Daily Blog

Stamps of Approval... in fact many of them!

1/28/2015

The last several columns have brought you a portion of the story of the Gaujot brothers who were the only brothers in the history of the Medal of Honor, dating back to Civil War days, who earned their medals in different wars. Several other sets of brothers also earned the medal, but each would earn his medal in the same war as his kin. While this story is not yet been fully told in this space, I am taking a break for a few blogs to tell of a few recent news announcements with regards to both the Medal of Honor and the Victoria Cross. After these I will return to the Gaujot heroes.

Regular followers of this space are aware of my almost daily habbit of using the GOOGLE "News" search filter to see what is happening in the VC and MOH worlds. Several stories have been discovered that need mentioning here in the days to come.

In past blogs I have brought you the story of the Canada Post release of the October 2004 sheet of Victoria Cross stamps. The occassion of the release was in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the famous October, 1854 Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean War. It was here that Toronto born Lt. (later Colonel) Alexander Dunn was awarded with the Victoria Cross. This was later pinned on his chest by HRH Queen Victoria at London, during the first ever presentation of about 60 Victoria Crosses. Dunn being on the first parade, was the first ever Canadian recipient. His VC was the ONLY VC awarded to an officer in that famous charge.

The image on the left is that of an actual Victoria Cross awarded to a Canadian, and held by our National War Museum at Ottawa. A museum highly recommended to be visited by all. The image to the right on that sheet of VC stamps is a depiction of the new Canadian version of the VC, which has replaced tthe English version... "For Valour" with the Latin... Pro Valore." It also bears the approval via signature of HRH Queen Elizabeth ll, and was unveiled in May of 2008.

Past blogs have also told of the sheet of stamps, above at right, honouring Nova Scotia born William Hall and released during Black History Month, back in February 2010. This son of a slave went on to become the first man of colour, not only from Canada, but in the entire world... to be awarded the Victoria Cross, for his heroism in 1857 during the Indian Rebellion. He was the recipient of Canada's third VC, and was the first Canadian naval man to be so awarded.

Having written about these men in the past, I was very interested to learn in days past that the post office in Australia has issued five new stamps effective about a week ago, in honour of five of that country's Victoria Cross recipients. The issue is part of the Legends program and is released in preparation of the 100th anniversary coming up of the ANZAC landings in Gallipoli, Turkey in WW l.

Holding the image of their VC stamps are, left to right... Ben Roberts-Smith VC, Daniel Keighran VC, Keith Payne VC, Mr. Doug Baird and Mark Donaldson VC. Mr. Baird accepted the honour on behalf of his late son Cameron who was awarded the VC posthumously after being killed in action in Afghanistan in 2013. With exception of Mr. Payne, the remainder all also earned VC's for heroism in Afghanistan. Payne's came from bravery in Vietnam back in 1969. Each will receive a 24 ct. gold likeness of their Victoria Cross stamp. They stand in front of Melbourne's Shrine of Remembrance.

The post office's Legends Awards, not only recognized the heroes of Australia, but also acts as a fund raising tool by the selling of various products. A portion of the money is donated to needy service members and families affected by war.

Chief Warrant Officer Payne, VC, shown at above right, was also honoured with an Australian stamp released back in 2000 and as shown below, at far right.

CWO Payne is of interest to me because of a Canadian connection... with a twist, if you will. And that twist involves US Colonel Lewis Millett, a Medal of Honor recipient for bravery in Korea. Regular readers of this space will remember that many years before he became famous Lewis served in the National Guard. When he learned that the US President was not going to send troops off to join in the war effort in the early days of WW ll, Lewis deserted. He then hitchhiked to Canada..not once but twice, and on the 2nd attempt enlisted with the Canadian Army.

