celebration would like very much to present each re- turned soldier and the relatives of soldiers who died in the service, with a medal July 23. The committee has in mind a very handsome bronze service medal, with bar for the recipient’s name, and ribbon from which hangs the medallion, and on the back of the latter would be appropriate wording to the effect that the medal is pre- sented by the people of Golden Valley County."

"The committee, as stated is anxious to include this fea-

ture in the program of the celebration, but the farmers

and people of the other towns in the county must make a

substantial contribution to the celebration fund before this

can be done."

Soldiers’ Medals

The Soldiers’ Homecoming Celebration Committee wants the address of every Soldier and Sailor who went into service from Golden Valley County, as a medal awaits him.

There is also a medal for the nearest relative of each man who died in the service.

Please call on W. E Cushing at Beach Advance office for these medals or give address of absent soldiers.

Allentown World War II Medallion

S. G. Yasinitsky

It is claimed that Napoleon said that if he had enough colored ribbons, he could produce thousands of heroes. Those ribbons, of course, would have supported appropriate medals given for valor and distinction. Regretfully our federal government did not follow this idea well. In the past U.S. wars, our warriors left their military service -- in which they fought, suffered deprivations, and otherwise sacrificed their normal lives -- without a thing to show for it, except perhaps a service ribbon or two which they usually had to buy themselves. Veterans of the Civil War waited more than 40 years after the war was over to have a medal from our government. Even then, at first, they had to be on active military duty to get this award. World War I and World War II veterans were discharged into civilian life several years before their medals were even manufactured. Many of them went to their graves decades later not realizing that they were entitled to medals. This, however, did not happen

The medal in Figure 1, No. 5, is from Fessenden. It was made by Whitehead & Hoag.

In addition to these medals, many of the counties also published an honor roll, which usually included photos of most of the service members from the county. For the counties which published these books, as well as awarding medals, the honor roll provides an indication of the number of men eligible to receive those medals. In The Roll Call published by Nelson County, 288 service men and four Red Cross nurses are listed.

However, probably not all these servicemen received the Nelson County medal. In The Roll Call published by Stutsman County the editor comments on the feelings of some of the veterans: "Many of the boys whose names are printed here were members of the last draft contingent, which did not go because of the signing of the armistice. Scores of these boys did not feel that they had really seen service, consequently they refused to send in their pictures or histories." Undoubtedly there were veterans who also were not interested in receiving a medal.

Figure 1: Obverse of the Allentown medal.

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with cities, counties, and other institutions. They did not wait until years after a conflict ended to reward their veterans with an appropriate medal. Some gave a medal even before their sons left for a theater of war. This was true in the case of the City of Allentown, Pennsylvania, (pop. 96,000) during World War II.

I came across this medal (without a ribbon) in a batch of

odds and ends; I don’t remember when. It is a bronze, oddly-shaped, attractive medalet. I say "medalet" because

it is somewhat smaller than the usual-sized medals of

local origin, only 19x27mm. The obverse (Figure 1) is

comprised of a circle containing the symbols of

Allentown: an incuse heart within a keystone on which

rests the lamp of knowledge, surrounded by a sprig of

oak on the left and an eagle on the right, and a scroll at

the bottom reading 1867 ALLENTOWN, PA. But the

latter was so worn that I couldn’t figure out the

inscription. The circle has the protrusion of an eagle

perched on its top, with a hole for suspension, and below

the medal’s bottom, a decorative vignette. The reverse

(Figure 2) has an eight-line inscription: PRESENTED

TO [ ] BY THE CITY OF ALLENTOWN IN

RECOGNITION OF PATRIOTIC SERVICE. The

blank tablet was apparently intended for the name of the

recipient.

Figure 2: Reverse of the Allentown medal.

There are several Allentowns in the U.S., although the keystone emblem on the obverse made me think of Pennsylvania. (There already was a World War I medal issued jointly by Allentown and Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, different from this medalet.) Other attempts to learn about the medal I bought were in vain, until I received a batch of clippings from one of OMSA’s most enthusiastic "local" medal collectors, Bill "Woody" Wooding. His note said, "Yash, someone long ago published info on WWI--WWlI medals." And the very top xerox was that of two old newspaper columns by John Y. Kohl, Editor Emeritus of the Sunday Call Chronicle (presumably of Allentown), dates unknown, but evidently long before 1990. One column, "Who Can Claim Mystery Medal?" was written in response to an inquiry from our own old-time member and local medal specialist, David E. Schultz, of Winona, Minnesota, who was asking about this medalet. Kohl threw the question to his readers to resolve. The second column titled "Mystery Medal--WWII Award," solved the dilemma.

