Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain's original Medal Of Honor found at church sale

This is pretty cool:
BRUNSWICK, Maine — One of the most prestigious medals earned by one of Maine’s most decorated sons was discovered at a church sale and turned over to a Brunswick-based organization for safe keeping, the group announced Monday.
The U.S. Army Medal of Honor was awarded to Civil War hero Joshua Chamberlain — who would go on to become president of Bowdoin College and governor of Maine — in 1893 for “distinguished gallantry” in the Battle of Gettysburg 30 years earlier.
The artifact was given to the Pejepscot Historical Society, which owns the Joshua L. Chamberlain Museum in Brunswick, by a donor who wishes to remain anonymous, the organization announced Monday afternoon. The individual who came to own the medal found it in the back of a book he had purchased “several years ago” at a sale held by First Parish Church in Duxbury, Mass., according to the society.
Hat tip: 2cents, who emails "Fix bayonets and charge".

4 comments:

  1. Good to hear that all of this was serendipitous. I think as a matter of law you cannot sell a MOH. I hope the donor enjoyed it for the time he/she had it. In the British Commonwealth we try to keep track of our Victoria Cross Awards, but some get sold now and then.

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  2. That is so very cool it gave me goose bumps.

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  3. Good to hear someone recognized it for what it was and donated it! Still...what a thing to find in a book!!!! How many people would have seen it, thought it was neat, and tossed it in a junk-drawer or given it to their kids to play with...or just tossed it out as something old?

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