Medal of Honor Found

[JPL]

Another very interesting news article:

When Ann Deluca-Smith was clearing out boxes in her parents' Rochester Township home last year, she could never have guessed the family treasure she would stumble upon.

Tucked away in a storage box in her parents' attic, Deluca-Smith discovered a trinket reserved for America's most valorous soldiers: a Medal of Honor awarded to her great-great-great uncle Charles Higby during the Appomattox campaign of the Civil War.

The family had been aware of the award, but only vaguely, as they had learned of it through a 2000 newspaper article detailing Beaver County's four Medal of Honor recipients. Other than that, they had little idea of their ancestor's accolade or his life story, explained family spokesmanJay Deluca, of New Brighton.

"My mother was a Higby, and the best we can figure is that it ended up with my grandparents," Deluca said. "My grandmother was terminally ill and the house was sold and the possessions were just kind of cleaned out of the house, and it was put in boxes that my mother took out and put in our attic; we never even knew what it was."

Now the medal is being kept at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum in Oakland, as the family decided it would loan the large, gold colored medal hung from a small flag resting beneath a golden eagle to the museum for display.

The context surrounding Higby's award, which reads "From the Congress to Charles Higby," is ambiguous. He was given the medal for acts of gallantry between March 20 and April 9, 1865, meaning his act of bravery could have come at any point during that window.

What Kraus and Higby's descendants do know is that Charles Higby captured and turned in a Confederate flag, which, by late in the war, had been deemed grounds for receiving one of the medals.

Read the complete article: http://www.chron.com/news/article/Pa-woman-recovers-hero-s-medal-from-Civil-War-2135733.php

Jean-Paul

[Hauptmann]

Jean Paul,

Hope you don't mind... I took the liberty of pulling up the size of the font on this one so it would be easier to read.

Dan

When Ann Deluca-Smith was clearing out boxes in her parents' Rochester Township home last year, she could never have guessed the family treasure she would stumble upon.

Tucked away in a storage box in her parents' attic, Deluca-Smith discovered a trinket reserved for America's most valorous soldiers: a Medal of Honor awarded to her great-great-great uncle Charles Higby during the Appomattox campaign of the Civil War.

The family had been aware of the award, but only vaguely, as they had learned of it through a 2000 newspaper article detailing Beaver County's four Medal of Honor recipients. Other than that, they had little idea of their ancestor's accolade or his life story, explained family spokesmanJay Deluca, of New Brighton.

"My mother was a Higby, and the best we can figure is that it ended up with my grandparents," Deluca said. "My grandmother was terminally ill and the house was sold and the possessions were just kind of cleaned out of the house, and it was put in boxes that my mother took out and put in our attic; we never even knew what it was."

Now the medal is being kept at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum in Oakland, as the family decided it would loan the large, gold colored medal hung from a small flag resting beneath a golden eagle to the museum for display.

The context surrounding Higby's award, which reads "From the Congress to Charles Higby," is ambiguous. He was given the medal for acts of gallantry between March 20 and April 9, 1865, meaning his act of bravery could have come at any point during that window.

What Kraus and Higby's descendants do know is that Charles Higby captured and turned in a Confederate flag, which, by late in the war, had been deemed grounds for receiving one of the medals.

Read the complete article: http://www.chron.com...War-2135733.php

Jean-Paul

Edited August 23, 2011 by Hauptmann

[Hauptmann]

Here's the complete article:

Pa. woman recovers hero's medal from Civil War

SAM BUTTERFIELD, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Published 11:55 a.m., Monday, August 22, 2011

PITTSBURGH (AP) — When Ann Deluca-Smith was clearing out boxes in her parents' Rochester Township home last year, she could never have guessed the family treasure she would stumble upon.

Tucked away in a storage box in her parents' attic, Deluca-Smith discovered a trinket reserved for America's most valorous soldiers: a Medal of Honor awarded to her great-great-great uncle Charles Higby during the Appomattox campaign of the Civil War.

The family had been aware of the award, but only vaguely, as they had learned of it through a 2000 newspaper article detailing Beaver County's four Medal of Honor recipients. Other than that, they had little idea of their ancestor's accolade or his life story, explained family spokesmanJay Deluca, of New Brighton.

"My mother was a Higby, and the best we can figure is that it ended up with my grandparents," Deluca said. "My grandmother was terminally ill and the house was sold and the possessions were just kind of cleaned out of the house, and it was put in boxes that my mother took out and put in our attic; we never even knew what it was."

