The Military Order of the Purple Heart was established by George Washington on August 7, 1782 when he was Commander in Chief of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. At the time only three men received the award, Sergeant Daniel Bissell of the 2nd Connecticut Regiment of the Continental Line, Sgt. William Brown of the 5th Connecticut Regiment of the Continental Line and Sgt. Elijah Churchill of the 2nd Continental Dragoons of the Continental Regiment. The original decoration was a cloth heart with the word Merit in the center, wreathed with leaves. After that the Military Order of the Purple Heart, though not formally discontinued, fell into a period of disuse. It was revived by President Herbert Hoover on February 22, 1932, the 200th anniversary of George Washington’s birth, to be given to soldiers who’d been awarded the Meritorious Service Citation Certificate or were allowed to wear wound chevrons as of April 5, 1917.
Since World War II the Military Order of the Purple Heart has been awarded to those “being wounded or killed in any action against an enemy of the United States or as a result of an act of any such enemy or opposing forces.”
The Military Order of the Purple Heart is a gold-edged, heart shaped medal that bears a profile of George Washington. Above the profile is Washington’s coat of arms flanked by two sprigs of leaves. On the reverse side is a raised heart bearing the words For Military Merit below Washington’s coat of arms and the sprigs. The ribbon is 1 3/8 inches wide, with two white 1/8 inch stripes flanking a 1 1/8 inch purple stripe. The first modern purple heart was awarded to General Douglas MacArthur for his service in World War I. It was also General MacArthur who originally commissioned the medal’s new design.
