The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1915-08-22
Famous Body Created by
Napoleon Now Has Thou
sands of Members
SEVERAL GRADES
FOR THE DESERVING
War is Adding Thousands Who VIII
in the Future be Entitled TO
Wear the Red Ribbon of
the Order
BY STANLEY SHAW

Paris August D.-(Special Correspond
ence9-Once one of the most exclusive
of popular decorations the Legion of
Honor threatens to become almost uni
versal. That is one of the results of the
great European war in which whole ma
lions in arms are engaging.
Probably, comparatively, the war has
not produced more heroes than any other.
Yet such are the numbers engaged that
the official communiques are filled with
lists of men who have won the supreme.
honors of all the belligerent countries
V. C.s are almost as thick IS flies in
England, the Iron Cross has been bestow-
ed Upon tens of thousands of sons of the
fatherland and the little red ribbon of
the Legion of Honor is boosted by an
ever increasing army of good fighting
Frenchmen and noncembatant, but no
less gallant, Frenchwomen.
Up to the outbreak of the present war
there We're Is women members of the
legion, but the list has been greatly ex-
tended by the nomina alton, as Chevaliers,
OF numerous women of all ranks and
ella sses who have distinguished themselves
by services rendered during the war Be-
fore the war the decorations were usual
ly conferred on the heads, or on ener-
getic and deserving members. of religious
houses, on abbesses, nuns and teachers;
but there We're also among those deco
rated several female artists and actresses
Napoleon III, when Emperor, conferred
only three crosses on women, one an
abbess, another the cantiniere of an
African regiment, and the third a VIVIAN
Giere. Rosa Bonheur, the famous artist,
was decorated by the Empress Eugene
in 1865 when acting as regent while her
husband, the Emperor, was in Algeria.
The cross was bestowed on the artist as
q painter of landscape and animals"
From 1865 to 1870 no cross was given to
women. but in the latter years it was
conferred on two Sisters of Charity for
services rendered during the cholera cpl
demic and inundation at Toulouse Three
years later it was given to Mile. Dodu,
the telegraphist who, at the risk of her
life noted. military secrets during 1870
1871. She and her mother were shut up
III an upper room of the rural telegraph
office of which Mile. Dodu had charge,
but as she had taken her Morse instru-
ment with her she was able to attach it
to wire running outside the house and
thus obtained a derivation which en-
abled her to catch fragments of German
dispatches. These she wrote down with
out understanding them, but after her re-
lease they We're translated by the son of
the local mayor. One of the fragments
disclosed the plans of an attack on the
army of General Aurelle, who was thus
forewarned. Mile Dodu was also award
ed the military medal and is consequent
ly the only woman to possess both the
medal and the Legion of Honor.
There Is some controversy is to the first
woman to be decorated with the legion.
For long the honor was ascribed to Marie
Schelink who entered the army disguised
a man at the age of IS, took part at
Jemmapes where she received six wounds.
fought in Belgium where she was pro-
NOTED sergeant, and made campaigns in
Holland and in Italy. AT Austerlitz she
was wounded in the thigh and was pro-
NOTED on the field to the rans or SUBJ
lieutenant. She retired when 90 years
old after II years service. When deco
rated by Napoleon in person he said to
her. Madame l give you a pension of
700 fancs and make you Chevalier of the
Legion of d'Honneur. Receive from my
hand the star of the brave which you
have so nobly won.' Then. turning to
his officers Gentlemen, salute respect
fully this courageous woman: she is one
OF the glories of the empire Marie
Schelink retired to Client where she died
In 1910 at the age of SO.
More recently discovered records
however point to Angelique Marie
Duchemin. the widow Brulon," as she
was known to the Legion's archives,
as the first woman to be decorated
She was the daughter of a soldier of
the Forty-second infantry. When still
young she married a soldier of the
same regiment and went with her
father and husband to Corsica. Here
her husband FELL and Marie, then 20
Years of age entered the army. pre-
sumably concealing her sex. She is
represented as having shown the most
intrepid bravery fighting against the
Corsicans and the English. She was
= " ounded at a siege where she took
part in bayonet charge, but not
withstanding her wound, started back
10 Calvi two miles away, to fetch
fresh ammunition. Here she loaded up
GO women. led them back to the bat
tlefield and was the means of saving
the fort. She was subsequently ad-
United to the Invalides, where she re-
manned 81 years, being created sub
lieutenant by Louis XVIII and Chev-
alier of the Legion in 1851 by Louis
Napoleon. She died at the Invalides
in 1859.
Another of these earlier heroines of
the Legion was Soeur Rosalie, very