SAMPSON MEDAL SHOWCASE !

[Mustang.CDR]

Joseph Lucey, B.M. 2d . C. USS Brooklyn

[YNCM Doug]

Incredible images of Sampson Medals. I think this medal has the most beautiful engagement bars. 

[aerialbridge]

USS Detroit Sampson Medal and Roosevelt Medal, aka Panama Canal Medal, to Carpenter's Mate 3c. James D. Smith.  The Roosevelt Medal  was issued as a result of an Executive Order dated June 23, 1907, by President Theodore Roosevelt. It recognizes service by American citizens on the Panama Canal project who completed at least 2 years of satisfactory continuous service with the Canal construction force, including the Panama Railroad Company between May 4, 1904 and December 31, 1914. For each additional 2 years of service the holder was awarded a service bar. Artist F. D. Millet, who died in the sinking of the SS Titanic, designed the medal. It was struck in bronze at the United States Mint, Philadelphia, Pa. from dies prepared by Victor D. Brenner of New York City. Brenner was the designer of the Lincoln Cent. The recipient's last name and initials appear on the front side, below Roosevelt.

James D. Smith, born August 18, 1871, Tawnybrake, Antrim County, (Northern) Ireland; died (sometime after 1921, probably NJ or NY.  Medals came from NJ). Smith emigrated to the United States by rail from Canada in October 1893, living first in Buffalo and later, New York City.  The 1900 Census shows him as a Carpenters Mate 3c on USS Monangahela.  He became a naturalized U.S. citizen on July 5, 1899 and filed for his Navy pension on 1/28/1921 from New Jersey.  Photo is from a passport application to travel to Spain on business, ca 1915. 

 

[warguy]

I have only seen one Marine Sampson on this thread so thought I would post another. A Private who served on the USS Indiana

[katieony]

Kevin,

 

A really great and hard to find medal!

 

Mike

[warguy]

Thank you Mike.

[jmpmstr]

John Emoe USS Massachusetts 

Span Am

Philippine Insurrection

China Relief

 

[dskjl]

1 hour ago, jmpmstr said:

John Emoe USS Massachusetts 

Span Am

Philippine Insurrection

China Relief

 

Spectacular group, just amazing, well done!!!

[Hmsbrinmaric]

Hi everyone,

I listed this in another thread this morning and think it might be better here. This cased Sampson Medal is named to Private Richard B Bell Co B. 1st Marine Battallion, the paper in a envelope with the information printed on it. I have found a little information on Bell so far. If anyone can add anything it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Keith 

[devildog34]

Private James McColgan of Holyoke, Massachusetts gave his life in the battle for Guantanamo Bay serving with Co. D of Huntington's Battalion.  In an attack on the marine outposts on June 11, 1898, Privates Dumphy and McColgan of Company D were both killed. The bodies were first mistakenly reported mutilated. It was hard to tell the two apart, for both men had received a number of bullet wounds to the face; McColgan suffered twenty-one shots to the head and Dumphy fifteen. Soon the enemy made five small separate attacks on the marines' camp. All of these were repulsed. At about 1 a.m. a superior number of Spanish forces made a more combined attack. In this assault Assistant Surgeon Gibbs was killed by a bullet to the head. Sporadic firing back and forth continued throughout the night. Using a lesson learned from the Cubans, the enemy was making good use of camouflage by covering their bodies with leaves and foliage from the jungle. Private James McColgan of Holyoke, Massachusetts was buried by his comrades at Camp McCalla. He was among the first Marines to lose his life in the battle for Guantanamo.

[warguy]

Gorgeous medal and presentation. Thanks for sharing. RIP Private McColgan. 

[Hmsbrinmaric]

Thank you for the information, I’m actually from Holyoke Massachusetts originally. I still work at there!

Keith 

[USMCR79]

I was born in Holyoke - Did this come from Steve D’s Collection?

 

Bill

[Hmsbrinmaric]

Mine came out of Georgia, I’ve known Steve D most of my life.

