Butler Medal

2024-12-16T21:03:39Z

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{{Infobox Military Award
|name=Butler Medal
|image=[[File:US Army Butler Medal.jpg|200px|Butler Medal, front and back]]
|caption=Butler Medal, obverse and reverse
|presenter=[[United States Department of War|Department of War]]
|type=Medal
|eligibility=
|status=No longer in use / Civil War only
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|total_awarded=
|total_awarded_posthumously=
|total_recipients=
|individual=
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[[File:US Colored Troops medal - 1865 - Smithsonian Museum of American History - 2012-05-15.jpg|thumb|U.S. Colored Troops Medal issued by General Benjamin Butler.]]
[[File:African American Medal of Honor recipient with Non Commissioned Officers of the 4th U.S. Colored Infantry, Fort Slocum, April, 1865 LCCN93505852 (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|Standing At left Sgt Major [[Christian_Abraham Fleetwood|Christian Fleetwood]] wearing both the Medal of Honor and the Butler Medal with Non Commissioned Officers of the 4th U.S. Colored Infantry, Fort Slocum, April, 1865]]
The '''Butler Medal''', also known as the '''Colored Troops Medal''', was a [[Unofficial decorations of the United States military|military decoration]] of a unit of the [[United States Army]] which was issued in 1865.<ref name=Price/> The medal was commissioned by [[Major general (United States)|Major General]] [[Benjamin Butler (politician)|Benjamin Butler]] and was intended to recognize meritorious or heroic acts of bravery performed by [[United States Colored Troops|African American]] soldiers at the [[Battle of Chaffin's Farm|Battle of Chaffin's Farm and New Market Heights]].<ref name=Price>{{cite book|first=James S. |last=Price |year=2011|title= The Battle of New Market Heights: freedom will be theirs by the sword |publisher=The History Press |location=Charleston, SC |isbn= 978-1-60949-038-6 |pages=86, 87}}</ref> Fourteen African Americans had earned the [[Medal of Honor]] in that engagement, but Butler wished to further recognize his African American troops involved in the battle, and he paid for the Butler Medals out of his personal funds.<ref name=Price/>

In May 1865, and later that year, the Butler Medal was presented to nearly two hundred African American Union soldiers. The medal was originally known as the Colored Troops Medal, but the name was changed to Butler Medal after the close of the Civil War.

The Butler Medal was solid silver, suspended from a red, white, and blue ribbon meant to be worn around the neck. Attached to the ribbon was a wreath reading "Army of the James". The front of the medal depicts African American troops moving forward in battle, below an inscription in [[Latin]] which reads, ''Ferro iis libertas perveniet'': "Freedom Will be Theirs by the Sword."
<ref>[http://www.vahistorical.org/civilwar/wagingwar.htm Virginia Historical Society] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120909182928/http://vahistorical.org/civilwar/wagingwar.htm |date=2012-09-09 }} click on "Men of Color to Arms" to see the medal. Retrieved 2012-09-22</ref>

The obverse of the medal has a curved inscription that says, in capital letters:

{{Quote|''DISTINGUISHED FOR COURAGE''}}

After the war, Butler said the following about the medal:

{{Quote|''I had the fullest reports made to me of the acts of individual bravery of colored men on that occasion, and I had done for the negro soldiers, by my own order, what the government has never done for its white soldiers – I had a medal struck of like size, weight, quality, fabrication, and intrinsic value with those which Queen Victoria gave with her own hand to her distinguished private soldiers of the Crimea... These I gave with my own hand, save where the recipient was in a distant hospital wounded, and by the commander of the colored corps after it was removed from my command, and I record with pride that in that single action there were so many deserving that it called for a presentation of nearly two hundred.''}}

{{Quote|''–Benjamin Franklin Butler''}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Awards and decorations of the United States Army]]
[[Category:Military history of African Americans in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:Awards established in 1864]]
[[Category:Military awards and decorations of the American Civil War]]
[[Category:United States campaign medals]]
[[Category:Awards honoring African Americans]]

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Butler Medal