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Some Recent News... Continuing From Last Week

4/24/2022

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A few days back I introduced you to the wonderful US Government's Department of Defense  website known as Medal of Honor Mondays. Each week the site brings the reader a story about one or more of over 3,500 recipients of the MOH. It usually has some great pictures also. I again  highly recommend you take some time to Google the site and enjoy the story of the week.

With so many to choose I cannot fault the fact that so few contain information about the Canadian heroes. But those noted seem well done, some though,  having minor glitches.

One of these tells of the Civil War navy hero Horatio Young. It, like so many other sources, and for so many years, insist that Horatio was born in Calais Maine. Possibly not so. More work need to be done but it appears he may have been born in the rural area known as Dufferin, close to St Stephen, and still in NB.

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This is a picture of Horatio many years after the Civil War.

When the war started he headed off to Boston and enrolled in the navy. He was assigned to the brand new USS Lehigh and assigned to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron. Moving to the Charleston Harbour area the vessel was supposed to be anchored but the heavy tides pushed it into a position where it was hung up on a sand bank.

Several Confederate ships and forts then turned their concentrated efforts onto the ship manned by about 90 Union sailors.

Many attempts were made to get a line over to other friendly vessels and one was finally successful. Till the Southerners shot it off !

A last ditch effort was made by five fearless soles  and a link-up was finally made and the USS Lehigh was saved to then turn her powerful guns onto the Southerners. 

The five men were later awarded the Medal of Honor. One of these was Horatio Young from New Brunswick Canada.


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Here we see the USS Lehigh in calmer times.

As told in much earlier blogs, Charles MacGillivary, was a PEI born Medal of Honor man, and was awarded the US Medal of Honor for heroism  for actions during the Battle of the Bulge. Earlier blogs also told that he was elected the President, of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society many years ago.

While holding down that incredible honor, he had significant input into the creation of new designs for the grave markers for the fallen medal recipients.

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Here we see Charles wearing a white helmet, and standing between two veterans in New Brunswick. On the left the vet holds the new marker for Horatio Young. On the right a vet  holds one for George Phillips, a Cdn. recipient for heroism during the Spanish American War, and buried in New Brunswick. That story appears in past blogs on this site and can be located using the search engine at upper right.

It should be noted that of the flat markers located across the US, (and no doubt many of the 48 countries where Medal of Honor men came from), these two markers are the first to ever leave the US, and have come to New Brunswick.

Here is the mounted marker installed at St. Stephen  (aka Saint) Stephen in June of 1989 by Charles MacGillivary, then the immediate past President of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.

The use of the term "Congressional" comes from the fact that the society, made up entirely of recipients of the medal, is mandated by their federal charter, to include "Congressional", despite the fact that the proper name of the medal DOES NOT use the term.

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There are at least 4 other known Civil War connections to St Stephen Rural Cemetery.

At the bottom right of lower map is a place called Robbinston Maine. Lorenzo Stanhope was born there in 1845 and enlisted from there in 1862. He served in the 28th Main and after the war he worked in Calais. (At upper left of lower map.) He died at Oak Bay, Charlotte County NB, shown at upper right of top map, and was buried at St Stephen.

James Smith was born at St Stephen and served with the 12th Maine. At death in 1910 he was laid to rest at St. Stephen.

Little is known about Pte Robert Linton, possibly Maine born and having served in both the 16th and 21st Regiments of Maine, and now resting at St Stephen.

Apparently  John Curtis, Vermont born and working in Maine,  joined and quickly rose through the ranks to Brig. General.  He commanded troops at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and no doubt many other battles.
After the war he was a lawyer and statesman. His wife died while visiting a daughter at St Stephen. He died there while visiting family, and was buried at St Stephen beside his wife.

After the Lincoln assassination he became one of only 8 generals requested to travel the Lincoln funeral train at the dead president's side. Several other ranks were placed throughout the train and remained with the late president on the journey back to Springfield. Twenty nine escorts would received Medals of Honor which later were ILLEGALLY rescinded, as oft noted in this space. (two of these came to Canadians. A picture of one of these appears in an earlier blog.  The very escort train funeral car was designed and built by a handful and one of the leaders was yet another Canadian, who had earned a MOH earlier in the war in unrelated actions.

More in a week's time,
Bart

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Some Recent News...

4/20/2022

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It was almost 170 years ago that the actions of a Nova Scotia journalist rocked the boats of officialdom so bad that the press of today still enjoy his results.

