Recipients
The first Medals of Honor were awarded and presented to six U.S. Army soldiers ("Andrews Raiders") on March 25, 1863, by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, in his office of the War Department. Private Jacob Parrott, a U.S. Army volunteer from Ohio, became the first Medal of Honor recipient, awarded for his volunteering for and participation in a raid on a Confederate train in Big Shanty, Georgia, on April 12, 1862, during the American Civil War. After the medal presentations, the six decorated soldiers met with President Lincoln in the White House.
Bernard John Dowling Irwin was the first (chronologically by action) Medal of Honor recipient during the Apache Wars. His actions on February 13, 1861, are the earliest for which the Medal of Honor was awarded.
The first U.S. Navy sailors were awarded the Medal of Honor on April 3, 1863. 41 sailors received the award, with 17 awards for action during the Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip.
The first marines awarded the Medal of Honor were John F. Mackie and Pinkerton R. Vaughn on July 10, 1863; Mackie for USS Galena on May 15, 1862, and Vaughn for USS Mississippi on March 14, 1863.
The first, and so far only, Coast Guardsman to be awarded the Medal of Honor was Signalman First Class Douglas Munro. He was posthumously awarded it on May 27, 1943, for evacuating 500 marines under fire on September 27, 1942, during the Battle of Guadalcanal.
The only woman awarded the Medal of Honor is Mary Edwards Walker, who was a civilian Army acting assistant surgeon during the American Civil War. She received the award in 1865 after the Judge Advocate General of the Army determined that she could be given a retroactive commission or brevet, but Secretary of War Stanton ruled against her in spite of this legal advice. Instead of a commission, President Andrew Johnson directed that "the usual medal of honor for meritorious services be given her." Evidently, Johnson did not know that the award was restricted by law to soldiers, which made the award to a contract surgeon (a civilian) unlawful. This defect later led to the award's revocation in 1917, and then questionable reinstatement by the Army's Board for Correction of Military Records in 1977. The reinstatement is often attributed to President Jimmy Carter, in error.
The first black recipients of the Medal of Honor were sixteen Army soldiers and sixteen Navy sailors that fought during the Civil War. The first black recipient was Robert Blake, who received the medal on April 16, 1864 for serving as a powder boy on the USS Marblehead. The first Army award was announced on April 6, 1865, to twelve black soldiers from the five regiments of U.S. Colored Troops who fought at New Market Heights outside of Richmond on September 29, 1864. The first action by a black man to eventually earn the Medal of Honor was by William Harvey Carney. He earned the Medal during the Battle of Fort Wagner, but was not presented with it until 1900.
The only Medal of Honor to be classified as "top secret" was awarded to Hiroshi "Hershey" Miyamura for his actions on April 24, 1951, during the Korean War when he was presumed dead. The Medal of Honor, which had not been publicly announced, was classified as top secret for his protection until his release in August 1953.
The 1917 Medal of Honor Board revoked 911 awards, but only 910 names from the Army's Medal of Honor list, including awards to Mary Edwards Walker, William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody and the first of two awards issued February 10, 1887, to George W. Mindil, who retained his award issued October 25, 1893. None of the 911 impacted recipients were ordered to return their medals, although on the question of whether the recipients could continue to wear their medals, the Judge Advocate General advised the Medal of Honor Board that the Army was not obligated to police the matter. Walker continued to wear her medal until her death, although some authors mistakenly claim that the Army sought its return. Although some sources claim that President Jimmy Carter formally restored her medal posthumously in 1977, this action was actually taken unilaterally by the Army's Board for Correction of Military Records. The Army Board for Correction of Military Records also restored the Medals of Honor of Buffalo Bill and four other civilian scouts in 1989.
Sixty-one Canadians who served in the United States Armed Forces earned the Medal of Honor, most during the American Civil War. Since 1900, four Canadians have received the medal. The only Canadian-born, naturalized U.S. citizen to receive the medal for heroism during the Vietnam War was Peter C. Lemon.
While the governing statute for the Army's Medal of Honor (10 U.S.C. § 6241), beginning in 1918, explicitly stated that a recipient must be "an officer or enlisted man of the Army", "distinguish himself conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty", and perform an act of valor "in action involving actual conflict with an enemy", exceptions have been made:
Charles Lindbergh, 1927, civilian pilot, and U.S. Army Air Corps reserve officer. Lindbergh's medal was authorized by a special act of Congress, which effectively waived his ineligibility on the grounds of not being on military duty, not performing an act of gallantry, and not being in action (combat) against an enemy. Lindbergh's award also violated President Coolidge's executive order prohibiting multiple awards for the same action, as he also received a Distinguished Flying Cross for the same transatlantic flight.
Major General (Retired) Adolphus Greely was awarded the medal in 1935, on his 91st birthday, "for his life of splendid public service." The result of a special act of Congress similar to Lindbergh's, Greely's medal citation did not reference any acts of valor.
Foreign unknown recipients include five WWI Unknowns: the Belgian Unknown Soldier, the British Unknown Warrior, the French Unknown Soldier, the Italian Unknown Soldier, and the Romanian Unknown Soldier.
U.S. unknown recipients include one each from four wars: World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. The Vietnam Unknown was later identified as Air Force First Lieutenant Michael Blassie through the use of DNA identification. Blassie's family asked for his Medal of Honor, but the Department of Defense denied the request in 1998. According to Undersecretary of Defense Rudy de Leon, the medal was awarded symbolically to all Vietnam unknowns, not to Blassie specifically. The action also resulted in clarification of unknown medal awards in the FY2005 defense bill, which expressly stated such medals are "awarded to the member as a representative of the members of the armed forces who died in such war or other armed conflict and whose remains have not been identified, and not to the individual personally."
Note that the number of Air Force recipients does not count recipients from its pre-September 19, 1947, Army-related predecessor organizations. Nevertheless, the Air Force's transfer agreement gave it retroactive jurisdiction over military awards to the date the Air Corps was authorized by statute: Jul. 2, 1926. Thus, were a decoration submitted retroactively for an aviator's actions on or after that date (including a Medal of Honor), it would be processed by the Air Force despite the fact that the Air Force did not yet exist as a separate service.
