Howell County will soon have road signs declaring it a Purple Heart County, following a collaboration between county commissioners and the Missouri Department of the Military Order of the Purple Heart.
The latter is an organization that provides veterans services and advocacy through programs promoting the physical and mental well-being of veterans, civic engagement and outreach. One such program, the Purple Heart Trail, honors servicemen and women who have been awarded the Purple Heart after being wounded or killed in combat.
The signs are installed to mark that trail, established as designated sections of roadway in 45 states and Guam. They are intended to be a visual reminder of the sacrifices of Purple Heart recipients in the pursuit to preserve American freedoms, and are designated by legislation.
There are 154 Purple-Heart-designated Missouri cities, including Willow Springs and Mtn. View, and 95 Missouri Purple Heart counties.
The history of the Purple Heart is almost as long as the history of the United States itself. According to the Military Order of the Purple Heart, its origin begins in 1782, when President and Commander-In-Chief George Washington issued an order establishing the Badge of Distinction and Badge of Merit. The first of such honors, meant to recognize distinction in service by Revolutionary War soldiers, consisted of white lettering and decoration embroidered with either the word "distinction" or "merit" on a purple heart made of silk or other cloth and worn over the left breast of the recipient.
The Badge of Merit inspired the Purple Heart as it is known today, while the Badge of Distinction evolved to become the Medal of Honor.
The Continental Army was about to disband as peace agreements with the British were being finalized in 1783, but no recommendations for the Badge of Merit had yet been submitted to President Washington. In response — and knowing the urgency of naming recipients ahead of the army's disbanding — he demanded action and established a review board, and the names of three soldiers were submitted as candidates within days.
The first three recipients are officially recorded as Sgts. Elijah Churchill, William Brown and Daniel Bissell, though it is likely Continental Army soldiers Peter Shumway, John Sithins and William Dutton were also among the first recipients. However, according to Military Order of the Purple Heart’s National Americanism Officer Ron Siebels, a record of names and meritorious deeds in addition to those of Churchill, Brown and Bissell has been lost. Siebels noted there were likely even more early recipients whose names have been lost to history.
The Badge of Military Merit, the first federal military honor to be awarded and intended by Washington to be permanent, was instead discontinued after the disbanding of the Continental Army in 1783, according to the Military Order of the Purple Heart, and the next federal decoration was the Navy Medal of Honor, created in 1861 during the Civil War.
According the U.S. Department of Defense the Purple Heart was revived on Feb. 22, 1932, on Washington's 200th birthday. It features a profile portrait of Washington in gold on a purple background and was awarded retroactively to eligible World War I soldiers, according to DOD officials. Gen. Douglas MacArthur was the first recipient of the modern version of the Purple Heart as Army chief of staff in 1932. As of August 2023, there have been 1.8 million Purple Hearts awarded, going back to Washington's original order, according to the National Purple Heart Hall of Honor.
