Synopsis: The Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest decoration for valor, has been revoked from 911 individuals since its inception.
-While the 1916 Board of Generals struck 864 members of the 27th Maine Volunteer Infantry due to a clerical error that awarded the medal en masse for enlistment extensions, other revocations corrected “souvenir” requests and non-combat acts.
Soldiers with the Kennesaw-based 277th Maintenance Company, 110th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 78th Troop Command, Georgia Army National Guard, salute the U.S. flag during their Welcome Home Ceremony at Hangar Five, Clay National Guard Center, Marietta, Georgia, Dec. 12, 2025. The 277th Maintenance Company has supported numerous emergency response operations and has most recently provided personnel and expertise in support of Joint Task Force-Southern Border (JTF-SB). (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Sgt Alex Lopez)
-Most notably, Dr. Mary Walker, the only female recipient, had her medal rescinded in 1917 because she was a civilian.
-She refused to return it, and her status was officially restored in 1977, cementing her legacy as a pioneer of military surgery.
Why the U.S. Army Revoked Medals of Honor in a Single Massive Purge
The Medal of Honor is the United States Armed Forces’ highest award for heroism.
It is not a service-specific decoration.
But can a service member lose the Medal of Honor once one has been awarded? The surprising answer is, “Yes”—and unsurprisingly, that is a source of controversy.
The Dr. Mary Walker Saga
In a 2021 piece for Military.Com, Blake Stillwell explained why the United States has revoked hundreds of Medals of Honor.
The article relates the story of Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, who started off as a volunteer surgeon for the Union Army during the American Civil War, treating the wounded in Washington and at the Battle of Bull Run. She soon became the first female surgeon ever officially employed by the Army, seeing action at Fredericksburg, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga.
U.S. Army Training Official U.S. Army Photo.
Perhaps most significantly, in 1864, she was captured by Confederate soldiers and spent four months in a prisoner-of-war camp. After the war, she was awarded the Medal of Honor for her service and sacrifice, at the recommendation of no less than Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman and the undefeated Gen. George Henry Thomas (the “Rock of Chickamauga”).
Most likely due to sexism, the U.S. government later tried to take back Dr. Walker’s medal. But, as Stillwell notes, “Walker declined to return it and wore hers for the rest of her life.” He adds in the closing sentence of his article, “She probably wouldn’t give a damn if they wanted her to have it or not, but in 1977, it was “returned” to her—as if she ever gave it up in the first place.”
Other Un-Awardees
This injustice was finally rectified. But 910 other Medal of Honor awardees have had their medals revoked, and not due to gender bias. The revocation effort began in 1916, when the Board of Generals—a commission of five retired Army generals led by Maj. Gen. Nelson Miles—was assigned to review each of the 2,625 Medals of Honor that had been awarded up to that point.
Among other things, the Board found that 864 medals had been awarded en masse to the 27th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment in 1863. After Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia invaded Pennsylvania that year, the Union Army converged on it during the Battle of Gettysburg, leaving Washington, D.C. with a skeleton crew of defenders whose enlistment was almost up.
In desperation, President Abraham Lincoln authorized Secretary of War Edwin Stanton to provide a major motivational incentive, offering the Medal of Honor to any member of the 27th who extended his enlistment.
Contenders get a chance to fire the XM7 and XM250, future replacements for the M4 and M249 respectively. Soldiers from across the nation compete in the National Best Warrior Competition in Jericho, VT Aug 3-9, 2024. All competitors are victors of previous regional competitions, where they have proved their competence in a series of events that test individual soldier knowledge, skills, and endurance. (Utah Army National Guard photo by Rob Harnden)
U.S. Army photo by Elizabeth Fraser. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
309 members of the unit volunteered, while the remainder returned home to Maine.
The volunteers were in the nation’s capital for a mere four days, and they too returned home once the battle-hardened Gettysburg veterans came back to D.C. Alas, according to Stillwell, “When it came time to award the unit’s Medals of Honor, a clerical error lost the names of the men who actually volunteered. So the War Department gave the medal to the entire regiment, even though the majority had not actually volunteered and none of them actually fought.”
Speaking of President Lincoln, four commissioned officers and 25 enlisted men—all first sergeants—who served as funeral guards for Lincoln’s remains after his assassination were also among the awardees whose medals were revoked by the Board of Generals.
Then there was Pvt. Robert Storr, who was an ineligible British citizen.
The Mundane
Some of the rescinded medals had been awarded for truly mundane reasons. (At least the 27th Maine volunteered to defend the capital during wartime.) After all, the official rules for eligibility—as set by Congress after the U.S. entered into World War I—were as follows: “[T]he provisions of existing law relating to the award of the Medals of Honor … are amended so that the President is authorized to present, in the name of Congress, a Medal of Honor only to each person who, while an officer or enlisted man of the Army, shall hereafter, in action involving actual conflict with an enemy, distinguish himself conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty.”
U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Ricky Bryant is last in line to board a C-130H2 Hercules aircraft at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, for a flight to Forward Operations Base Salearno, Afghanistan, on March 8, 2006. The aircraft and crew are assigned to the 185th Airlift Squadron, Will Rogers World Airport, Oklahoma Air National Guard and are deployed to the 774th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, Bagram Air Base.
(DoD photo by Master Sgt. Lance Cheung, U.S. Air Force. (Released))
Therefore, the following Medal of Honor awardees were rightfully and sensibly relieved of their reward:
–Lt. Col. Asa Bird Gardiner, who received his medal by writing a letter to the War Department, asking for one as a mere souvenir.
-Pvt. James Hawkins, a quartermaster from New Jersey, who put out a fire in a warehouse. This is an important and potentially risky endeavor, to be sure, but definitely not the same as risking combat against the enemy.
-Pvt. John Lynch of Indiana, who delivered dispatches.
About the Author: Christian D. Orr, Defense Expert
Christian D. Orr is a Senior Defense Editor. He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He is also the author of the newly published book “Five Decades of a Fabulous Firearm: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Beretta 92 Pistol Series.”
