Congressional Gold Medal Presented to General William

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Unique Congressional Gold Medal Presented to Major General William Henry Harrison

Authorized by Resolution of Congress, 1818; Awarded at the White House, 1825

Struck to Honor Harrison's Victory at the 1813 Battle of the Thames

7.6 Troy Ounces of Gold Awarded to the 9th President of the United States

"1818" (1824) Congressional Gold Medal Awarded to Major General William Henry Harrison, by Resolution of Congress April 4, 1818. Julian MI-14, Loubat-50, Wyatt-21, Neuzil-16. Gold. Mint State.

64.9 mm. 4.0 to 4.3 mm thick. 3675 grains. Plain edge. Medal turn.

There is no higher award given for service to the United States than a Congressional Gold Medal.

There exists no higher office than that of our Chief Executive, the President of the United States.

This medal, the only one struck in gold and thereby unique, combines the primacy of the ultimate medal with the importance of the ultimate office into a single relic of incomparable historical importance, awarded to the victorious general of the battle that killed the legendary native warrior, Tecumseh.

Struck in fine gold at the United States Mint in Philadelphia, this medal depicts Harrison in military dress with a high relief portrait facing right, surrounded by an inscription reading MAJOR GENERAL WILLIAM H. HARRISON. On the reverse, a goddess of Victory places a laurel wreath atop a stand of military trophies, from which is suspended a plaque reading FORT MEIGS / BATTLE OF THE THAMES. She supports a Union shield and holds a spear, while one foot stands on the breech of a grounded cannon. The reverse inscription reads RESOLUTION OF CONGRESS APRIL 4, 1818, and the exergue reads BATTLE OF THE THAMES / OCTOBER 5, 1813. The signature of the medalist Moritz Furst, FURST F., is present at the base of each side.

The surfaces are deeply and entirely reflective, indicating both careful preservation and exacting production on a well-polished blank from equally polished dies. The frosted high relief devices contrast boldly. The rich yellow gold tone deepens around peripheral design elements, bright and impressive. Some hairlines are present, along with scattered trivial marks. The edge is neatly drilled in five places: at 3 o'clock, 6 o'clock and 9 o'clock, and twice at 12 o'clock. Those atop the edge are clearly designed to allow for a chain or strap to pass between the holes and support the medal for suspension, while the other round drill marks appear to have once connected to the medal to some kind of vertically oriented display stand. An area of smoothing is present between the top of Harrison's head and the internal rim, likely repairing a field disturbance following the work to prepare the top edge for suspension. The edges are a bit scuffed, and some trivial rim nicks are noted near 5 o'clock and 6 o'clock on the obverse, above 9 o'clock on the same side, and a few other places too minor to mention. There is no evidence of multiple strikes, one solid blow being apparently sufficient to deeply render these devices into a stout but malleable gold planchet.

Visually, any gold medal this size is impressive. The heft is breathtaking. But this piece has survived in finer condition than many (like, for instance, Andrew Jackson's Congressional Gold medal, now impounded in the collection of the American Numismatic Society).

The medal is accompanied by the original U.S. Mint box and slipcase, analogous to other original U.S. Mint boxes from this era. The medal's book-form box is soft red leather, lined in blue velvet, decorations on either side of the central portion tooled in gilt and blind. A few splits are present around the central portion that houses the medal, but it remains otherwise intact. The red leather slipcase is worn but intact.

The Authorization

On April 4, 1818, the United States Senate and House of Representatives unanimously passed a joint resolution to honor two heroes of the recent war against England, known today as the War of 1812. The 38 members of the Senate included those elected from the brand new state of Indiana, the last surviving signer of the Constitution to serve in the Senate (Rufus King of New York), and a Delaware Senator named Outerbridge Horsey who is primarily remembered for being named Outerbridge Horsey. The House of Representatives was composed of 180 members, including Speaker of the House Henry Clay of Kentucky and Rep. William Henry Harrison of Ohio, who became the only American in history to vote in favor of his own Congressional Gold medal.

Resolved unanimously by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled: That the thanks of Congress be, and they are hereby, presented to Major-General William Henry Harrison, and Isaac Shelby, late governor of Kentucky, and, through them, to the officers and men under their command, for their gallantry and good conduct in defeating the combined British and Indian forces under Major-General Proctor, on the Thames, in Upper Canada, on the fifth day of October, one thousand eight hundred and thirteen, capturing the British army, with their baggage, camp equipage and artillery; and that the President of the United States be requested to cause two gold medals to be struck, emblematical of this triumph, and present to General Harrison and Isaac Shelby, late Governor of Kentucky.