That fellow was Joseph Howe. He used his newspaper... the Nova Scotian, to expose government corruption going back for about 30 years. Government of course then did the typical by accusing him of libel and hauling him before the courts. No lawyer in town would take on the case and so he gave an oration in court on his own behalf that lasted 6 hours.

The jury, while instructed to find him guilty, did the opposite and acquitted him. It took them only 10 minutes of deliberation before announcing their verdict. He would later claim that..."The Press in Nova Scotia is Free. A benefit still enjoyed across the country to this very day.

Howe would go on to become the province's Premiere, a Father of Confederation, though opposed, and  later an MP, and still later the province's Lt. Governor.

In August of 1871, Howe attended a massive family gathering for Howe's, of various spellings, across North America. In his address at Framingham Massachusetts. His words of wisdom included the following...

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For the last 20 years and more of research, 12 in doing these blogs and almost 600 blogs, in my own humble way I am trying to honour Mr Howe's wishes to document and preserve the materials noted within each edition in this space.

Sadly, I see much room for improvement by Canadian governments at all levels and the press in doing the same!

And in doing this work I often turn to the materials found at the US  government web site of the Department Of Defense, and within, from the materials under the weekly title ... "Medal of Honor Mondays." ( searchable on the net.)

I highly recommend you Google this title to read of the incredible heroism covered by Medal of Honor men (and one woman) dating back of course to the US Civil War days of 1861-5.

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This is the cover page of that site.

In one of the last month's issues the site tells briefly about the incredible bravery of Charles E Hosking Jr. and his Medal of Honor. But it does not include a wonderful tidbit about his service.

He ran away as a youth to join the army. Being too young in the US he fled to Canada...and was only 16 yrs old, and obviously gave fake birth details. 


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This is Charles wearing his Canadian army uniform. It is that of the famed Black Watch. His service was cut real short. Less than 3 months.

As told in this space in the past he and other mates were in a pub drinking and acting silly when he had mentioned his home town in the US. An older man in the bar that very night knew the name of the town... because it was also that man's hometown.

The man, an insurance man by trade, was in Montreal on a holiday when he  saw Charles in the bar. On hearing his last name immediately contacted the family back home.

He knew who to call as the parents were, in fact one of the agent's customers, and the agent had earlier been told by his clients that Charles was "missing." 

The family contacted US authorities who contacted Canadian authorities and ultimately Charles was released from the Black Watch after less that 3 months service.

A year would pass and at age 17 he would run away again. This time he found  a new home... and uniform... with the US Coast Guard. But a child-hood heart problem caused his early release and sending off back to his home yet again. This, after about 6 months service, and still underage.


As noted in an earlier blog, when finally of age he would join up with the US Army and would go on to serve several enlistments and postings with several units and would end up wearing the rank of a Master Sergeant, as shown below.
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Among several postings, he would be in Germany and fighting in the famous Battle of the Bulge. It would be here that PEI born Charles McGillivray would earn a Medal of Honor, and in fact in later years go on to become the President of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.

Hosking would serve in Korea and do three tours in Vietnam. It was during his last tour that he grappled with an enemy soldier about to toss a grenade towards several of his mates. The grenade was trapped between the two as they stumbled to the ground and then exploded, killing both.

For this action Charles Hosking was awarded the Medal of Honor, but posthumously.

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President Nixon presented the MOH to Charles' 7 year old son, and is said to have actually draped it around his neck as well.

Above also shown is an image of his dad's grave marker.

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In 2000 the Police Benevolent Association of Ramsey NJ, his hometown, dedicated this memorial to him  at Veterans' Park.

More on Sunday,
Bart

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Catching Up...Part ll

4/10/2022

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On Wednesday last, I starting telling you about the mini survey I did regarding three of the famous Canadian Nurses of WW1. I noted that in the survey of the three, each page  had 30 hits.

But to my horror and absolute disgust I found that   Beatrice MacDonald had no hits, and Madelaine Jaffray had only 2.  Lenah Higbee has a whopping 27.


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Nurse Jaffray was born in the US, to Canadian parents. They would return to Canada pre WW1 and when the French Red Cross pleaded for nurses from Canada to assist them in the war, she responded.

When the Germans were bombing the field hospitals she became victim of a dropped bomb. The explosion caused  severe damage to her foot. She would soon lose it, and thus became  Canada's first, and indeed only WWl female amputee. Returning back to Canada she soon became very active with the War Amputees, would ultimately marry a double amputee in Ontario and soon both headed off to live in  Alberta.

She received several medals including the French Croix de Guerre,  as shown above, and at her far left she wears the ribbon for the Royal Red Cross Medal. She died in 1972 and rests with her husband in Alberta.

