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Certificate of Merit find at flea market


Tonomachi
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I picked this up at the flea market this morning.  I know very little about these certificates and it is in poor shape but someone had it framed nicely.  It is hard to read and there are bits missing but it looks like the certificate reads as follows:

 

ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES

 

CERTIFICATE of MERIT

 

Known all whom it may concern, that PRIVATE John Wallace of Company B of the Second Regiment of Infantry, having DISTINGUISHED HIMSELF in the SERVICE of the UNITED STATES, on the Thirteenth day of September 1847 in the Battle of Chapultepec, on the recommendation of Captain T. Morris, the commanding officer of his Regiment.  I do hereby award to the said PRIVATE John Wallace the CERTIFICATE OF MERIT, which under the provisions of the 17th section of Act, Approved, March 3rd 1847 entitles him ??????????

 

GIVEN my hand under the City of Washington in this third day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty eight. 

 

 

W. L. Marcy                                                                           James K. Polk

Secretary of War                                                                    President of the United States

 

In the corner is hand written in red ink and black ink:

 

Recorded Adj?????????? (red ink)

May 10, 1848

 

??????????? (black ink)

?????

 

As John Wallace is a very common name I wasn't able to identify him.  I thought I had gotten lucky as I found a Pvt. John R. Wallace who served with Company J, 1st Tennessee Infantry during the Mexican-American War.  However this must be a different John Wallace who served in a different unit during the Mexican-American War (see link below):

 

 https://www.fold3.com/page/631402923/john-r-wallace/facts

 

I'm assuming the Certificate of Merit is an award that came out before there was an actual medal representing such or was there a medal issued with this certificate?  Is the Certificate of  Merit equivalent to say a Silver Star?  Does anyone know if President James K. Polk actually signed these certificates of maybe someone else did who represented him?   Is there anyway of identifying John Wallace?

 

 

 

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bertmedals

Amazing find.  I don't know much about these certificates either only that they are pretty rare and seem to fallen out of use after the Mexican-American War.  I have seen a couple of pictures of them.  No medal was associated with them until early in the 20th Century and was short-lived.  

 

DId the seller offer any information on where it came from or the circumstances of him/her obtaining it?

Dennis

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9 hours ago, bertmedals said:

Amazing find.  I don't know much about these certificates either only that they are pretty rare and seem to fallen out of use after the Mexican-American War.  I have seen a couple of pictures of them.  No medal was associated with them until early in the 20th Century and was short-lived.  

 

DId the seller offer any information on where it came from or the circumstances of him/her obtaining it?

Dennis

I asked the seller where this came from and he told me that he got it out of a storage locker.  I asked him if there was a name associated with the locker and he told me that the former owner of the locker was a scrounger who bought things everywhere.  Thanks for the information.

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bertmedals
23 minutes ago, Tonomachi said:

I asked the seller where this came from and he told me that he got it out of a storage locker.  I asked him if there was a name associated with the locker and he told me that the former owner of the locker was a scrounger who bought things everywhere.  Thanks for the information.

Thanks for that.

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  • 2 weeks later...

 

 

Personnel awarded the Certificate of Merit were authorized an additional $2.00 per month in pay, which is why you see the note on the back in red about the certificate being recorded in his official Army records.

 

JOHN WALLACE checks out on the rolls of CO B 2ND INFANTRY for the 13 SEPT 1847  Battle of Chapultepec.

 

This from the unit's history:

 

"A detail from Twiggs' Division consisting of 250 men and 13 officers, Captain Silas Casey, 2d Infantry, commanding, was ordered to report to General Quitman early on the morning of the 13th as the storming party of the right of the line."

At 8 o'clock A. M. on the 13th, Lieutenant C. M. Wilcox was ordered by General Quitman to go at once to Captain Casey and give the order to advance.

"On reaching the storming party the order was given to Captain Casey who formed his line in a few seconds and gave the order 'forward.' They moved down the road towards Chapultepec at a double-quick, and for 600 yards were exposed to a raking fire from the Castle, but were partially concealed from view and protected from the fire of the batteries near the road by several adobe houses to the left of it, and by rows of maguey growing along the edge of the ditch. Beyond the houses showers of grape came from the guns of the batteries on the left of the road, passing among and over the men, causing a few casualties, and the hostile musketry opened, knocking over a few men. * * * Two hundred yards beyond the adobe houses the road made a slight bend to the left; 200 yards beyond this were the two Mexican batteries; and in advance of the bend a short distance was a ditch, eight or ten feet deep and nine or twelve feet wide. Here the stormers were brought to a halt, as the ditch could not be passed." (Wilcox, pp. 459-60.)

"But the troops held their ground and pressed on, until, finally, the castle above having been taken, they entered the Mexican barricade with a portion of the Rifle Regiment." (Ripley.)

