Daily Blog

A Medal of Honor and a Victoria Cross update today.

10/27/2014

Over the past few months I have been bringing updates about Alonzo Cushing, The cavalry Lietenant who gave his life commanding one of the few cannons still operating during the famous Pickett's charge of July 1863. Many blogs have brought either his story or the latest developments in a decades long quest to see him being awarded the Medal of Honor. Recently the President has indicated that the medal would be awarded, but a delay was caused with trying to sort out who would get the medal. Since no descendants were known, The US Army came forth to indicate it would accept the medal, but no decisions were made on where they would put it on public display.

Well, that's probably all out the window now as a relative has been located at Fredonia New York and presumable a ceremony will be set in which the medal will finally come home to the Cushing man. Since the medal was earned some 151 years ago, this award is no doubt the longest delay on record.

Alonzo Cushing, pictured above, was only 22 years old when he was killed in the charge that was eventually repulsed by the Union forces, and no doubt played a major roll in the battle at Gettysburg being won by the Union. Many Canadians fought and died in that battle. Had the overall battle gone otherwise, Washington DC being only less than 100 miles away, the nation of today may well have been called the CONFEDERATE States of America.

Switching topics, It has been oft mentioned in this space that the British Government is involved currently, in a recently started five year campaign to honour all of the Victoria Cross recipients of WW1. This will involve the unveiling of plaques across Britain. Each is to be unveiled by local governments on the very day that is the 100th anniversary of the day the deed was performed by the hero. Whilst not part of the original plan, it later evolved into one that resulted in the creation of 11 further plaques. Each of these would be sent off to one of the 11 other countries these men came from and on each would be engraved the man or men from that country being honoured.

One of these is to be unveiled in the United States at it's most famous Arlington National Cemetery at Washington DC. A few days ago it was revealed that HRH Queen Victoria's daughter, Princess Anne is coming to the DC area to conduct several official duties. One of these will be officiating at the unveiling on the VC plaque at Arlington on October 6th. The press release issues several days ago unfortuinately made no note of an important fact. Each of the four Americans being honored had come to Canada before the US entered the Great War and signed up with Canadian Forces and were so employed on the very day each performed their acts of bravery that resulted in later receiving their Victoria Crosses.

The DC plaque contains the names of the 4 men and also honours the Unknown Soldier of the Great War. He was killed in action in France and was repatriated back to the US and honoured with the creation of the Unkown Soldier's tomb of 1921. This important monumnet has of course been expanded over the years to honour several unknown soldiers of other wars.

The names at the left are of Captain Bellenden Hutcheson of the 75th Overseas battalion, later the Toronto Scottish, Sergeant George Mullin of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, Sergeant Raphael Zengel from what is now the South Saskatchewan Regiment and Lance Corporal William Metcalf of the Canadian Scottish Regiment.

Each of these units and the Canadian Embassy and possibly the cemetery itself first learned of this plaque coming to the US by this blog many weeks ago. The four regiments and the Canadian Embassy at DC were further first advised that the ceremeny was to take place on the 6th by this blog, and today, further adised today of the attendance of Royalty at this event.

Princess Anne and her husband will be trvelling to Ottawa in the days following the US trip and may well be unveiling the Plaque for Canada, seen above and at right, at this time. Of the 11 countries getting one of these plaques, it has the most names engraved... about 70 heroes in all.

Back on Sunday,
Bart

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Sunday Post will appear on Monday

10/23/2014

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Some more Medal of Honor news of late.

10/19/2014

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Several mentions have been made in this space about Lt Alonzo Cushing. This Civil War Union Lieutenant was killed at the age of 22 while manning his canon during the famous Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg in July of 1863. While Cushing had no known connection to Canada, several Canadians died in that charge and in the 2 days before in overall Gettsyburg fighting. Of the 50,000 or more Canadians who fought in the CW, parhaps as many as 700 fought at Gettysburg.

The recent news is that for several decades a movement has been afoot to have Cushing awarded the Medal of Honor and The President has recently announced that an award would be made. But the trouble was that since there were no known ligitimate claimants that could come forth...who shoud the medal go to? Days back the net carried a few storries saying that progress is being made and that the US Army will be accepting the medal on Cushing's behalf. A further delay is that before a ceremony takes place, decisions need to be made where the medal will go. Some feel it ought to go to his home area of Delafield Pennsylvania but time will tell.