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Here is one of many posters used to recruit soldiers for service in Europe.
While doing the nurse survey, I notice several videos on line regrading the recent US national Medal Of Honor Day. (Too bad we do not have a similar day for the more than 100 MOH men from Canada, and for that matter a similar day for over 100 Victoria Cross recipients from, or with connections to Canada.)
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This is a screen shot of one of the pages in the video's. Note the grave at left for Willard Miller. Willard and his brother Harry both served in the Spanish American war and earned Medals of Honor for the Cable Cutting incident noted often in this space.  Both form one of at three sets of brothers from, or with connections to Canada, that earned the MOH.

The Millers were from Nova Scotia, and the grave image  above is from his resting place at the famous Arlington National Cemetery at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington DC.

Several years ago I had the privilege with a friend in visiting his home, meet descendants  and actually tour the house the brothers grew up in. We also saw the very route from the house to waters edge that they traveled to head off to war in the US.

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This is an image of Willard proudly wearing his medals. His Naval  Medal Of Honor is the star shaped medal on his right, a position always occupied by the most senior of medals  service men and woman wear.
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And saving the best for the  last, while we in Canada have trouble even acknowledging the Medal of Honor men that came from Canada in any substantial way, this is what our neighbours to the south have done to celebrate all MOH recipients... including those from Canada.

In fact they celebrate all recipients from I do believe, at least 48 countries around the world that brought a precious MOH back to their homelands and families.


Well Over 100 of these are Canadian or with connections to Canada.

On March 25th, national Medal of Honor Day in the US, all  recipients are now being remembered for their services and heroism in a very big way. And that is thanks to the wonderful and thoughtful folks and their supporters at American Airlines.

On March 25th, MOH Day in the US this plane was unveiled and will fly under the logo... Flagship Valor. On the wing tips you see the stars representing the 13 original colonies. Along it's side you see the very characters of the Medal of Honor. They being Courage, Sacrifice, Integrity, Commitment,  Patriotism and Citizenship.


The flagship was unveiled to a most dignified  crowd at Dallas and its first flight was to take MOH recipients to Washington DC to celebrate  MOH Day there.

Onboard the aircraft there are provisions for you to use a scanner to pull up the names of ALL recipients and no doubt read a brief description of their deeds in days past.

I will try to get details of  plans on flights into Canada and bring you more on this as it is learned.

See you hopefully in a week.

Bart

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Lots of catching up and great news for the men and one woman, or descendants from 48 countries around the world,  who were awarded one... or in a few cases two of the 3,500 plus Medals of Honor since the 1860's.

4/4/2022

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While much has been said about Black History Month in February, still more needs coverage in these blogs, but will have to wait awhile. So many stories regarding March have also fallen by the wayside. International Women's Day of the 8th, the entire month being Women's History Month in the US, and the 25th being  Medal of Honor Day in the US, all got no attention in this space. Much to my shagrin! 

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Back in 1992 the Canadian government announced that from then on that October would be celebrated as Women's History Month in Canada. 

The month chosen was due to the fact that back in 1929 the "Famous Five" women from Alberta finally won a years long battle with several Canadian Prime Ministers and the courts for the nomination of women, and appointment to the Canadian Senate.

The men of the day of course rejected the idea. Mostly basing their position on a very old English law that put the women in circles and had the men of the day forming  protective lines around them from the natives.

Add to that, the very dated British case claiming that only PERSONS could not be nominated due to outdated case law arguing that women were NOT PERSONS.

The 1929 case was heard and a decision issued in late October that indeed women certainly were PERSONS. And thus, could be appointed to the Senate.

In 1992 Canadian government announced the creation of  Women's History Month in Canada. 1992 being the 50th anniversary of the original British court ruling.

However, in typical government speak, the press release announcing the new month of celebration, failed to give the names of the three Victoria area women largely responsible for the movement.  The three originals and later a few others, spent over 2 years organizing and presented letters of support to pressure government for the creation of such a month.

Surely the very women... if any ... that deserved to be recognized for their efforts to get the month created. The matter has been oft noted in this space.

The above image was one of the federal notices regarding the Canadian month for the year 2021.

Several days ago I thought I would do a mini survey of some of the women I have covered in these blogs. In particular I was looking for stories about Madeleine Jaffray, Bernice MacDonald and Lenah H. Sutcliffe Higbee.

