MEDAL OF HONOR
February 13, 1861 is the
earliest military action to be revered with a Medal of Honor award
was performed by Colonel
Bernard J. D. Irwin, an assistant army surgeon serving in the
first U. S. - Apache
conflict. Near Apache Pass in southwest Arizona , Irwin, a
Irish
born doctor, volunteered
to go to the rescue of Second Lieutenant George E. Bascom ,
who was trapped with 60 men
of the U.S. Seventh Infantry by the Chiricahua Apaches
Irwin, and fourteen men,
without horses, began the 100 mile trek to Bascom's forces on
army pack mules. Fighting
along the way they captured Apaches and recovering stolen
horses and cattle. The
reached Bascome's troops Febuary 14th and proved
instrumental
in breaking the Apache
siege.
The first U. S. - Apache
conflict began when Cochise, the Chircahua Apache Chief, had
kidnapped three white men,
to exchange for his brothers and two nephews held by the U.S.
Army on false charges of
steeling cattle and kidnapping a child. When the exchange failed,
Cochise killed the white
men and the army responded by killing his relatives, setting off the
first of the Apache Wars.
Although Irwin's bravery in
this conflict was the earliest Medal of Honor action, the award
itself was not created
until 1862 and it was January 21, 1894 when Irwin received the
nation's highest military
honor.
Source:
www.history.com/this day in
history/first-medal-of-honor-action
February 13, 2018
abstract by Harrison H for www.iinni.blogspot.com
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