Now the medal is being kept at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum in Oakland, as the family decided it would loan the large, gold colored medal hung from a small flag resting beneath a golden eagle to the museum for display.

The hall is pleased to have its first Civil War-era Medal of Honor, said curator Michael Kraus. Higby's award joins one from the Indian Wars. And, with the acquisition of a World War II medal in negotiations, Kraus hopes the hall will be able to display three of the medals, illustrating the changes in design and inscription on them over time.

The context surrounding Higby's award, which reads "From the Congress to Charles Higby," is ambiguous. He was given the medal for acts of gallantry between March 20 and April 9, 1865, meaning his act of bravery could have come at any point during that window.

What Kraus and Higby's descendants do know is that Charles Higby captured and turned in a Confederate flag, which, by late in the war, had been deemed grounds for receiving one of the medals.

"It was very common to get one if you captured a flag; a lot of times that meant turning in a flag," said Kraus. "You may not have wrestled a color-bearer to the death; you may have walked on the battlefield where your lines were, and there were any number of them lying on the ground, you pick it up, you turn it in" and get a medal, he said.

After the Civil War, he explained, the Army re-evaluated the grounds for receiving the medal and established the high level of gallantry now required for the award.

As for what happened to Higby after he received the medal in Washington, D.C., in May of 1865, the family knows very little. Deluca said a cousin of his is actively researching his story but has turned up scant results.

What little the family does know comes mainly from his military records, which show he was born in Pittsburgh, enlisted in the army in August of 1862, was a private in the First Pennsylvania Cavalry and lived in New Brighton again after the war for a period of time until he moved to Oklahoma, where he died in 1903.

"It looks like he was maybe a frontiersman," Deluca said.

For now, the medal is being stored in a spare room at Soldiers & Sailors, but with the museum seeking to acquire the WW II medal to round out its collection, the family and Kraus hope it will soon be a memento for the world.

"The family just wants it to be available for others to see and enjoy, and we can take our friends and family when they come visit us up to Soldiers & Sailors and feel good about it," Deluca said.

Edited August 23, 2011 by Hauptmann

[JPL]

Hi Dan,

No problem. The font size looked ok when I was doing up the post, but after I posted the topic, the font came out very small. This is the second time that this has happened to me. Is it something I'm doing wrong?

Jean-Paul

[Hauptmann]

I don't think so. I've found in doing these news articles on GMIC that on occasion the fonts do funky things. They often put in coding that you can't see but they affect the fonts and leading (spacing between letters and between lines). Note that in posting you can go to the top and change the size, the font, etc. All I did was to copy what you had, paste it in a new post, keep it highlighted in it's entirety, change the font size and then post. Then I found I had to go back in and edit it to correct the leading between the lines. No big. My wife and I used to be in publishing so this gets to be second nature after a while. Sometimes due to the coding they put in it becomes nearly impossible to change much else. You just do the best you can. Plus staff is always here to help out whenever needed.

Dan :cheers:

[Megan]

Handy hint: if all else fails copy'n'past the text into a text editor, then copy'n'paste it back again into GMIC. This removes ALL formatting apart from paragraph breaks.

[Mervyn Mitton]

Well - I think it was very interesting and amazing that such pieces can still turn-up like this. Thankyou both, for the trouble. However, it would have been nice to see a photograph - I couldn't find one on all the links - probably hit the wrong ones ? Mervyn

[Hauptmann]

Sorry re: pics Mervyn... I searched through a number of links on a google search and none of the reports had pictures of the award. No idea why unless the museum just wants folks to have to come there to see it in person.

I just pray the family made the loan properly with paperwork drawn up by an attorney. I've been involved in museums in the past as has my family and honestly I can tell you some horror stories. Families or individuals who "loaned" pieces or whole collections only to years later ask for it back only to have the museum say it belongs to them, there are no records of such a loan... or that it was given to them originally, etc. Also times where the museum sells off such items later without the permission of the actual owners... and generally it seems they get away with such behavior. As a consequence I always advise folks considering such "loans" to have it all clearly spelled out in documents drawn up by a reputable attorney, having said attorney keep an official copy, as well as keeping a set themselves in a safe or safety deposit box along with their will and other important documents so down the road they can go back and reclaim their possessions. If the museum no longer has their records you can simply show yours and you have it. At least if they've broken the agreement you can take them to course and nail them to the wall. A shame that some museums give others a bad name like this.

Dan :cheers: