting, been wounded, made a POW and released, and even punished by the courts for fighting the cause. All that before she was 16 years old.

Tomorrow I will bring one more story of some of the women of the Civil War.

Please stay tuned.

Bart

The Medal of Honor was introduced back in 1862 and the first medals were actually presented on March 25 of that year. Later other medals would be awarded and some of these would be backdated to events and dates  earlier than those first presented to the six  Andrews Raiders. I have had the incredible pleasure in interviewing a descendant of the very first recipient of the Medal of Honor, being one of the Raiders and that story will come forth in a future blog.  Some very interesting facts will be shared in that article so please stay tuned.

In the mean time,  just short of 3,500 Medals of Honor have been awarded and as history clearaly claims..only one went to a woman. This of course was the very well qualified Docctor Mary Walker, whom also you will hear much about at a later date in this space.

But today I want to share with you some intersting facts about another woman who was awarded the Medal of Honor. Yup!  Another woman.

But today's hero is not Mary Walker. It is Juliet Ann Opie Hopkins and that is an image of her in the bottom right corner of this State of Alabama 50 cent piece... then called a Fractional Note. It of course was Confederate Money for a Confederate State, and Hopkins was of course a Confederate as was her MEDAL OF HONOR.  But more on that in a minute.

Look carefully in the upper left hand corner and you can see this  note has a number of it... it is handwritten as were all notes of that day. Now, look at the image below it and look over to the right. There is the same number, but backwards, because you are looking at the reverse... a blank reverse... of the fractional note. Again that is the way these were made in Civil War days in the south.

There were about 45 million who have served in the US military since day one. Two have been awarded the Medal of Honor. Mary Walker and Juliet Hopkins. One for the North and one for the South.  Bet you did not know that!

In 1862 the Southern Congress approved the creation of what they called the Southern Cross of Honor, pictured to right.  It was to be be their equivalent to the US Medal of Honor. It was to be awarded to all ranks who performed valorous acts during the Civil War. Some 2,000 names were to be entered on a Role  of Honor as well.  But very soon the creation of actual medals slowed down. They needed the medal for other more important war efforts.  Those issued, had the Maltese Cross shape with an engraved  flag surrounded by a laurel wreath on the front and the words... " Southern Cross of Valor."  The reverse, shown here had the war dates enscribed as well as the Southern States'  motto.

Years later a second version of the medal was created by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.  A book... "Valor in Grey" apparently has a list of all recipients, and it available today on the net for those wishing further information on the medal and its recipients.

Juliet Hopkins was born in the early 1800's in Virginia. In her youth she would take up nursing and would soon be working as an adminstrator. She would ultimately start up numerous hospitals in several states and would have almost 100 different auxiliaries of other women who came forth to help her in these efforts. As a stong supporter of the Confederacy, she, would donated over $500,000 to the cause and would be even known to sell off possessions to raise more money to help veterans. She would also roll up the carpets in her homes to give to the Confederacy to be cut up in smaller pieces to make blankets for the suffering troops.  Providing services to the wounded came as  a second nature. Hopkins, despite being warned not to,  would often go out into enemy territory to bring back the wounded. She would soon become known as the Florence Knightengale of the South. Two wounds in her leg would see her limp her entire adult life. Many would praise her work as did a fellow named Robert E Lee.

Hopkins would start a program of writing letters home for veterans, she would send locks of their hair back to family and donate many a book for their reading and taking minds off horrible injuries. For all of this she would be awarded the South's Medal of Honor, and at death she would receive a full military funeral.

Here are a few more examples of Confederate money during the Civil War.

First notice the handwritten numbers on the three samples to the left. There must have been quite a crew of folks that simply had the job to write out these numbers. Apparently they did not have presses that would automatically change the number each time an image was made.

The images on the right show another lack of developement. The bills were obviously printed in two different processes. The first with the bill. The second with the 50 cent stamp in blue.  Carefully study these and you can see that each one is in a slightly different place.

hehe..

Bart

The last blog brought you the story of pilot John Carey Morgan who had broken his neck and could not get in the American services so he came north to Canada, enlisted, went off to war and became a hero earning the Medal of Honor.  Well, today's story is another with similar circumstances. But this time the fellow was ruled disabled and not fit for military service in Canada and so he went south, then east and then off to Europe where he also became a hero earning not one but two countries top medals for honor and bravery.

