Military Cross

“ At his nod of assent she deftly untied the faded blue ribbon with which the packet was secured, removed the tissue-paper covering, and brought to light a jewel-case, in which lay three military decorations—the badge of the Loyal Legion, the plain, bronze star of the Grand Army, and the enamelled Maltese cross of the old 19th Army Corps. ”

“ Medal, in gold or silver, is awarded for bravery in saving life by land or sea.
Other Countries.—As has been mentioned above, foreign decorations for military service usually take the form of Orders in many classes. There are, however, numerous long service decorations, which need not be specified. The most famous of the European war and service decorations are the Prussian Iron Cross, the French Médaille Militaire, and the Russian St George’s Cross; all these are individual decorations.
The Iron Cross is given to officers and soldiers for distinguished service in War. ”

“ Sergeant Bell received the Military Cross, which must be almost a unique award to one so junior. It was, however, a fitting recognition of one who even at this early period of his service, showed a natural flair for soldiering, which his subsequent distinguished career has confirmed. ”

“ It is ordained that every person selected for the Cross, under Rule 7, shall be publicly decorated before the Naval or Military force or body to which he belongs, and with which the act of bravery for which he is to be rewarded shall have been performed, and his name shall be recorded in a general order together with the cause of his especial distinction. ”

“ No person can be nominated for the cross unless his services shall have been marked by a special mention of his name in dispatches by the Admiral, or senior naval or military officer commanding the squadron or detached force.
The cross (facing page 208) is of silver, patée in form, and convex. It bears on the obverse the monogram E.R.I. surrounded by a raised border, surmounted by the imperial crown, with ring for suspension from a blue ribbon with a white stripe down the centre like that used for the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal. The reverse is plain. ”

“ The Red Cross has proudly and ardently supported our military, our veterans, and their families for more than a century, delivering over 352,000 services to members of the military and veterans each year. ”

“ The Red Cross creates an organized, neutral volunteer force, from the people, supplied by the people, but still subject to the regulations of the military in the field, recognized by and working in full accord with it, bringing all needed aid in the form of intelligent, disciplined assistants, and abundant supplies to the direct help and use of the medical department of an army, and with which department it works, as if belonging to it. ”

“ An independent detachment which had been associated with a fraternal organization was induced to join our column as a body. We agreed to accept them without the Legion dues by merely paying for membership in the Red Cross. The evening that body of young men in uniform entered the lecture hall in military order new life was infused, especially among the male members. I was repeatedly besieged by them with the request to supply them with uniforms and to take them to some place where they could learn how to march, carry litters, transport patients, etc. ”

“ The League of the Cross, an efficient Roman Catholic semi-military society, is also forming a detachment in place of its hospital corps.
The First Aid and Relief Column is popular with Jew and Gentile, Buddhist and Confucian, Catholic and Protestant. Truly we have an International Red Cross in miniature in San Francisco. It broadens and enlarges one’s humanity to talk to them. ”

“ Like the latter, the Distinguished Service Order is generally referred to by its initials.
5. The Royal Red Cross is also an Order. Membership is restricted to women (not necessarily British subjects) , and is given as a reward for naval or military nursing service. Instituted 1883.
6. The Kaisar-i-Hind Medal is given for public services in India.
7. The Volunteer Officers’ Decoration.—Instituted in 1892. An oval of silver, crossed at intervals with gold, in the centre the monogram V.R. and crown in gold. Worn from a ring. Ribbon: Dark green. ”

“ It operates under a special charter from Congress and is governed by a Central Committee appointed in part by the President of the United States from the Departments of State, War, Navy, Treasury and Justice, and is required to submit an annual report to Congress. In the event of war the Red Cross is the only organization whose agents in the military encampments and upon battlefields will be officially recognized and authorized to maintain hospitals, hospital ships, etc. ”

“ We were informed that priests, and those preparing for the priesthood, were not obliged to serve in the army in times of peace; but, in case of war, they may be called upon to serve as military chaplains. When the present war broke out, hundreds of them joined as volunteers, marching in the ranks with the soldiers and undergoing their sufferings and hardships.
Many doctors rode along in motor cars. They were distinguished by a special dark-colored uniform, with a red collar and gilded trimmings. They also wore the arm-band of the Red Cross. Officers on horseback led each division of the army. ”

“ THE VARIOUS RANKS IN THE BRITISH ARMY, AND HOW TO DISTINGUISH THEM.
The civilian is often wofully puzzled when trying to make out the rank of a military man in uniform. He sees a venerable, soldier-like man, in scarlet or blue, marching beside a body of men. This personage is crowned with a cocked hat with white plumes, with all the pomp of sword, &c., and is immediately selected as “the General.” ”

“ McArthur’s guarantee, and when his action was announced to the assembled detachments all military discipline was thrown to the winds and our boys yelled themselves hoarse. The uniforms are good regulation khaki. We have now a total of 121 service uniforms for enlisted men and non-commissioned officers.
Each uniform consists of: Campaign hat with maroon cord, blouse with the letters “Ill.” and a large Red Cross button on the collar, one pair of trousers, one regulation belt, one pair leggings. ”

“ The mobilisation of the Red Cross army began—that great army which is of no nation, but of all nations, of no creed but of all faiths, of one flag for all the world and that flag the banner of the Crusaders.
The Red Cross is the wounded soldier's last defence. Worn as a brassard on the left arm of its volunteers, it conveys a higher message than the Victoria Cross of England, the Iron Cross of Germany, or the Cross of the Legion of Honour of France. It is greater than cannon, greater than hate, greater than blood-lust, greater than vengeance. It triumphs over wrath as good triumphs over evil. ”