After basic training in New Brunswick he was sent to the Ottawa area for secret training in a new invention then known as... Radio Detection And Ranging. Today we simply call this... radar. Then off to England he was sent, served with the Canadain troops there and when the US entered the war he switched over to the US forces again and went of to Africa and many acts of heroism there and in Vietnam and Korea resulting in many heroism medals including the Medal of Honor, and the Distinguished Service Cross.

Here is a picture of Colonel Millett many years after retirement, wearing a chest full of medals and the medal of Honor around his neck. A few years back I had the priviledge of meeting one of his sons and a daughter-in-law in California. It was unfortunately at a sad occassion. The funeral of Lewis at Riverside Narional Cemetery. While there, among many stories was one of their favorites. It was that whilst the US did not allow the wearing of foreign medals, Lewis, being the fellow he was, made up his own rules. Under his chest of ribbons, fastened by velcro were two of his favorite ribbons. Those issued for his 1941/2 service with the Canadian Army. The middle picture is an image of Canadian Volunteer Service Medal complete with clasp for overseas service. At the right is the British Commonwealth's 1939-45 War Medal. It would be the ribbons from these two that would be secreted below a very large gouping of US ribbons or miniatures.

The family had another favorite story about their hero father. It was that Lewis often made it well known, that the talents he needed to conduct the bayonet charges in Korea, were not learned during US...but Canadian basic training. This same talent was dircetly put to the test in battles that ultimatley resulted in his being awarded first the Distinguished Service Cross and within weeks the Medal of Honor.

Yet another was Lewis's fond bragging often that he was the only Coolnel in US history to be charged and convicted of desertion and then go on to earn the Medal of Honor.

On Sunday I will tell you how this all comes together.

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Awaiting some info on a special column. This should appear by Wednesday night. cheers!

1/25/2015

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Part three of the story of the incredible hero brothers Tony and Julien Gaujot, the only set of 7 (or possibly 8) sets of brothers earning the Medal of Honor, who did so in DIFFERENT wars!

1/19/2015

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The first and second articles about the brothers told of the US birth and a move with parents to the Belleville Ontario area in their youth where their father was in great demand for his minning expertise. A sister was born while the family was in Ontario. In recent days it has been learned that there were in fact 5 brothers, possibly all US born, and of which two of course were the medal recipients. Also just learned and being investigated is that there was a 2nd sister ...possibly also Canadian born. The second blog told a little about Antoine (Tony's) entering the military, having soon being charged with and later acquitted for the murder of a Private in his regiment. He then served during the Philippine Insurrection where his bravery resulted in his being nominated for commissioning and also for the receiving of the Medal of Honor. An award that would take about a dozen years to be approved and awarded.

The two blogs left off with the story of service resulting in the medal in the Philippines during the Battle of Payne, aka the Battle of San Mateo, in December of 1899. Anthony would also be at the front during fighting in the islands at Montalban, Angono de Bay, San Iisdro and at Palanan.

Sick and wounded reports for his unit, the 27th Infantry, would later show that Tony suffered from malaria fever for days in May, Aug, Sept and October of 1900. That same year began with the mid January nomination for the Medal of Honor. But four months later things went bad for Tony.

While detail seems quite scarce so far, information briefly reveals that in May of 1900 Tony was, for a second time, charged with murder and court marshalled under the terms of Section 62 of the Articles of War. This was the same section he originally faced at trial and received a later acquittal for, some 18 months earlier. It seems that this time there was some eliment of guilt determined, yet the punishment was only limited to loss of one month's pay.

And a few weeks later he was actually promoted to Sergeant!

In February of 1901 Tony's services came to an end and he was released as no longer needed at the Islands. The rest of his unit were also released from further duty three months later. The trail of Tony seems elusive for the next decade. It is believed that he was summoned to the White House, possibly in February 1911 for a formal ceremony in which President Taft probably pinned the Medal of Honor on his chest.

The next we here from Tony, he is fighting on US soil as a civilian. It was in Kanawha County of West Virginia in a 15 month battle, literally, and known as the "Paint Creek and Cabin Creek War."

