Badge of Military Merit

The Badge of Military Merit is considered the first military award of the United States Armed Forces. Although the Fidelity Medallion is older, after being issued to three soldiers for a specific event in 1780 it was never awarded again, so the Badge of Military Merit is often considered the oldest. The Purple Heart is the official successor decoration of the Badge of Military Merit.

Read more about Badge Of Military Merit:  History, Recipients, Other Recipients, Status of Original Badges, Disuse

Famous quotes containing the words badge of, badge, military and/or merit:

    Signor Antonio, many a time and oft
    In the Rialto you have rated me
    About my moneys and my usances.
    Still have I borne it with a patient shrug,
    For sufferance is the badge of all our tribe.
    You call me misbeliever, cutthroat dog,
    And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine,
    And all for use of that which is mine own.
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    Repose and cheerfulness are the badge of the gentleman,—repose in energy.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    I would sincerely regret, and which never shall happen whilst I am in office, a military guard around the President.
    Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)

    One merit in Carlyle, let the subject be what it may, is the freedom of prospect he allows, the entire absence of cant and dogma. He removes many cartloads of rubbish, and leaves open a broad highway. His writings are all unfenced on the side of the future and the possible. Though he does but inadvertently direct our eyes to the open heavens, nevertheless he lets us wander broadly underneath, and shows them to us reflected in innumerable pools and lakes.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)