Talk:Medal bar

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is part of WikiProject Orders, Decorations, and Medals, a collaborative effort to improve, organise, and standardise Wikipedia's coverage of national honours systems. For guidelines and a participants list see the project page. You can discuss the project at its talk page
Did You Know An entry from Medal bar appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? column on 2 December 2006.
Wikipedia

[edit] Decorations in the pre-19th century

"Prior to the early 19th century, medals and decorations were only awarded to ranking officers; occasions existed where medals were presented to soldiers, but these were often private efforts."

Well, well... I am neither a historian nor a military guy but I think I remember that in "Die Wahlverwandtschaften" (written in 1808 but clearly set in pre-1789 Europe) Goethe mentions the bestowal of a decoration on a common soldier in terms suggesting that this is no more than a usual recognition of good conduct. Any opinions on that? --Sanctacaris 07:05, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

  • From my interpretation of the source I used, prior to the 19th century, medals were awarded (a) by the government for something spectacular, or (b) by a concerned citizen saying thanks. After Waterloo, it became increasingly common for the government to recognise service (nothing more) iduring a certain campaign or event. Mind you, the original edition of my source was published in the early 1900s (the edition I used was the one cited), and this article is a history of the medal bar, not the medal. If you can source it, change it :) -- saberwyn 08:20, 2 December 2006 (UTC)