In bringing this story forth the press has said a number of times that the reason Cushing did not get the medal back in Civil War days was because at that time no medals were awarded to any of the soldiers AFTER they died, ie... posthumously.. But this of course is nonsence except to those who refuse to do any research.. such as some in the media.

There were no less than 32 MOH's awarded posthumously for Civil War actions. Two of these came to the families of John P McVeanne of Toronto Ontario and Denis Buckley of Lindsay Ontario during the days the CW was still being fought. And in both cases the man was the ONLY man in his regiment of perhaps a thousand or more soldiers, that was awarded a Medal of Honor, be they alive or deceased.

The delay in the Cushing award may well be connected to the possible fact that there were no nominations for Cushing to get the medal in the war..or for over 140 years after. His generals of the day had no problem promoted him to the brevet rank of Lt. Colonel on the very day of his death, and recommended that a fellow soldier in who's arms he died in, being promoted to a Lt in the regular US Army. The officers could have chosen to recommend the MOH for both men at the time but all the research I have done seems to show no such recomendation being made. His comrade, at his death was awarded the MOH in the 1990's however.

Nothing above is to suggest however that Cushing is or was not deserving of the medal, simply that the rules of the day were not followed, and the US President thus did not make these awards 150 years ago.

Moving on, a most interesting story appeared on the net a few days ago. But now it is gone. Most curious!!!

It announced that a heroic soldier of Vietnam days had received an interesting letter. It was from Washington DC and announced that he was to call a certain number to make some arrangements. Apparently he too was being awarded the MOH.

But when he called the number he found it out of service. The article says the whole thing was a mistake and that, after making other calls the whole mess was sorted out. It seems the medal was destined for another of the same name. The article also added that all was not lost. He was apparently now being awarded with another medal and also the Purple Heart. Too bad they sent him this incredible blunder and as insulting, why they instead decided that they would take the opportunity to award him two other medals so many years after the fact.

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A massive tea party and important historic facts today...

10/14/2014

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There are probably not a lot of times that over 300 Victoria Cross recipients gathered in one place at the same time. But it happened back in 1957 and on June 26th. There was lots of fanfare at London's Hyde Park and so their should have been. The military were on parade in their finest uniforms and anyone who was anyone was also there to see the sea of Victoria Cross recipients march past as HRH Queen Elizabeth ll and Prince Phillip took the salute.

The occasion was the 100th anniversary of the very day that HRH Queen Victoria presented the first ever Victoria Crosses on the chests of just over 60 men. Other were entitled but duties in far away lands prevented their travel to England. But by order of the Queen very special ceremonies were held around the world in all places the recipients were then serving. One such ceremony took place in Canada and was written about in this space. And back at London, among those 60 and a few more stood the proud cavalryman Lt Alexander Dunn, born at Toronto, and the only officer taking part in the historic Charge of the Light Brigade that would later be awarded the VC.

But moving forward to 1957, at Hyde Park the 300 and more again gathered and did their finest march past once again for royalty. There were more than 2 dozen Canadian recipients on that parade and thank goodness for photographers, an image of the 24 that could make the photo opt, had appeared in this space a number of times. I bring it to you again today. As you read the names below, you will hopefully recall having read stories of many of these Canadians also in this space in the past.

Here is that keepsake historical picture..with the recipients names also included....

The following day Sir Anthony Eden, Prime Minister of England hosted a "Thanksgiving " tea party for the recipients at Westminster Hall.

Britain does not normally celebrate this north American event, said to have started by the pilgrims back in the early 1600's. We in Canada of course just finished our weekend of celebrations and yesterday or Sunday most had their traditional turkey dinners. Our American neighbours celebrated Columbus Day on the 13th. This of course celebrated the Italian explorer's so called discovery of the continent inhabited by Europeans for quite some time and by Native People even long before. In the US Thangsgiving will be celebrated on the 4th Thursday in November.