Rowland Richard Bourke was born near London England and at about age 17 he moved to Canada and ventured to the Klondike. A few years later he moved to the  Nelson area where he joined up with some relatives to work their farm. While trying to clear the land he was blowing up stumps when a premature igniting of a fuse resulted in an accident killing one of his relatives. He lost an eye in the accident. After that the family left Canada and went to New Zealand. But it was only a few years before Rowland was back in Canada farming at a place called 9 Mile. Then WW1 broke out and Rowland knew that his calling was to put on the uniform and fight for the cause. But with a loss of 50% of his sight, the army, navy and airforce rejected his enlistment attempts. Not detered he decided to travel south to the US and get some flight training. Before leaving his home town  he signed some land over to the authorities so that they could auction it off with the funds to go to supporting veterans and their families. Bourke had to pay for his own way to California and also to take flight lessons. He was awarded a "Flying Certificate" to operate "aero planes." 

Bourke would then pay his own way to Britain and there he found entry into the navy less restrictive than in Canada and soon he would be enlisted in the   Royal Navy Volunteer Reserves. Entering service as a  Sub Lieutenant in 1915, he'd be promoted to Lt within 2 years. By 1918 he would be in command of a small Motor Boat and play a key role in the attempts to close off the harbours at Ostend Belgium and Zeebrugge some 20 miles north east of there. Both of these led to water routes that allowed access to German U Boats stations along the route to Brugge. From there they would supply and service U Boats that made their way out into the Atlantic and engage in the Battle of the Atlantic.  If these harbours could be blocked the German subs within these waterways would be useless.  Worse yet for Germany, those intending to cross the Atlantic would then have a much longer and dangerous route to cross over to  North Americans waters. Zeebrugge and Ostend were the most havily defended of all German held harbours.

In April and May 1918 efforts were taken to block both harbours. And Bourke tried his best to get into the thick of things. His sight problem had caught up with him and most officials tried their darndest to keep him out of harms way. He volunteered repeatedly to be allowed into the front lines and finally was allowed to command a backup vessel during the first blockade attempt. This was at Zeebrugge harbour on 23 April.

The men involved in the attack were told that they were not expected to come back, But that detered no one. Bourke's vessel was finally called into action and the voluteers onboard raced into the harbour to save many survivors that had be struggling in the water when their vessel was sunk. Bourke's crew pulled 38 men out of the water. And if that was not enough, before all was done his crew would also tow another  Motor Boat off to safety after it became disabled.  The picture here is not of his Motor Boat but is the same type that he would have commanded. Bourke would be awarded a Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for his actions that night. A DSO is only one medal lower in the British Empire's ranking of bravery awards below the highest medal for bravery... the Victoria Cross.

In early May the allies would attempt to seal off the Ostend Harbour but met with very heavy enemy resistance. When Britain's  HMS Vindictive was sunk there were many survivors struggling in the water that were themselves under extreme enemy fire. Word got back to Bourke, pictured to right,  who again took his boat and crew into the harbour not once or twice or three times... but four times each again under disastrous fire in search of survivors. This time his crew saved another three men. Two of his own crew paid with their lives and several others were wounded. Bourke would later be awarded the Victoria Cross for this action. It would be one of only three being awarded for the Ostend harbour blocking attempt. His boat would be hit 55 times by enemy fire.

Bourke's VC would be pinned on his chest by HRH King  Geroge V at Buckingham Palace. Bourke would also be awarded with France's Legion of Honor (Chevalier) which is France's equivalent to the VC and the US equivalent to the Medal of Honor. These deeds saw Bourke promoted to Lt. Commander and after returning to civilian life back in BC he would still work with the Volunteer Navy and helped set up a fisherman's patrol along the Pacific Coast line. He would work for many years as a supervisor at the Naval base and would also serve in a recruiting function during WW11.