Approved, April 4, 1818.

The Action

On October 5, 1813, Major General William Henry Harrison, in his own words, "obtained a complete victory over the combined Indian and British forces under the command of General Proctor...[with] nearly the whole of the enemy's regulars taken or killed." He was near Chatham, Upper Canada, today's southwestern Ontario, a long way from home.

William Henry Harrison, born in 1773, was the son of Benjamin Harrison V, who started the American Revolution as George Washington's roommate at the Second Continental Congress and ended the Revolution as Virginia's governor. The younger Harrison became Secretary of the Northwest Territory when he was just 25, giving him a bird's-eye-view of the wave of settlement into modern day Ohio and Indiana that followed the 1795 Treaty of Greenville. When he was appointed, more than 40,000 American citizens lived in the territory, a population that displaced the indigenous populations who had called the area home.

Harrison had already been an Indian fighter by that point, taking part in the 1794 Battle of Fallen Timbers under the command of General Anthony Wayne when he was just 21. He was 26 when he was elected a delegate to the House of Representatives, representing the Northwest Territory, and 28 when he became the first governor of the Indiana Territory. He served in that position until 1812, when war broke out.

Harrison's governance of the Indiana Territory required him to oversee treaties with the natives who preceded the settlers and his administration over them. Harrison deftly used government power and resources to acquire more land for settlers and push the indigenous residents elsewhere. One such treaty, the 1809 Treaty of Fort Wayne, drew the especial ire of Tecumseh, whose tribe, along with others, were excluded from the treaty because of their known disinterest in selling more land to settlers. In 1810, Tecumseh marched on Harrison's seat at Vincennes, a meeting that Harrison was lucky to survive. Harrison gathered forces and went on the offensive, meeting Tecumseh's brother, the Shawnee prophet Tenskwatawa, at the 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe. Harrison's destruction of the settlement of Prophetstown, also known as Tippecanoe, launched his national reputation, and the nickname "Tippecanoe" stuck for the rest of his life. The unrest that Harrison's acts helped foment, and the willingness of the British to arm the natives who opposed Harrison's actions, helped spark the conflict that became known as the War of 1812.

The next time Harrison and Tecumseh met, the legendary native warrior wound up dead, and Harrison became a nationwide celebrity.

After the destruction of Prophetstown, Tecumseh rallied to reassemble the coalition that had been diminished by his brother's defeat, and it foiled his plans to build an expansive confederacy that would have placed a British-allied native nation between the United States and Canada. His campaign to avenge Prophetstown came to include not just native allies, but British militia and regulars, precipitating the War of 1812 from a local conflict of Harrison's creation to one that engaged two powerful nations across borders, not just all over the American continent, but in oceans around the world.

Many historians date the beginning of the War of 1812 to November 1811, when Harrison and Tenskwatawa met at Prophetstown. At the least, the battle solidified support for an all-out military campaign against indigenous adversaries and the British forces that supported them. President James Madison declared war on Great Britain in June 1812. American forces invaded Canada at modern-day Windsor, across the river from Detroit, the following month. They were quickly pushed back, and American General William Hull was forced to surrender Detroit and evacuate Fort Dearborn (modern-day Chicago) before the end of the summer of 1812.

Major General Harrison took command of the American Army of the Northwest for the campaigns of 1813. In May 1813, following a brutal massacre of American prisoners at Frenchtown, Michigan, Tecumseh and allied British forces arrived at Fort Meigs, just over the Michigan border in Ohio, and set the fort under siege. It was just months after Harrison had ordered the construction of the fort, and preserving the American presence there was costly. Harrison's forces managed to hold, however, and their ability to survive the siege was cited on this Congressional Gold medal. After Captain Oliver Hazard Perry won at the Battle of Lake Erie in September 1813, Harrison was emboldened to attack Canada once more, leading to the Battle of the Thames on October 5 of that year. Perry's note to Harrison to inform him of the victory has become one of history's best known pithy quotations: "We have met the enemy, and they are ours."

Harrison anticipated the British retreat in the forts made vulnerable by the newfound American naval superiority on Lake Erie, and thousands of Americans streamed towards the frontier. Tecumseh, for his part, knew that the oncoming British retreat, led by Major General Henry Procter, would leave his native warriors most vulnerable of all. Tecumseh uncharitably described Procter as "a fat animal which slinks away, its tail between its legs."