And while speaking of giving thanks, the President of the United States gave thanks 5 days after the traditional Canadian Day of thanks... but back 130 years ago... in 1884 to Canadians Henry Williams, Phillip Moore, George Low and Robert Sweeny in a General Order that presented these men and many others with the US Medal of Honor. Sweeney of course a few years back was shown not to be a Canadian. Despite internet repeatedly getting it wrong about there being only 19 Double Medal of Honor recipients, of the 21, Sweeney joined that most historic group of North American heroes. he and the others have all been written about in this space before.

But now I want to bring you some exciting news. And its about George Low... who's surname is not Low but in fact EVATT.

For well over a century it was thought that Low was his real last name and that Evatt was an alias. It is exactly backwards. After spending many hours dissecting 164 pages of information discovered on this naval hero, his true name had come to light. So to, has his place of birth.. hidden since he joined the US navy back in 1872.

Here is the first extract from his file...

In 1907 he was interviewed with regards to a pension application. The interviewer's notes include the above caption where his home is revealed for the first time to history in probably well over 100 years. He was from Port Hope which is about 60 miles east of Toronto Ontario.

As revealing, he gives the names of 2 brothers and with the first, the SURNAME... EVATT. Subsequent verification has been obtained from a mid 1800's census listing his mother and father, himself, 2 brothers a sister and that his father was a medical doctor. They lived in a 2 floor wooden house and had a 17 year old female, unrelated, living with the family, possible as a maid. All the other children were listed as being in school.

The file contains some very interesting information about George. He served for about 5 years in the merchant marines. Joined the navy and left. returned and then served several terms. But his service was at times less than stellar. In the Merchant Marines, in England he deserted from a vessel. He had signed up as Evatt, his real name, but after running away, he boarded another vessel to escape the country. In that service he entered with the surname Low. Yet to be verified, this may have been his 2nd given name.

When in the US in the 1870's he first signed up in the navy under EVATT again, and yet again within less than 2 years deserted. About 7 years later he returned under the name Low, which stuck for the next 100 years and more. In 1881, as noted in a past article, he was serving on the USS Tennessee when he dove overboard to rescue a drowning shipmate, for which he was awarded the above noted MOH in 1884, for the actions of bravery in 1881.

Here is his accounting for the name change with the interviewer in the early 1900's...

More work still needs to be done on his life after the military and as that is done I will update this most interesting story.

Back on Sunday.

Bart

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Sunday Post

10/12/2014

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Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, the Sunday blog will be posted on Tuesday of next week,

enjoy the holiday

Bart

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Meeting Medal of Honor heroes, collecting signatures and learning WHY they sign these signatures.

10/5/2014

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It was long before I got the autographs of over 40 famous famous persons in my little collection. I was in Toronto on it's famous Young Street with a zillion other kids and their parents and it was over 50 years ago. The man has escaped from the Hollywood screen, and was riding up Young in an army jeep and we had all gathered to see him in person. And when he arrived my brother and I took turns waving and shooting at him and he shot back..sort of. His name was Marion Mitchell (Robert) Morrison ... but we just knew him as the Duke. ..with the stage name of course of John Wayne. I didn't get his autograph but I sure got the great keapsake memory of being shot by him, in our own little make believe scene.

Years later I would get another chance meet with another "Wayne" of sort. I was a policeman and on crowd control at an intersection where he was about to do a commercial for one of the big gas companies. The crowds had yet to arrive and he was in his dresser trailer when I sent in a note that I had a warrant for his arrest and that if he could come out I would be most appreciative. I was stunned when he did, sat in the back and thus locking himself in the cruiser. I then asked most sheepishly for his autograph. I thought I'd soon be unemployed by this stupid stunt but he thought it quite cute and obliged. Of course, by that time he was one half of the comedy team, that was the sole act to appear on the internationally known Ed Sullivan show more times than any other act. But he used his adopted name.. Johnny Wayne and his partner of course was Frank Shuster ..bother of the writer and creator of another kind of hero. You might recall him. His name was Superman.

Years later I would learn that my mother, who served in the Canadian Womens Army Corps in WW ll, was involved very early in the war in recruiting, prior to going overseas. . As part of her duties she and a handful of others made a short recruiting film, that was used across North America. And the two university kids from Toronto who did the movie score were two guys named John Wayne and Frank Shuster. The same fellows!