It all started in the days leading up to April of 1912 when the major state wide occupation of coal mining pitted (pardon the pun) the owners against the miners in many of the 96 mines employing over 7,500 miners.

Paint and Cabin Creek form two of the 3 sides of a triangle and are located about 30 miles south of Charleston W Va., and some 670 miles to the south west of Washington DC. (Shown on the maps to the left.)

Here, non unionized workers went on strike for higher wages. Union men in the same state and profession were getting 2.5 cents more per ton of coal brought to the surface. The equalization of wages would have meant a cost to the mine owners of about 15 cents per worker per day.

But money almost seems to have been the least of the miners' concerns! Demands for better working conditions resulted in many of the louder voices being silenced by being blacklisted from future mine working. The men were not allowed to congregate to discuss their issues. Even in the towns..really owned by the politics and money of the mine operators, and thus the policing etc poorly disguised, resulted in ordanances disallowing men to gather in groups of three or more, and thus stiffening their rights of free speech, and lots more caused disenchantment with working conditions. Men were bullied, forced to buy their tools and supplies from company stores at the mines and in the towns, and even for some time the mines created their own form of money for wages, exchangeable of course only at their stores. Stores with supplies overpriced to boot. Those failing to buy at the stores were fired. The companies even brought in scab workers and beatings or muggings were daily events.

While violence was not the rule of the day in the earlist days of the strike it soon escalated to the point that both sides became armed... and heavily, not only with pistols and rifles capeable of being used by snipers but even with Colt machine guns brought in by the owners. This of course by way of over 300 armed guards hired by the well known strikebreaking men hired and trained as goons under the name of the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency. One that braged that it had illiminated unionization in many parts of the state and others, were men soon became too afraid to organize.

The mines' private armies, aka the detective agency, hired former military men who were well versed on stopping insurgents..no matter the cost. These men would actually operate mini forts around some of the mines complete with high towers topped with big search lights to detect anyone approaching. Apparenetly nine Colt machine guns, capeable of firing off over 300 rounds per minute, were brought in by the detectives and regularly used to sweep the grounds outside of the mines. Whenever armed workers were suspected hiding in the brush waiting to let off a few rounds, the Colts would open up on them.

And into all of this we find Tony Gaujot. He was employed by Baldwin-Felts and in fact was one of the three ring leaders and known to have repeatedly operated one on the Colts. Some details can be found on the net about him and the strikle including the cute comment that he"had wounded more than one milk cow with his MG. "

The private armies even operated a "train," probably several vehicles hitched togehter.. that would drive through the small tent cities set up to house workers. During the strike another way of abusing them was to force them to abandon the tents, their temporary homes, homes owned by the mine operators. Men would fire their rifles and machine guns into the tents from vehicles like this, known as the "Bull Moose Special."

This and other violence caused the Governor of the State to declare marshall law, then cancel it twice. Ultimately he had to send in about 1,200 state troopers to halt things after almost a year and a half of violence... and about 50 deaths..from both sides. In the process thousands of weapons from both sides were also seized. After well over a year of violence both sides settled on more fair treatment all around.

We next here from Tony after he again rejoins the army during the Great War, but more on that next week.

Bart

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Due to 8 hours of no power, today's blog will now appear on Monday night.

1/18/2015

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Most unique set of brothers, face the enemy in several wars, charges of murder and yet both earn Medal of Honor for heroism!

1/11/2015

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Prior to yet another bad spat with the asthma, I started to bring you the story of the famous Gaujot brothers, Antoine (Tony) and Julien.

These brothers were most unique as a set of brothers earning the Medal of Honor. There are at least seven known sets that earned the medal. Two are not often found in lists because it seems to hard to admit their medals were illegally taken from them, as noted in past blogs. But the Gaujot heroes are unique for several reasons. First perhaps is that while in all of the other sets both brothers earned their medals in the same war. Second, the Gaujot medals and only one other set of brothers earned their medals in wars other than the Civil War. In the Gaujots' case, medals were awarded for heroism recognized in actions during the Philippine Insurrection and the Mexican War.