[USMCR79]

1 hour ago, Hmsbrinmaric said:

Mine came out of Georgia, I’ve known Steve D most of my life.

Since 1985 for me  - So more than 1/2 my life - great guy who gave a lot of good advice 

 

Bill

[devildog34]

This was came from Bob Gill's collection but I believe he got it from Steve.

[jmpmstr]

Just gorgeous 

[deftec]

Nice stuff in here, I know that many of the santiago cuba medals didn't have mounts and loops and many weren't engraved on the rim but do they all have a number on the rim? Or are there some that don't? Thanks!

[aerialbridge]

Here's an extremely rare Phase I Sampson  to a Revenue Cutter officer, Second Lieutenant Richard O. Crisp,  of the USRS Windom, who's mentioned in Col. Gleim's book, as commanding a gun crew that toppled a Spanish held lighthouse in Cuba.  "[Windom] patrolled the southern coast of Cuba around Cienfuegos where she cut a small cable. On May 11, Windom provided covering fire with Nashville and Marblehead as two of the three main cables from Cienfuegos were cut by members of a boat expedition from Nashville and Marblehead. Although her guns were small when compared to the larger Navy ships, a 4-inch shell from one of her guns in charge of Lt. R. Crisp hit the lighthouse tower knocking it over forcing a number of Spanish troops to flee. During the last part of the action with the survivability of the small boats a very real question, she closed the shore getting a direct hit on the most effective Spanish gun allowing harassed boats to escape. . . ."  When he died at 90 in 1950 in Washington, D.C.,  RADM Richard O. Crisp was the oldest living Coast Guard flag officer. Highlights of his career included duty commanding a cutter that was present at San Francisco during the 1906 earthquake and gave humanitarian aid; commanding a revenue cutter that was ordered to Turkey during a period of strife there; and commanding a cutter, USRS Tahoma, that was sunk off the Alaskan coast when it struck an uncharted ice floe, fortunately with no loss of life owing to Crisp's leadership and seamanship.  Photos by Adam R.

 

 

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Here's a USS Amphitrite Phase II Sampson to one of the civilian engineers who answered the call in April 1898 to man propulsion on a coal burning Navy ship during the Spanish American War.  When this medal came up on ebay in early 2012,  it was panned in a thread here as a probable fake because the reverse, "July 5, Cardenas" is expected to be an engagement bar, not the medal reverse.  Except that the medal is right as rain and the explanation is simply that the man mustered aboard at Key West, FL after the date of the engagement for which the medal was struck and awarded to the men onboard the date of that engagement.   That makes it a rare anomaly, not a fake.  Because this cased Sampson was disparaged as a fake during the auction, the bidding was depressed and I was able to save at least $500 if not more, on my winning bid placed more than a day before the auction ended that I never expected to win.   David John Jenkins was also one of the 28 men who defended Puerto Rican women and children of the town of Fajardo at the Cape Fajardo lighthouse against a superior Spanish force that attacked during the dead of night.   An engagement bar was issued for that boat action,  but civilian Jenkins probably was unaware of it and never requested it.   Jenkins, who had an engineering degree from Cornell and was a Welsh immigrant,  was a PA resident and died in 1928.  The medal photos are courtesy of Adam Rohloff and the picture of David Jenkins and his children is from about 1913.

 

[Fromthepastcollections]

USMC Sampson USS HARVARD to Arthur J Pennington with his Philippine Campaign Numbered “813”

[Fromthepastcollections]

Navy Sampson USS TEXAS to Chaplain Harry William Jones, who rendered funeral services for the 1st Marine Battalion “Huntingtons Battalion” after asking permission from the ships commander to do so while the marines ashore were still being bombarded and shot at

[Fromthepastcollections]

USMC Sampson to the 1st Marine Battalion (Huntington’s Battalion) to Private James J Kelly Company B under Smedley D Butler

[warguy]

I love Sampson’s named to Marines. Very nice medal. I have one to a Marine aboard ther USS Indiana depicted earlier in this thread. Thanks for sharing. They are hard to find.