War Department, United States, federal executive department organized (1789) to administer the military establishment. It was reconstituted (1947) as the Dept. of the Army when the military administration was reorganized (see Defense, United States Department of ). During the American Revolution, military affairs were largely supervised

General Washington’s general orders of August 7, 1782, began: “The General ever desirous to cherish virtuous ambition in his soldiers, as well as to foster and encourage every species of Military merit, directs that whenever any singularly meritorious action is performed, the author of it shall be permitted to wear on his facings over the left breast, the figure of a heart in purple cloth

For the first time in history, recognition for meritorious service in time of war, was available to the common soldier. George Washington personally bestowed the Badge of Merit on only three non-commissioned officers, though evidence suggests that other such awards were bestowed by subordinate officers.
The Badge of Merit fell into disuse after the Revolution, though the award was never formally abolished.

In 1927, Army Chief of Staff General Charles Summerall directed that a bill be drafted and submitted to Congress, “To revive the Badge of Military Merit”. This badge of merit came to be known as the Purple Heart. General Douglas MacArthur, Summerall’s successor, began work on a new design for the medal in 1931. Elizabeth Will, heraldic specialist with the Quartermaster General’s office, created the design we see today.
A War Department circular dated February 22, 1932 authorized the award to soldiers who had been awarded the Meritorious Service Citation Certificate, Army Wound Ribbon, or were authorized to wear Wound Chevrons on or later than April 6, 1917, the day the United States entered WWI.

At that time, the Purple Heart was awarded not only for wounds received in action against enemy forces, but also for “meritorious performance of duty”.

The first Purple Heart was awarded to Douglas MacArthur himself.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9277 of December 3, 1942, discontinued the award for meritorious service, and broadened service-related injury eligibility requirements to include all armed services personnel.

Following the defeat of Nazi Germany in WWII, Military planners put their minds to the invasion of Imperial Japan. Knowing nothing of the atomic bombs which would put a quick end to the war that August, authorities ordered 500,000 purple hearts. To this day, American military forces have yet to use them all up. As of 2003, 120,000 of these Purple Heart medals, remained in inventory.
On November 22, 1944, Time Magazine reported the first Purple Heart awarded to an animal. “Chips“, a German Shepherd/Collie/Husky mix, also received the Distinguished Service Cross and Silver Star, for single “handedly” wiping out an Italian machine-gun nest, during the Allied invasion of Sicily.

Cape Cod Curmudgeon
Posted on
August 7, 2017
Categories
American History, Dogs
Tags
Purple Heart, TodayinHistory.blog

 

RIP to my brother walt, who gave his life to a career as a marine and honored with at least 2 purple hearts ….

The National Voting Rights Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. § 1973–1973aa-6) outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the United States.

Echoing the language of the 15th Amendment, the Act prohibited states from imposing any “voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure … to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color.” Specifically, Congress intended the Act to outlaw the practice of requiring otherwise qualified voters to pass literacy tests in order to register to vote, a principal means by which Southern states had prevented African-Americans from exercising the franchise. The Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, a Democrat, who had earlier signed the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law.

Events early in the war quickly forced Northern authorities to address the issue of emancipation.

In May 1861, just a month into the war, three slaves (Frank Baker, Shepard Mallory, and James Townsend) owned by Confederate Colonel Charles K. Mallory escaped from Hampton, Virginia, where they had been put to work on behalf of the Confederacy, and sought protection within Union-held Fortress Monroe before their owner sent them further south. When Col. Mallory demanded their return under the Fugitive Slave Law, Union General Benjamin F. Butler instead appropriated the fugitives and their valuable labor as “contraband of war.” The Lincoln administration approved Butler’s action, and soon other fugitive slaves (often referred to as “contrabands”) sought freedom behind Union lines.

The increasing number of fugitives and questions about their status eventually prompted action by the United States Congress.

On August 6, 1861, Congress passed the First Confiscation Act, which negated owners’ claims to escaped slaves whose labor had been used on behalf of the Confederacy.

 In 1862 Congress also acted against slavery in areas under the jurisdiction of the federal government. Congress abolished slavery in the federal District of Columbia on April 16 with a compensated emancipation program. This action must have been particularly satisfying to President Lincoln, who as Congressman Lincoln had in the late 1840s drafted a bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. Finding the measure lacking support, Lincoln never introduced it.

Congress further outlawed slavery in federal territories in June 1862.

On August 5, 1861, the United States Army officially abolished flogging as a form of corporal punishment. Until that point, it had routinely been used as punishment for soldiers who disobeyed orders.

Flogging, also known as flagellation, is the act of methodically beating or whipping the human body. Special tools were often used, including rods, switches, the cat o’ nine tails, and the sjambok, a heavy leather whip traditional in South Africa. Typically, flogging is imposed on an unwilling subject as a punishment. It was the preferred form of punishment for slaves at the time, and commonly used to discipline soldiers in the military.

Flogging was not just common in the United States. In the 1700s and 1800s, European armies administered floggings to common soldiers who committed breaches of military code. It was also used in France during the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, during which the maximum number of lashes allowed reached as high as 1,200! During the American Revolutionary War, Congress raised the legal limit on lashes from 39 to 100 for soldiers who were convicted by court-martial. Generally, officers were not flogged.

On August 5, 1861, the United States Army officially banned flogging as a form of punishment, thought it was still routinely used on slaves at that time.

Today, only Singapore still officially uses flogging as a form of military punishment, though there are many uncorroborated reports of use of corporal punishment in several other countries.