Medal of Honor Created: Congress Honors the Bravest

Congress created the nation's highest award for military valor during the darkest months of the Civil War, establishing a decoration that would become the most coveted and carefully guarded honor in American military history. President Abraham Lincoln signed legislation on July 12, 1862, authorizing the Army Medal of Honor, following the Navy version approved in December 1861. The creation reflected both a genuine desire to recognize extraordinary courage and a practical need to boost morale in an army suffering devastating losses. The United States had resisted creating military decorations since the Revolution, viewing them as relics of European aristocracy. George Washington established the Badge of Military Merit in 1782, but the tradition lapsed. For eighty years, American soldiers received no official recognition for bravery beyond mention in dispatches. The scale of Civil War combat, with its massive volunteer armies and staggering casualties, demanded something more tangible. Early standards for the medal were loose by modern criteria. During the Civil War, 1,522 medals were awarded, some for actions that would not meet today's requirements of conspicuous gallantry above and beyond the call of duty. The entire 27th Maine Infantry received medals simply for extending their enlistment by four days. In 1917, a review board revoked 911 medals, including those of the Maine regiment and the five civilian scouts, among them Buffalo Bill Cody. Modern standards, codified after World War I, require incontrovertible proof of valor so extraordinary that it clearly distinguishes the recipient from comrades. The review process involves multiple levels of command verification, and fewer than twenty have been awarded in conflicts since Vietnam. Recipients receive a monthly pension, their children gain automatic admission to military academies, and they are saluted by all ranks, including the president. Roughly 3,500 have been awarded since 1862, and each carries the weight of actions that most soldiers consider beyond human expectation.