Kohl wrote that a colleague fi’om his own newspaper, T. L. Wirts, had this medal which he had received from Allentown’s then Mayor, George F. Erich, personally, upon Wirts’s entering the military service at the beginning of World War II. It was learned that Mayor Erich had ordered these medals to be struck by Allentown’s own Harry R. Dubbs Agency, more than a year before Pearl Harbor, to present to the citizens of Allentown who had entered active military service in response to the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940.

Otto M. Kantz, described how he and his 350 fellow- soldiers of the 213th Anti-Aircraft Automatic Weapons Battalion had been called up on September 16, 1940, and who were by then at Camp Pendelton, Virginia, were surprised by the arrival of Mayor Erich and other Allentown officials at their base shortly before Christmas that year. They were then presented these medals by the mayor at this time. Michael B. Krowitz, another Allentown veteran, told how he was handed his medal upon passing the physical examination at the induction point at "the old Sheridan School," by a policeman who was distributing them to the inductees.

The mystery of this early medal of World War II has been solved. Apparently it was meant to be a hometown memento. None of the veterans had any recollections of a ribbon or a suspender brooch. It was probably destined as a pocket piece or a key chain. This could explain why these medals are found so worn down. But it also testifies to the fact that the recipients of these medals treasured them and carried them to get them so worn.

Vol. 54, No. 2 33

BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION OF THE ARMY OF TENNESSEE

MEMBERSHIP BADGE

Peter Bertram

This very scarce Confederate badge (Figure 1) is a gilt- brass, six-pointed star composed of two triangles one overlapping the other in the shape of a star. Each point of the two triangles ends with a ball finial. Cannons protrude from the left and the right sides in the middle of the star. The back triangle has a rope border and a letter "A" in the top corner, "T" above crossed sabers in the lower left, and "D" above crossed sabers in the lower right corner. The top triangle has an inner triangle that has the Confederate Battle Flag within a beaded circle and the letter "C" in the top left corner, "S" in the top right, and a drum in the bottom corner. Between the edges of the top triangle are the words: SOCIAL, HISTORICAL, and BENEVOLENT.

Figure 1: Artny of Tennessee Membership Badge

The badge is suspended from a ribbon which represents the Confederacy’s First National Flag pattern, also known as the "Stars and Bars." The original flag had seven stars in the canton, representing the seven seceded states present at the formation of the Confederacy in Montgomery, Alabama, in February, 1861. The number of stars increased to eleven when Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, and Arkansas joined the Southern Cause. The thirteen star flag expressed the hopes that Maryland and Kentucky or Missouri would also secede. The ornate rectangular brooch above the ribbon has a circle in its center that shows a plough and XVI at top, AGRICULTURE in the middle, and COMMERCE at the bottom.

The War Between the States left the Southland impoverished and devastated. There was thus little time or energy for a national organization of Confederate veterans. Yet local veterans’ organizations began forming fairly early, and the Benevolent Association of the Army of Tennessee was one of these--formed in !887 in Louisiana. The letters A T D on the bottom triangle stand for Army of Tennessee Department; while C S on the top triangle stand for "Confederate Survivors." With the formation of the United Confederate Veterans in 1890, the Benevolent Association of the Army of Tennessee became UCV Camp No. 2, Army of Tennessee, HQ in New Orleans.

The badge illustrated is named on the reverse to "W.

Randall/Co.A/1 lth Tenn. Infy." The 1 lth Tennessee was

organized in May, 1861, and was made up of men from

Humphreys, Dickson, Davidson, Cheatham, Robertson,

and Hickman counties. Starting in July 1861, with 880

men, they fought in Kentucky and at Cumberland Gap.

Transferred to the Army of Tennessee they participated

in all the battles and campaigns from Murfeesboro to

Atlanta. By December of 1863, they numbered 267 men.

After the Atlanta Campaign they combined with the 29rh

Tennessee, fought in Hood’s Tennessee Campaign and

in North Carolina and surrendered with General Joe

Johnson’s Army. They were paroled at Greensboro, North

Carolina, on May 2, 1865.

The photo in Figure 1 is courtesy of Butterfield and Butterfied, San Francisco.

34 JOMSA