Tecumseh was sent to slow the American march, as a body of troops at least five times larger than the British forces in the area moved towards Procter's position. Harrison's men included the Kentucky militia commanded by Kentucky Governor Isaac Shelby and cavalrymen led by Richard Mentor Johnson, who was later Vice President under Martin Van Buren. Once the American met their British and native adversaries, the Battle of the Thames was no contest. Procter retreated quickly, while Tecumseh and his several hundred warriors - literally fighting against their own extirpation - were forced to hold the field. A well placed musket volley felled Tecumseh, and the warriors in his command melted away.

Harrison's victory at the Battle of the Thames was important militarily, leading to increased enlistments and a newfound control of the Northwest theatre of the war, but its political ramifications were greater still. Without Tecumseh's leadership, his hopes of a diverse multi-tribal native confederacy were dashed, condemning those who followed him to a subsidiary position under the thumb of either an expanding empire or a diminishing one. While Tecumseh's bravery cost him his life, and a potential change in fortunes for his people, Procter's cowardice, following a court martial, cost him just a reduction in rank and six months loss of pay.

For Harrison, the hero of Tippecanoe, his reputation as an Indian fighter and fearless commander became a brand, leading to a future in elected politics that would lead all the way to the White House. Just as Jackson's victory at New Orleans sent a British force from the field and laid a road for him to climb to the greatest height of American power, Harrison's victory at the Thames became a signal victory of the entire conflict and gave him a plush cushion upon which to rest his reputation for decades to come.

Harrison became one of the treaty commissioners at the Treaty of Spring Wells, signed in the heart of modern Detroit, which was the American-native counterpart to the peace treaty signed between the Americans and British at Ghent. Eight native tribes were signatories, including Tecumseh's Shawnees. On September 8, 1815, Harrison defeated the late Tecumseh and his warriors once more, wresting promises of allegiance while doing nothing to stem the tide of settlers into the lands of the Shawnees and others. It would be the last native treaty signed in the state of Michigan. Enough new settlers arrived in the next decade that no further negotiations would be necessary, as the dominion of the Americans became complete.

The Production of the Medal

It took more than four years for Congress to vote Harrison a medal after the last man had left the field of battle at the Thames. It took six more years to actually turn the medal into reality. As was typical of the Congressional Gold medals of this era, actual production was a slow process. At least one of the designs for the medal was accomplished by the great American painter Thomas Sully, almost certainly the reverse. Georgia Stamm Chamberlain, writing in The Numismatist, in 1954, stated "the popular portrait painter Thomas Sully was employed to prepare portrait sketches of many of the naval and military heroes of 1812 from which Furst prepared his dies," crediting The Life and Works of Thomas Sully. However, the Harrison listing she cites must refer to the reverse.

Moritz Furst finished the obverse die before October 1821, according to R.W. Julian, whose research used original documents in the National Archives. The reverse design of the medal followed the obverse. Thomas Sully's "Register of Portraits," published in The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography in 1909, served as the source work for The Life and Works, which Chamberlain used. That original document included an 1822-dated entry for "Harrison, Gen. Design for medal. 10 x 12 [inches]." The obverse die had already been completed by 1822, and Sully'' register notably says "design" not "portrait," leaving little doubt that the reverse, as rendered, was Sully's creation. As for the obverse, Furst may have used a few different sources, though it appears unlikely any were by Sully, since he never reported accomplishing Harrison's portrait. Rembrandt Peale painted Harrison in 1813, wearing the same style of military dress as seen on the medal. That three-quarter facing portrait may have been augmented by the 1800 profile of Harrison taken by Saint-Memin, showing the recipient as a much younger man.

After the design stage, the effort belonged entirely to Moritz Furst, an emigre born near Bratislava who arrived in New York in 1807. Furst sculpted both sides and sunk the dies. Julian hints at some disagreement over the reverse:

[T]he reverse was held up for some time in a squabble over the design. Harrison insisted that he get a battle scene as some of the other officers had been given. Judge [Joseph] Hopkinson, who oversaw the entire project for the War Department, finally had to inform Harrison in October 1822 that he (Hopkinson) had the final say in the matter. The gold medal was struck in May, 1824. The reverse design is by Thomas Sully.