Ironically the only other non CW brother medals combination also had Canadian connections with the Nova Scotian born Miller brothers, oft covered in this space. They were the only brother set in the Spanish American War to be so honoured.

Last blog I started to introduce the complicated story of the Gaujot brothers with the family being in Ontario for about a decade in the 1880's. In that blog I managed to mispell the family surname and also that of sister Clothilde who was born at Belleville. Sorry folks!

Early Ontario directories evidence that mining guru Ernest Gaujot, father of the boys, lived on N. Alexander Street in Belleville at one point and for some of the decade in question operated mines further north in the province. While Tony and Julien were in youth, the family moved to Ontario from the US. At Belleville the boys and sister Clothilde, probably attended public schools and in Julien's case possibly even the start of higher education before moving back to the US. The above image at left shows a Belleville Ontario map in the 1880's and the arrow points to N. Alexander Street where the family lived. A modern map, at above right, shows the same street.

About 1890 the family moved back to the US and in West Virginia father Ernest took on a position of incredible responsibilty with the largest coal/land owners in the state. By 1894 the family was living in the Mingo County area of W Virginia and about 35 km north west of Philadelphia... and some 675 south of Belleville Ontario as shown above. Ernest was still involved in mine engineering with a move a few years later to Lynchburg .

By 1896 Tony was registered as a student with the forerunner of today's Virginia Tech, the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College. With the start of the Spanish American War in 1898, he left his schooling before completion, to enroll in the military. He was only 19 years old and needed his parents signature in order that he be allowed to sign up and obtained same. His brother had also attended the College and left also pre-graduation, years earlier. (The college would eventually educate seven Medal of Honor men, Antoine being the first and brother Julien the second of the seven recipients.)

Tony was enrolled in July of 1898 in the 2nd West Virgina Volunteer Infantry. In fact his brother Julien may have been the very fellow enrolling him and, as a Captain, was the officer commanding K Company were Tony was assigned. On enrollment it seems he was immediately given the rank of a First Sergeant.

It would be only five months into the service that a major event would affect Tony's career. It wouldn't be the only one!

It happened at Camp Wetherill, Greenville South Carolina. This was a temporary camp set up for preparation to possibly move off to war in Cuba. On 29 November 1898 Tony entered the tent space of one of his privates... Frank Scurlock. (possibly Spurlock) The apparent intent of the entry was for Tony to arrest the private for some unknown infraction. Details are most schetchy but the results were not. Tony had obtained a revolver from his captain's quarters, unknowst to the captain, and with the revolver entered the private's tent and shot the soldier in the neck. On 5 December Private Scurlock died.

Tony was arrested, charged with murder and court-marshalled. But something strange then happened. He was orginally charged under one section of military law which, if convicted could have meant a possible death sentence. But then the charge was slighly altered which meant the subsequent sentence upon conviction, would result in quite less sever punishment. Whilst held in confinement for 2 months with loss of some of his pay and rank, the court ultimately acquitted Tony of the charge, released him and returned him to rank.

Upon release he was given a short furlough and shortly after that, his entire regiment was mustered out of service and thus releasing both him and brother Julien from further military service with the 2nd W Virgina Volunteers.

Frank Scurlock lies buried at a cemetery in North Carolina. His grave marker curiously notes that he was serving in the Spanish American War yet his service was confined to US soil.

The grave marker, and the website publishing it make no reference to how this soldier came to an end in life!

At another internet site I found a partial list of the names of the men in the 2nd West Virgina. But it does not have any entry for a Frank Scurlock in K Company. It does however have one in K Company for a Frank SPURLOCK.

One might wonder if the name on the marker is accurate or not!

