West Virginia Is Looking for the Descendants of Civil War Veterans Who Never Claimed Their Medals

Belle Montgomery

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This week holds two major Civil War anniversaries: America’s deadliest war started on April 12, 1861, when Southerners who seceded from the Union fired shots at the federal government’s Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor in South Carolina, and came to an unofficial end on April 9, 1865, when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to future president Ulysses S. Grant in Appomattox, Va. But, though more than 150 years have passed since those days, the war’s story continues to play out.


The unprecedented violence of the Civil War spurred new precedents for recognizing military service. The Medal of Honor , the first medal that enlisted military service members could be nominated to receive, started being awarded after 1862. The Civil War Campaign Medal was conceived in the early 1900s, around the 40th anniversary of the end of the war. Even Memorial Day was founded with the Civil War in mind.


States gave out their own medals too. In fact, West Virginia is still giving them out.


In 1866, the West Virginia legislature...

Rest Of Article with pic: http://time.com/5567482/civil-war-medals/
 
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