Harrison apparently suffered some jealousy over his medal not depicting the battle scene, a fair complaint considering the medal given to Governor Isaac Shelby for the Battle of the Thames, authorized by the same resolution as this medal, depicts the most awe-inspiring battle scene depicted on any American medal up to that point. Its excellence and detail, reminiscent of Augustin Dupre's work on the Daniel Morgan at Cowpens medal, makes for a more captivating design than the stand of trophies shown on Harrison's medal. The War Department paid Furst $1,800 for the Shelby reverse, while the reverse for this medal cost just $600.

The dies were sunk, and the medal was struck, at the United States Mint in Philadelphia, the original structure on Seventh Street between Arch and Filbert. At the moment it was produced, this gold medal was the property of the United States Department of War. Adam Eckfeldt, the Chief Coiner of the United States Mint, personally fronted the costs of the medal with the promise of reimbursement from the War Department. Eckfeldt billed the government year after year for the associated costs; it took a literal Act of Congress for him to finally be repaid in 1838, without the benefit of even a penny's worth of interest.

The Presentation

On February 26, 1825, a dozen years after the Battle of the Thames and nearly seven years after its authorizing resolution was passed, President James Monroe presented Senator William Henry Harrison's medal at the White House. According to Benson Lossing, the medal was presented "in the presence of his cabinet...with a brief address." Among those serving in Monroe's cabinet at the time were Secretary of War John C. Calhoun and Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, who was to be inaugurated President just a week later. Also present were Rep. Sam Houston of Tennessee, representing Major General Edmund P. Gaines, and Rep. Daniel Webster of New Hampshire, representing Brigadier General James Miller.

The National Intelligencer of Washington, D.C. set the scene, in a brief news piece that was reproduced in papers nationwide.

Agreeably to appointment, and in obedience to the resolutions of Congress, the PRESIDENT of the United States, on Saturday last, presented to the General Officers named below, the gold medals voted to them by Resolutions of Congress, passed in the years 1814 and 1818 for gallantry and good conduct, in the battles of Chippewa, Niagara, Erie, Plattsburgh, and the Thames, in Upper Canada, during the late war with Great Britain. The delivery of the medals took place at the mansion of the President, in the presence of the Secretary of War, and of the Navy, several Members of Congress, Military Officers, and many Citizens, who attended to witness the ceremony.

The following are Officers to whom medals were delivered:

Major General Brown

Major General Scott

Major General Macomb

Major General Harrison

Major General Gaines, through Hon. Mr. Houston

Major General P.B. Porter, through Hon. Mr. Marvin

Major General Miller, through Hon. Mr. Webster

The President accompanied the delivery of each medal with an appropriate address which, with the respective replies, we expect to be enabled to publish in our next paper. The ceremony was full of interest as it was associated with the recollection of some of the most brilliant events of the late war.

When the Intelligencer reported back, they revealed that Harrison had not actually attended the ceremony personally.

Medal to Gen. Harrison - Address of the President.

Gen. Jesup: In compliance with a resolution of Congress, I present to you, for Gen. Harrison, this medal, in testimony of the high sense entertained of his gallantry and conduct in the battle on the Thames, in Upper Canada, on the 5th of October, 1813. The disposition of his troops was judicious, and his success, by the defeat of the British army, and Indians acting with it, and the capture of its baggage and artillery, complete. The consequences which attended the victory were of the highest importance. It not only put us in possession of a considerable portion of Upper Canada, but relieved the whole of that frontier from the incursions and ravages of a savage enemy. The patriotism which was displayed by the gallant troops who fought under his command merits the highest commendation.

James Monroe.

The medal was received on Harrison's behalf by General Thomas S. Jesup, then in his ninth year as Quartermaster General of the United States Army. Jesup's comments in response to President Monroe were considerably longer than the remarks of the President himself.

Mr. President: As an officer of the army commanded by General Harrison, it affords me the sincerest pleasure to receive for him this testimonial of the high sense entertained by Congress of his services in the campaign of 1813. I shall avail myself of the first opportunity to deliver it to him and shall not fail to inform him of the very flattering manner in which it has been presented.