“ It has dispatched commissions to France, Russia, Italy, Roumania, and Serbia. Appointed a commission for England and a special department for Belgium under the commission to France.
2. It is helping to care for the wounded in the great war, for our own boys in the American Army and their allies. It is doing this by maintaining in whole or part five hospitals in France and four in England; by supplying to 3,500 military hospitals in France surgical dressings, drugs, apparatus, and other needful supplies, gathered from all over the United States. ”

“ May I not take it for granted that just as the fighting manhood of the United States is soon to be with us in the trenches, so you of the Red Cross who have done so much for us in the past are now eager to be mobilized in the allied Army of Mercy, and of charity that is almost divine? ”

“ All the women nurses of our society go through scientific and practical training for two and three years, the latter term being for the higher course of nursing, whilst the men nurses are required to take a ten months’ course of training.
Our Main Red Cross Hospital in Tokyo has now been appropriated to the use of the Army. It is, therefore, made a branch hospital of the Tokyo Military Reserve Hospital. Since the outbreak of the war, many additional barracks have been built on the wide ground of the Red Cross Hospital. ”

“ Government by martial law means that nothing can be done or given except by permission of the military chief, and an order [32] for stores cannot be obtained in a minute. This was why the hospitals, the Red Cross stations and relief agencies of all kinds were so frequently short of supplies. Requisitions of particular articles which had run out, such as brandy or antiseptics or milk, required too great an expense of time; the workers were everywhere fewer than the needs: they could not be spared. ”

“ I am sending down a young Italian doctor to establish a little hospital and keep the place sanitary. We work through the military authorities, who supply the carpenters and laborers except when we employ people for the sake of giving them work. The rehabilitation is to go on while the houses go up and the young Italians, with Mr. Chanler, are especially to do this work. They are to search out the most deserving merchants and give them a start. I sincerely hope this project of mine will appeal to the Red Cross as it does to the Italian people. ”

“ When the final toll of this dreadful war is taken, high up on the lists of fame, supreme in the immortal and shining roster of the saints, should stand the names of the men and women of the Red Cross. The zeal of fighting could not uphold them. ”

“ The British Red Cross has every one's love and support, but its function in war, as one officer said, must increasingly become, in relation to the R.A.M.C., that of a Sunday-school treat to the staff of the school. ”

“ It strikes us all that to give them like this an opportunity for steady work is about the best service that can be rendered. The largest enterprise of this committee is the maintenance of a concentration camp, which houses 6,000 refugees. Though they have to live in tents they are otherwise under the best of care. The government is military, the sanitary conditions are excellent and everyone directly under the eye of the workers. ”

“ Since then we have had a demonstration of "scientific" war such as has never before been given to mankind. Now, to wear a Red Cross is simply to offer a better mark for the enemy's fire, and we only wore them in order that our own troops might know our business and make use of our aid. ”

“ For instance, in later life it may be necessary for him to prove the date and place of birth in order to establish, among other things, his right to vote and to inherit property, and to settle the question of his liability to military service. ”

“ And more of these officers had the Iron Cross than not.
The plenitude of Iron Crosses appealed to the risibilities of the superficial observer. But in this, too, there was system. An officer who had been in several battles without winning one must feel a trifle declassed and that it was time for him to make amends to his pride. If many were given to privates then the average soldier would not think the Cross a prize for the few who had luck, but something that he, too, might win by courage and prompt obedience to orders. ”

“ Hanging in my husband's library, among other war relics, is a heavy silver medal, representing in high relief a soldier charging a cannon. On the obverse side is a laurel wreath, space for a name, and the words, "Distinguished for courage: U. S. Colored Troops." No such medal was ever given by our government to its hardly used, poorly paid private soldiers. Some of them fought through the war. They starved and froze in the trenches during that last dreadful winter, but no precious star or ribbon was awarded, to be hung with the sabre or musket and venerated by generations yet to come. ”

“ Our medal of Honor ranks with that of the cross of the Legion of Honor of France, and the Victoria Cross of England, and only 1,400 were awarded a distinction greater than can be conferred by any potentate in Europe, because granted to so few of the two million seven hundred and fifty thousand men who were mustered into the armies of the United States between 1861-65. ”

“ To every officer on that first conquered field of Cuba, who extended to the organization I had there the honor to represent, or to myself personally, the smallest recognition or kindness, if it were only a mere courtesy, I tender in behalf of the Red Cross, honoring gratitude and heartfelt thanks. As soldiers, they performed their duty; as men, they sustained their own manly self-respect. ”

“ Our soldiers have not degenerated, and there are still in the ranks of the British army men who want only an opportunity to show the same courage which has already entitled their comrades to wear Victoria’s Cross. ”

“ At every railroad junction the American Red Cross has built cantonments, where beds and food and baths and disinfecting ovens for trench clothes are installed for the homeward bound soldiers of France. The American Red Cross has the name of every French soldier's family that is in need, and that family's needs are being supplied by the American Red Cross. ”

“ THE GRANTING OF MEDALS One illustration will suffice to show the working of this new invention by which the general-in-chief was still further removed from the commander-in-chief, whose chief military adviser he was supposed to be. An act of Congress authorized the President to confer medals of honor upon soldiers of all grades who might be most distinguished for bravery in action. It is the most highly prized of all military rewards because given to the soldier, without regard to rank, for that service which every true soldier regards as of the greatest merit. ”