Talk:Badge of Military Merit/Archive 1

message: I saw the merge notice and must vote to oppose any such move.  The Badge of Military is a completely separate decoration from the Purple Heart and is considered as such by the Institute of Heraldry.  The Badge of Military Merit also has several links to it which only concern this article, and not the Purple Heart, the most important of which is Obsolete military awards of the United States.  I OPPOSE a merge. -Husnock 23:46, 10 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Merge Notice 

message: Actually William Brown's orginial was in possesion by decendants and was lost in a fire.  I believe in other research, Churchill's does exist in Conneticut.  I hope to find my documents on this subject when I return to Cincinnati in September.  That way we can have less confusion.   Ryanburgess 06:07, 22 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  William Brown's Badge 

message: :Researchers have not been able to locate or account for the above-mentioned "book of merit."
:Without a doubt, Washington chose to publically single out these three men for their unusual gallant conduct on the battlefield as an example to others. However, Washington never meant for this award to be awarded exclusively to only three non-commissioned officers of the Connecticut Line. 
:And such was not the case. Many Honorable Discharges of soldiers released at the end of the war show that Washington expanded this Badge of Merit to honor soldiers for their faithful service. This is in accordance to his original August 7, 1782 order to award the Merit for "extraordinary fidelty and essential service." Regimental or Brigade commanders would endorse their names directly following the statement of award on the discharges. These discharge certificates were then submitted to Washington as "incentestable proof" of the award recipients' eligibility. Microfilmed images of these discharges bearing Washington's signature can be found in the individual records of soldiers at the National Archives. 
:Examples of those awarded the Badge of Merit for their "years of faithful service" include Solomone Drowne of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment, Abner Treman of the 2nd New York Regiment and Colin McLachlan of Moses Hazen's "Congress's Own" Regiment. Also receiving this award was Oliver Cromwell, an African-American soldier in the 2nd New Jersey Regiment.
I wanted to keep track of these additions here. I have added some links, but otherwise have not edited for POV or anything else. Katr67 23:33, 1 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Reverted additions by [[User:Armycaptain]] that need to be backed by sources 

message: I made a temp page, as suggested by Husnock. It can be reached by clicking the link at the very top of the page. Armycaptain, I moved your changes there until I have time to check the references and format them to match the rest of the article. Please don't be offended. I'm at work and I don't have time to look at it right now, and now that the article is cleaned up, I would perfer it stay that way. Thanks for understanding. Katr67 15:41, 2 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Katr67 please check your mytalk. Armycaptain 22:42, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

text: Katr67, ooops, I tried but am not too familiar with that just yet. Please advise when you will be able to clean up the article. It would aid in my understanding. Armycaptain 22:54, 2 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I'll take a look at it tonight. I talked to my coworker in military records today and he had some interesting insights into this whole matter. But first, dinner... Katr67 03:08, 3 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Temporary page

message: I figured I could add some talk here while you work on the article, Katr67. I OPPOSE you stating their were only two badges created on August 7, 1782: the Honorary Distinction and the Military Merit. The Honorary Distinction badges can be broken down to two slightly different badges, but different nonetheless. These Honorary badges may not be the focus of this article, but they should not be referenced incorrectly. Please correct! Armycaptain 06:14, 3 October 
2006 (UTC)
:Please, you don't have to SHOUT at  me.<—click there Please assume good faith.<—click there Please start new discussion threads at the bottom of the page. Look for the "+" tab at the top of the talk page. Clicking it will allow you to start a new topic heading. Please read these: http://www.sons-of-liberty-sar.org/medalsandawards.html and http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292308-1993659.php from reliable sources about the fact that there are two awards, not three. I believe the Badge of Distinction is comparable to the modern example of the Overseas Service Bar. Katr67 08:00, 3 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Through my emulation of others using caps on the word "oppose", I unwknowingly shouted at you. I reviewed the links you provided. Whether the Badges of Distinction are somehow similar or ancestral to the overseas service bar is immaterial to this article, but a good lead for another linked article about Badges of Honorary Distinction. Washington's General Order is clear. There were three separate awards that fell into two classes of awards. To prevent misleading the reader it must be corrected. Also, it appears that we have now lost our sources for our statement that other veteran's received the Badge of Merit. However, your writing is still accurate and effective. I assume there is some rule in Wikipedia that allows making this statement without having to source the discharges of individual soldier discharges. Did this arise from the Discussion Page? Armycaptain 12:36, 3 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Also, found a record of an officer showing that officers received the badge of merit: William Heath Sr. Discharged June 6, 1783 “The above William Heath has been honored with a Badge of Merit for four years faithful service. His apointment as Ensigh of a company in the first Regiment of the Second Brigade and in the Eighth Division of Militia in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. His appointment as Captain of a Company in the Second Regiment of the Second Brigade and Tenth Division of the Militia of the Commonwealt of Massachusetts.” http://www.rootsandrelatives.net/getperson.php?personID=I1463&tree=1  Armycaptain 12:43, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

text: Could you remove the extra period after source #3? Thanks. Armycaptain 12:49, 3 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I disagree with you about the number of badges. It is clear that there a two awards, one of which has two levels of recognition. The U.S. Army and the Sons of the American Revolution seem to agree. Other editors need to get involved at this point. The sources are still on the temp page. If you mean the period after the third source on that page, I'm not done filling out the citation templates for those sources--they are not ready to be placed on the main page. I did not place them on the main article page yet because the idea that there were more soldiers who received the award is controversial and I wanted to get input from other editors. Also, individual genealogy websites are rife with inaccuracies and wishful thinking and I wanted to find out if the wikicommunity considered these reliable sources. I figured it would be OK to mention that something called the "Badge of Merit" was awarded and this was evident on various discharge papers on microfilm. I went out on a limb and did not link to any particular evidence--our friends at NARA can probably vouch for that info. I wanted to say something to the effect that the idea of more than three BOMMs being awarded was controversial, but I haven't found any evidence to that effect yet, besides a conversation with my coworker who had had a similar discussion with some people at NARA, etc. I'm taking a break from this article. I've tried to explain, and give you links to various wikipolicies, that we try not to just add info to articles willy-nilly, but do what you will, I'll let the other editors work with you. Thanks. Katr67 14:57, 3 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Badge of Distinction

message: *In William C. Nell's "Colored Patriots of the American Revolution" is a discharge copy of following: Brister Baker of the 2nd Connecticut Regiment-April 1777 to June 1783 and a "Badge of Merit" for 6 years service. See [] {Reference only}
—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 134.53.145.24 (talk) 00:22, 26 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: P.S. to above

message: Why does Sgt. Churchill's badge (pictured) look like a chocolate cookie? Corosion? What were the badges made of?  Sca (talk) 14:40, 7 August 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: color