John's Medal of Honor and GAR Medal
Depicted above is John's Medal of Honor awarded to him in 1893. It is presently held at the Chicago Public Library. William Perkins Black also received the Medal of Honor in 1893. Both awards were part of the large number of recommendations made to the War Department in the 1890s by Civil War participants. Many such recommendations were rejected as not sufficiently documented or warranted, but the Medals of Honor awarded to John and William were part of the approximately 600 that were approved for Civil War gallantry.
The location of William’s Medal of Honor is unknown. His Medal was seriously damaged by a house fire shortly after his receipt. That fire resulted in a near total loss of all possessions and papers in his Chicago residence. This fire accounts for the relative dearth of written materials that still exist for William when compared to what has survived for John.
William petitioned for a replacement Medal of Honor which was approved, but again its location is unknown.
Both John and William were also recipients of the “new” Medal of Honor that was designed and authorized by Congress in 1904. This new design was intended to replace the design previously in effect since the Civil War (with its Civil War implications). The War Department originally intended to require recipients of the older design to surrender their older Medals of Honor prior to receipt of the new design. This created a substantial uproar amongst Medal of Honor recipients, and John took the lead, given his national prominence and his GAR leadership, to vigorously fight the War Department expectation that older Medals of Honor would be surrendered. Ultimately, John prevailed with his supporters, including those in Congress and the Administration, and the War Department issued the new design without a surrender requirement by prior recipients. However, there was an expectation that recipients would not wear both Medal designs at the same time.
Depicted above is also John’s GAR medal. (The design of this GAR Medal was also viewed as too similar to the original Civil War design of the Medal of Honor, and another justification for the new design in 1904.)
In addition, in this section is a full set of all the documents in the respective Medal of Honor files held at the National Archives for both John and William. They provide a clear explanation of the process that each went through leading to the 1893 Medal of Honor awards for each. Some interesting pension records are also included.
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