He and his wife would live in Esquimalt for many years and on passing he received a miltary service and was laid to rest at the Royal Oak Burial Park . His wife would later join him in the same plot. This park and others including myself has joined forces to see the creation of a larger and more prominent marker at his grave and anticipate a formal unveiling ceremony possibly in May of this year... perhaps even on the 10th... the 95th anniversary of the  Ostend deed in which he was awarded his Victoria Cross.

Later that month a refurbished monument will be unveiled at Ostend Belgium. This monument commemorates the actions of Bourke and many others sailors and more particularly the men of the HMS Vindictive that was sunk at that battle.  That ceremony will be attended by Belgium's King and Queen  and it is anticipated that a representative from the British Monarchy will also be in attendance. There will also be many other officials attended including service groups and relatives of those who served. There may also be attendance from BC as well. 

Bart

Yesterday's story about Texas born John Cary Morgan left off with the co-pilot finally pulling the controls away from a very seriously injured pilot, completing a bomb run and returning to Britain. His pilot died within 1 1/2 hours of touching down on British soil..

Shortly after landing his B-17 Flying Fortress, an example pictured on left, he was again ordered back to his barracks in confinement. Yesterday's readers will remember that was his status  for a minor infraction, before the above mentioned bomb run, and how he tricked others into thinking he was supposed to fly the mission, when in fact he was grounded at the time.

Morgan did to not let on the true dangers and heroics of the mission, but word soon got around and the brass then had a real problem on their hands. The man was a hero. He needed to be recommended for the Medal of Honor. But how could this be done when the true facts of his confinement status, would become known and possibly  jepordize the success of any recommendation for a medal. So the brass did what brass do. They simpy juggled the books to make the flight appear to have actually happened two days after the fact... and after the confinement was lifted.    Cute eh!

The nomination passed on up throught the ranks and Morgan was awarded the Medal of Honor in December 1943. He was then ordered not to fly any more missions. But Morgan would argue that as long as the Germans were flying he would continue to fly... and got away with it.

Morgan would fly several more bomb runs and then came his first flight over Berlin in March 1944. His plane was  destroyed in a hit that resulted in a massive explosion with 8 being killed instantly. He would amazingly managed to grab a parashute before being blown out of the plane. But then he had to struggle to get it on as he was plumeting towards certain death, first head first then feet first as he tumbled down. By the time he got it on he had  just A FEW MORE SECONDS before falling into the tree lines then dropping 30 feet to A STANDING POSITION on the ground. Probably the longest freefall in history ended with the Germans coming along in very short order, taking him a prisoner and the rest of his war would be spent in a POW Camp. 

It's not to difficult to pick out the 6" 2" giant John Cary Morgan in this photo. he's about to dish out some hot water at the POW camp  North 1 compound at Stalag Luft 1 in Germany.

Morgan would spend 14 months  as a POW before final release. 

In 1948 a book came out by two former airforce officers called Twleve O'Clock High. One of the characters in the book was based on Morgan's story. The following year a movie of the same name came out and the character Jesse Bishop was based on Morgan's heroic actions and his very citation was used in the movie script.

Most of the information you can find on the net about John Cary Morgan is about his heroics resulting in the awarding of the Medal of Honor. Little unfortunately seems avaialable about the fact that just a week before the bomb run with 600 war planes out of England took place, he was in another heroic battle over France. In that battle he would have to fly a very crippled plane back home to England and would be awarded the Distingished Flying Cross for that bout of heroism.

On return to the US Morgan would return to work with Texaco in the aviation fuel side of the house. He would work out of Chicago and end up a divisional manager in California before retiring after more than 40 yrs service to the company.

During the Korean War he took a leave of absence and, whilst still holding his rank in the reserves, he requested an assignment back in action again but was refused. Instead he was employed in the shuttling of cargo across the US for about 2 years. His third and final year was as the Acting Deputy Assitant Secretary of the US Air Force.  He would retire with the rank of Lt. Colonel.

For a man with a very trouble academic career in many colleges, it seems  a monsrtous accomplishment to now have his heroics on display at many universities across the US and also at the  US Air Force Academy itself.

When asked about his heroism John Carey would usually downplay his role, like most of these Medal of Honor heroes do. He would be quoted once saying that "There's no such thing as a hero...  I was pushed into circumstances where I was forced to act."

Many might not agree!

Bart