Smedley Butler's Medals

[Larry569]

Dave, great detailed pictures.

 

I found this picture of General Butler on-line wearing the medals.

 

 

 

[Brig]

Dave,

 

Thanks for this! I suspect you are partially correct...and that the ribbon drapes are replacements. During my conversations with the General's granddaughter, she told me a story of when she showed them to her husband many years ago...the ribbons were tattered and, if memory recalls, they had been tossed in a box or footlocker, which seemed to have been the case with many of his items as he was a bit of a hoarder, keeping all the trophies and souveniers and such from his career. Compare the positions of each medal on the bar with those in the photo and you will see they differ rather noticeably...

 

I've just noticed that it seems there are a couple less medals in the portrait, so comparing not necessarily as effective

[Brig]

Spent the last hour going though my correspondence with the General's granddaughter and found the story...here are some excerpts from it that I don't think she'll mind I share with you all...

 

 

He had a summer porch sleeping room in the upstairs of the Newtown Square house. It was off his main bedroom. There was a custom closet, lots of space, drawers, nooks and crannies. He jammed so much in there no one ever wanted to tackle it after his death. And no one did until his three children were also deceased, almost 60 years after his death, and we grandkids weeded out and donated almost everything to the new museum.

 

 

True story. The late 1960s. The first time my husband was at the rambling house, I asked if he wanted to see the Medals of Honor. He said, amazed, "They're here?"

 

I took him up to the old cobweb filled porch. The house was always dark, even in summer, filled with Chinese "booty" everywhere. Outside, the walls were surrounded with bamboo, brought back from China by my grandmother, which was badly overgrown and made everything smell dank and earthy.

 

 

 

I opened a closet drawer and dug down in, through old newspaper clippings, matchbook collections, letters, more flags--a real mess--and finally found his medals, along with many others, just tossed in there, the ribbons crushed, falling apart, as if forgotten

 

The General's wife wouldn't hear of anyone sorting it out, keeping his room exactly as the General had left it

[Brig]

Update:

 

She checked out this topic, and told me she will further look into what became of the medals when the room was sorted. I guess me memory was a bit mistaken, she informed me...

 

 

my uncle had a small display case made for them and placed in the library/office at the house.

 

Anyway, I'm guessing he had the medals polished and the ribbons hand cleaned up. My recollection of them in the closet was that they weren't tattered, just badly wrinkled and dusty.

 

 

[Brig]

BTW Dave, I'm adding his campaign numbers to the pinned numbered campaign medal thread...do you have a clear shot of his 2nd Haitian Campaign medal number, or an image of his Yangtze number?

 

Love the fact he has two single digit numbered medals on there

[SgtMaddoxUSMC]

Love the fact he has two single digit numbered medals on there

I count three Tim.... West Indies Campaign #6, China Relief #6, Dominican Campaign #3,

[SgtMaddoxUSMC]

Sorry, edit that last... Dominican Campaign #3 should be 1st Nicaraguan Campaign #3.

[bobgee]

Brilliant, Dave! Thank you for your efforts and for sharing the fruits of your extensive labors. You do the collecting hobby a great service. Bravo Zulu! Bob

[pchepurko]

Great thread and thanks to all contributors, expecially Dave.

[Dirk]

Dave thank you for posting these! Brig thanks for the great additional information on the general and his medals!

[Fly USMC]

Outstanding!

 

Dave BZ and a big thank you for all of your efforts.

[Dave]

Thank you all so much! I am really happy you enjoyed them!

 

Brig - thank you for the additional information! And to answer your questions about the serial numbers, I don't have them. Unfortunately, in my phone, I thought I had gotten them...it wasn't until I put the photo on my computer that I saw I hadn't. I'll ask the museum and will post them when (if) they get them to me.

[Popo367]

Wow!!! Thank you for posting.

[Adam R]

Here's the page from the USMC ledger book that records the issue of Butler's first three campaign medals; the Spanish, Philippine and China. Unfortunately the ledger (located at the National Archives in Washington) only goes up to about 1913, so none of the later medals are noted.

[BigJohn#3RD]

Great info about the medals of a true American Hero from days gone by.

[Old Marine]

Dave, thank you for posting the photos, it's great to be able to see them.