List of American Civil War Medal of Honor recipients
While the Medal of Honor is now the highest military decoration attainable by a member of the United States armed forces, during the Civil War, it was the only one. This means it was often earned for reasons that would not meet modern criteria. For example, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton promised a Medal of Honor to every man in the 27th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment who extended his enlistment. 311 men in the unit accepted. Because there was no official list of their names, the War Department issued 864. One for each man in the unit. In 1916, a group of five retired generals reviewed Army awards and recommended that these 864 and others be revoked.