Some seven months later, in July of 1899 brother Julien again signed up with the military by enrolling in Company M of the 27th US Infantry. By the 31st of July he again enlisted brother Tony, this time with the rank of Corporal, and both were then serving at Camp Meade. The unit was in preparation to go to war during the Philippine Insurrection.

Prior to moving off, Tony got a leave in the San Francisco area and somehow managed to yet again draw unusual attention by getting himself shot in the foot. This was a non-military event but kept him away from his unit till mid October 1899.

Fourteen months later, and fighting over 13,000 km from the home front back in the US Tony found himself amongst soldiers tasked with driving the enemy out of a small town, in the Philippine Islands. It was December of 1899 and the fight would become known, both as the Battle of San Mateo and the Battle of Payne.

(The above map shows the incredible distance from the American Eastern coastline (above and to left of image) to the Philippine Islands indicated with the red marker above and to the right.)

The small town of San Mateo is found along the Marikina River and is about 18 miles north east of Manila. In 1899 is was occupied by enemy forces and presenting a major threat to important waterworks and wagon roads northbound. The Americans had to capture it and drive the enemy away. Plans called for several units to converge very close by along the Marikina but record breaking monsoons created major havoc for many of the troops. The river was overflowing and creating massive mud banks. All creating nightmares for the Americans having to make there way across to save the town. It fell to Tony's unit to find some sort of a ford to bring the Americans across the river and take the town.

Unable to find a ford, Tony decided to go for a swim. A very dangerous one across the very heavy currents and under close guard by more than 80 insurgents who were trying their best to kill him. Finally making his way across, swimming most of the way underwater, he crossed and found either one or, some say, two canoes. With their ropes literally in his mouth he managed to swim back to the friendly shore with the canoe or both trailing behind. It was a miracle that his only wound from this incredible bravery was a shoulder shot. From this event many troops eventually made their way across the river and the town was eventually captured.

Tony was later recommended for commissioning and still later for the Medal of Honor. The medal was granted about a decade later by President Taft and was based on this very event in the Philippines.

Pictured at left as a Captain and back with the 2nd West Virginia Infantry later on, is a image of Tony at a base camp.

To the right is a cute article from the 1950's reflecting on the brothers Gaujot and both being recipients of the Medal of Honor.

Note the towing with his teeth and mention of 2 canoes whilst most records including the official citation only mention one.

Note also the silly news statement that these two men were the ONLY brothers EVER to earn the MOH. And also the misnaming of the medal as a Congressional medal.

Note also the reference to the medals being WON... enough for anyone to stop writing, and so I shall till next week with more...much more to come on Tony's adventures. And then we will have a look at his equally curious brother Julien.

Bart

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Stamps of Approval... in fact many of them!

Awaiting some info on a special column. This should appear by Wednesday night. cheers!

Part three of the story of the incredible hero brothers Tony and Julien Gaujot, the only set of 7 (or possibly 8) sets of brothers earning the Medal of Honor, who did so in DIFFERENT wars!

Due to 8 hours of no power, today's blog will now appear on Monday night.

Most unique set of brothers, face the enemy in several wars, charges of murder and yet both earn Medal of Honor for heroism!

Author;
Bart Armstrong, C.D.,
Recipient, Sovereign's Medal for Volunteers

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Categories

Stamps of Approval... in fact many of them!

Awaiting some info on a special column. This should appear by Wednesday night. cheers!

Part three of the story of the incredible hero brothers Tony and Julien Gaujot, the only set of 7 (or possibly 8) sets of brothers earning the Medal of Honor, who did so in DIFFERENT wars!

Due to 8 hours of no power, today's blog will now appear on Monday night.

Most unique set of brothers, face the enemy in several wars, charges of murder and yet both earn Medal of Honor for heroism!

Author;Bart Armstrong, C.D., Recipient, Sovereign's Medal for Volunteers

Archives

Categories

Author;
Bart Armstrong, C.D.,
Recipient, Sovereign's Medal for Volunteers