Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Medallic History of the United States of America, Vol. 1
Although our political history measures but a hundred years, it records so many memorable deeds, and the names of so many illustrious citizens, that our medals form, even now, an historically valuable collection, to say nothing of the great artistiemerit of some of them. During the War of Independence alone, how many exploits, how many heroes do we find worthy of being thus honoredl How numerous would have been our medals if Congress had not been imbued with the conviction that only the very highest achievements are entitled to such a distinction, and that the value of a reward is enhanced by its rarity! In voting those struck after the War of 1812 with Great Britain, and after that of I846 with Mexico, the same discretion was shown. There was still greater necessity for reserve during the late Civil War, and only two were presented during that painful period: one to Ulysses S. Grant, then a major-general, for Victories, and another to Cornelius Vanderbilt, in acknowledgment of his free gift of the steamship which bore his name. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