 

The signatures are all original on these certificates.

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Brian Keith

Very rare to find relics of the war with mexico!

Thanks for posting it and the addition information,

BKW

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On 6/12/2021 at 3:23 PM, usmedalman said:

 

 

Personnel awarded the Certificate of Merit were authorized an additional $2.00 per month in pay, which is why you see the note on the back in red about the certificate being recorded in his official Army records.

 

JOHN WALLACE checks out on the rolls of CO B 2ND INFANTRY for the 13 SEPT 1847  Battle of Chapultepec.

 

This from the unit's history:

 

"A detail from Twiggs' Division consisting of 250 men and 13 officers, Captain Silas Casey, 2d Infantry, commanding, was ordered to report to General Quitman early on the morning of the 13th as the storming party of the right of the line."

At 8 o'clock A. M. on the 13th, Lieutenant C. M. Wilcox was ordered by General Quitman to go at once to Captain Casey and give the order to advance.

"On reaching the storming party the order was given to Captain Casey who formed his line in a few seconds and gave the order 'forward.' They moved down the road towards Chapultepec at a double-quick, and for 600 yards were exposed to a raking fire from the Castle, but were partially concealed from view and protected from the fire of the batteries near the road by several adobe houses to the left of it, and by rows of maguey growing along the edge of the ditch. Beyond the houses showers of grape came from the guns of the batteries on the left of the road, passing among and over the men, causing a few casualties, and the hostile musketry opened, knocking over a few men. * * * Two hundred yards beyond the adobe houses the road made a slight bend to the left; 200 yards beyond this were the two Mexican batteries; and in advance of the bend a short distance was a ditch, eight or ten feet deep and nine or twelve feet wide. Here the stormers were brought to a halt, as the ditch could not be passed." (Wilcox, pp. 459-60.)

"But the troops held their ground and pressed on, until, finally, the castle above having been taken, they entered the Mexican barricade with a portion of the Rifle Regiment." (Ripley.)

 

The signatures are all original on these certificates.

Thanks for this additional information.  I have had a lot of help from board moderator aznation after failing to identify John T. Wallace on my own due in part to the number of people throughout the country who share this same name.  I did find a John T. Wallace who was an early local pioneer but couldn't confirm they were the same person until I received help from aznation.  John T. Wallace was born on September 19, 1823 in Edinburgh, Scotland and immigrated to New York on June 19, 1843.  While living in New York,  John T. Wallace enlisted in the Army on May 22, 1945 for a 5 year enlistment and was discharged as a 1st Sergeant on May 21, 1850 in Monterey, California.   The information I received indicated that not only was he local but he lived somewhere off of the same street where I currently reside.  I am in the process of searching for his gravesite as he died in Salinas, California on November 26, 1891 but was buried somewhere in Monterey, California.   One of the pieces of information that aznation located was the act of bravery for which John T. Wallace was cited.  He was the private who raised the American flag on the fortress during the attack on the Chapultapec Castle.  

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  • 2 months later...

I just finished putting together a shadow box for the Certificate of Merit.  I picked up what I believe to be an original infantry hunting horn denoting the infantry branch that was worn on those tall black leather cylindrical shakos for parade and guard duty during the Mexican American War.  It has a broken off mouth piece but matches the one on page 39 of the book titled,  "Encyclopedia of the United States Army Insignia and Uniforms by William K. Emerson."  I need to find the numeral "2" which would have gone in the center of this hunting horn to denote the regiment.  I couldn't find the proper US eagle plate that was mounted above this hunting horn.  As contrast I did add a later period 1870s crossed rifles cap badge for the regiment that John T. Wallace served with during the Mexican American War.  I found a circular brass US eagle plate of the type that John T. Wallace would have worn.  My understanding is that the infantry of this time period wore a 2 inch wide white buff leather strap from the left shoulder down to the right hip where it connected to a black leather cartridge box.  On the center of this cross strap was this circular US eagle plate.  The one I found is probably a civil war era period piece.  I don't know what the differences were between the ones worn in the 1840s and the ones worn during the 1860s as they all look alike.

 

I was never able to locate John T. Wallace's gravesite but learned a lot about how poorly records keeping was done in the early days and how common it was for entire cemeteries to be moved to make way for as an example the widening or the construction of a paved roadway.   I was surprised at the loss of records or basically lack of records keeping that occurred during the physical removal of human remains from each grave to be re-interred within another cemetery.   The number of illegible headstones and unmarked graves was a surprise and I was told that when they dig new gravesites they on occasion locate human bones that they didn't know were there and we are talking about a Catholic Cemetery.   The non Catholics were buried in the same area but away from the main Catholic section which is where I believe John T. Wallace is buried somewhere near the San Carlos Cemetery in Monterey, California. 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

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