I searched under the description... Womens' History Month in US, and then added the above 3 names, one at a time. Out of 30 citations on first page in each search, I got 27 hits for Higbee, only 2 hits for Jaffray and none for MacDonald. I could have used other parameters to search, but these three are indicative of the poor coverage these heroes received, in this search. This is of course not to say that overall the three are not  well represented in other searches.

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At the first call for nurses in the US Navy, back in 1908, only 20 were chosen. They became known as the Sacred Twenty." (Those 20 have grown to over 4,000 today.) The arrow points to Lenah Sutcliffe, who later in her service married a US Army Lieutenant Colonel by the name of Higbee.

Lenah would ultimately become the 2nd ever Superintendent of all nurses in the US Navy. Obviously she was well qualified to be weeded out of the many applicants to be amongst the first 20. Many years later, after her demise she was laid to rest beside her husband at Arlington.

Lenah is shown above by the red arrow. Sarah M Cox, circled above,  ended up as the  Chief Nurse at the US Navy Hospital at Bremerton Washington. News to me days ago, is that Cox came from near Grand Lake NB.  About 175 kms away, at Chatham NB, is where  Higbee was born.

Two Canadians in the Sacred Twenty!


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During the horrible 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic that caused millions of lives around the world, the US was no exception. For their service in that disaster four nurses would be awarded the Navy Cross. A bravery medal only one down from the Navy's Medal of Honor.

Three of the four died and got the medal posthumously.The fourth was Lehna Higbee. Apparently the medal has not been awarded to any other US naval  woman to this day.   And one of the three went to yet another Canadian... nurse Lilian Mary Louis Murphy from St Catherines Ontario. Here is an image of the Naval Cross...


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And here we see Lenah Higbee hard at work...
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And is that Abraham Lincoln watching her at work???
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In 1944 the US launched the battleship USS Higbee, shown above. After its most successful career she was replaced recently with the USS Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee, made by the folks at Huntington Ingalls. The same ship yard that made the latest US Coastguard cutter, the USCG Munro, one of at least six vessels named in Munro's honor. You have often read about him here in the past. He was a Medal of Honor recipient, and in fact the only one in the coast guard's history, and he also was a Canadian, from the Vancouver area of B.C.
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Recently a 2nd war ship was released and named in her honor and known as ...the USS Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee.
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Here are the patches of the first and second warships. And below is an image of the army version of the Medal of Honor.  Higbee's Naval Cross was, as above noted, was just  one down in the hierarchy of bravery medals in the US.
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This is Jacob Parrott's Medal of Honor, earned for his bravery during the April 1862 famous Great Locomotive Chase, noted  several times here in earlier blogs. While claimed to be the first,  by date of action, others physically  came into possession of their medals long before Jacob finally got his. 

The above noted survey on Google, produced  no hits on a Woman who was probably the most decorated nurse in WW1 from any country. Her name was  Bernice MacDonald and she was from PEI. There has been much said about her in these blog in the past.

She was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, 2nd only to the Medal of Honor in the army, possible got the Distinguished Service Medal,  the Purple Heart, the British Military Medal, the British Associate Red Cross Medal and the French Croix de Guerre.
 

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The above images show the DSC, 2 hand sewn Badges of Merit, and today's Purple Heart.

Nurse MacDonald was the first ever to receives the Distinguished Service Cross, either male of female. A past blog told on the confusion officialdom had in granting this award. The legal verbiage called for the medal being awarded to men...not woman..and had to be altered to allow this first ever medal to be awarded... and to a Canadian at that.

Earlier blogs also told of how the Purple Heart was created and when first issued, and despite numerous citations on the net, the first ever awarding of the PH did NOT go to General MacArthur... but to Canadian nurse  Beatrice MacDonald.


And here we see Secretary of War Baker pinning the DSC onto the uniform of Nurse MacDonald in Feb. 1919. The ceremony took place at the War Offices in DC.

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Bernice MacDonald would be one of 26 woman earning the DSC in the Great War. At the same time over 6300 went to men. The war saw over 5 million men enlist. It also saw a few women enlist. Over 9 Million of them.

I shall be back with more on Sunday hopefully.

In the mean time make use of my search engine at upper right and enter some of these names and read about their incredible services to the US. A service that in turn is due an honourable place in our own history books to boot. (Though much needs to be done on that front as well.)

Bart.

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A week late and still verifying some details.

4/3/2022

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Numerous interruptions have prevented completion of some aspects of the blog I had planned for last week. Still some details to be sorted out, but I plan to bring you what I have  on Wednesday next.

So sorry for the .. yet again delay... but life sometimes happens.

Cheers,
Bart

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

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