Both men actually joined the Canadian Forces and went off to war and found themselves travelling widely as part of the entertainment of troops both in the war and later in the Korean theatre. At left the two were serving and shown in a skit at one of these shows for the troops. At right they are at Toronto in the early 60's doing another skit involving them having to arrest a fellow named Ed Sullivan. They'd appeared more times on the Sullivan show than any other entertainer... ever.

Over the years I have obtained autographs from Canadian astronaut Robert Bondar, Canadian acting legend Leslie Nielson and comedian Charlie Farguharson (Don Harron of CBC TV fame, and others.

I bring these tidbits to you today while the internet brought you similar stories a few weeks back. The occasion then was the 2014 annual convention of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society at Knoxville Tennessee. And there, no doubt attended were several thousands hoping to get glimpses of Medal of Honor recipients. Hundreds would gave gone through the MOH society's clearances as I did a year earlier to actually meet, speak with and gather autographs from many.

At the above left, retired Colonel Jack Jacobs signs materials presented by a member of the public. Jack was a Lieutenant in Vietnam back in 1968 when his company CO was wounded and he had to assume command. The troops had to move back and en-route he had to go into enemy territory several times to rescue the wounded while himself getting repeatedly wounded and even partially and temporarily blinded during these actions. He was later awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism, the saving of dozens of lives and dispersing of many of his enemy at the same time.

The image to the right is from a year earlier and shows several of over 500 in 2014 who waited their turn, as did I, to have our group, one of I believe five, to get a turn and entering the room and meeting these heroes. Several in the photo carry the latest book at the time on the heroes that was being sold at the event. The MOH recipient would turn to the page telling his story and sign it for the proud owner. Note also the green dots each attendee is wearing. These are to identify the group of guests he or she belongs to. Each is only allowed a limited time then asked to leave the room to make way for the next group to enter. Last year I was given a blue dot, which I still have as a keepsake.

Many of the MOH men have been quoted telling that it is their duty to appear at these events and others to tell the stories...not of their heroism, which most very much down play, or the glorifying of wars and the hell it involved. They feel it their duty to continue to tell the stories of their fellow men and women who served and continue to serve. And of those that gave their lives during the battle for which the recipient received his award, and yet others that died, and also of those who went missing, were wounded or permanently disabled in those battles and the ones before and after.

These MOH men are often old men. Men in the their 80's and 90's. Men very unstable of the ground and in physical discomfort of one form or another but men who still feel it a duty to be at these events. And we as readers of these blogs and net stories that benefit from the freedoms these men gave us have our own duty to stand in front of them, to salute each and every one of them, to listen intently and then to thank them for their services.

A very moving account on WHY they give autographs is highlighted in the Colonel Jacobs interview at.. http://www.wbir.com/story/news/local/medal-of-honor/2014/09/12/medal-of-honor-autographs/15537029/
Please take the time to visit this site.

Technician Fifth Grade Robert F Maxwell earned his Medal of Honor for bravery in France in WW ll and is shown giving an autograph at left, above. At center is Fist Lieutenant Brian M Thaker, a Vietnam recipient from 1969 giving an autograph, At the right is Staff Sergeant Salvatore Giunta, a recipient from action in Afghanistan in 2007. These three images were taken at the convention at Gettysburg last year, a part of which I was honoured to participate in and bring you many a blog on. Note at bottom right corner of third picture there is a stack of cards that each recipient has with his image and a brief story. Most are autographed and handed out at events such as this convention.

Here are two of the autograph cards I received last year. Note the army Medal of Honor image on the top card and the navy image of the MOH on the lower one signifying the branch of service the recipient was in.

Here are two more of these cards. Three of the four are on the men pictured above.

More next week, See you then.
Bart

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A Medal of Honor and a Victoria Cross update today.

Sunday Post will appear on Monday

Some more Medal of Honor news of late.

A massive tea party and important historic facts today...

Sunday Post

Meeting Medal of Honor heroes, collecting signatures and learning WHY they sign these signatures.

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

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Categories

A Medal of Honor and a Victoria Cross update today.

Sunday Post will appear on Monday

Some more Medal of Honor news of late.

A massive tea party and important historic facts today...

Sunday Post

Meeting Medal of Honor heroes, collecting signatures and learning WHY they sign these signatures.

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

Archives

Categories

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