If, sir, actions be estimated by their consequences, and surely there is no other correct standard by which to estimate them, then will the name of Harrison fill one of the fairest pages of our history. With an army composed of recruits, militia, and volunteers, without a single veteran soldier, he not only captured and dispersed the British and Indian force opposed to him, put us in possession of the fairest portion of one of the enemy's provinces, and gave peace to a bleeding frontier, more than a thousand miles extent, but restored to the Union an important and valuable territory, which had been lost during the preceding campaign. To you, sir, who occupied so elevated a station, and who performed so distinguished a part during the whole war, it is hardly necessary to say how important were those services at the period, or how decisive their result.

This token of national gratitude would, under any circumstances, be considered by General Harrison as a rich reward, but situated as he has been, it derives additional value from the fact that it is a practicable illustration of the excellence of our institutions. It proves that, under our happy form of government, though detraction may triumph for a season, truth must ultimately prevail, and that the representatives of a free people, when correctly informed, are always just.

The Provenance

William Henry Harrison was inaugurated as a United States Senator just a week after this medal was presented to him. He served until 1828, elected from the state of Ohio while living at North Bend, a village just north of the Ohio River and just six miles from the Indiana state line. He served a few months as Minister of Colombia, returning home upon the inauguration of his fellow War of 1812 medal recipient, Andrew Jackson. For the next several years, he farmed, worked on his memoirs, and served as the Hamilton County (Ohio) Clerk of Courts.

When Harrison ran for President of the United States as a Whig candidate in 1836, one of the campaign medalets produced for his campaign was a cent-sized reproduction of this medal, struck in white metal and copper, occasionally even struck over the large cents of the era. Harrison ended up as the Whig candidate in most Northern states, while other candidates appeared on the ballot as the Whig candidate in southern states and Massachusetts. The Whig campaign ploy - to divide the electors enough to force the election into the House of Representatives - was unsuccessful, and Martin Van Buren was elected President. Despite Harrison's failure, his campaign motto of "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too"" resonated, recalling his earlier success as an Indian fighter and general.

In 1840, Harrison ran again and was elected President, winning 53% of the popular vote and a decisive margin in the Electoral College, 234 to 60, defeating Van Buren after his first term.

William Henry Harrison was inaugurated President on March 4, 1841. He was the ninth President and the fifth who was born in Virginia. After a two hour long inaugural address delivered in a driving rain, and an exhausting array of celebratory activities, he began his work at the White House. Unprepared to be besieged by office seekers, he was run ragged by their nearly round the clock pleas. He fell ill on March 26, first with cold-like symptoms that were probably the onset of typhoid fever. Pneumonia followed, and the bloodlettings and medicines prescribed by his medical staff only made his condition worse.

After one month in office, William Henry Harrison, the Hero of Tippecanoe, died on April 4, 1841. He was the first President to die during his term.

Of his ten children, just four outlived him. His gold medal appears to have descended to his eldest surviving son, John Scott Harrison, who served in Congress from Ohio and has the unique distinction of being the only person to be the child of one President and the parent of another. John Scott Harrison died in 1878. His son, Benjamin Harrison, was elected President in 1888 and served from 1889 to 1893; he died in 1901. Benjamin Harrison had just one son, Russell Benjamin Harrison (1854-1936), who also had a single son, named William Henry Harrison II. William Henry Harrison II (1896-1990) served a single term in Congress from the state of Wyoming. Harrison II had two children, Mary Elizabeth Harrison and William Henry Harrison III.

This medal was acquired from a descendant by the Raab Collection, a Pennsylvania-based firm specializing in historic manuscripts, in 2015, then sold to a private collector. It has never before been sold at auction.

Congressional Gold Medals: Resolved and Awarded

Following the Comitia Americana medals authorized by the Continental Congress and struck (mostly in France) to honor heroes of the American Revolution, future Congressional Gold medals were uniformly authorized by the United States Congress and struck at the United States Mint in Philadelphia. The first two of these preceded the War of 1812, authorized in 1800 for Captain Thomas Truxtun and 1804 for Commodore Edward Preble, both officers of the United States Navy. Their gold medals both survive in institutions, the Smithsonian Institution and the United States Naval Academy Museum, respectively.

Victories by the United States Army and United States Navy in the War of 1812 were broadly recognized with Congressional Gold medals, some 27 in all. The first three were authorized on January 29, 1813, awarded to Naval officers Captain Isaac Hull, Captain Stephen Decatur, and Captain Jacob Jones. Of these three gold medals, two are known to have survived. The Hull medal remains in private hands, while the Decatur medal is in the care of the White House Historical Society. In March 1813, Congress voted U.S. Navy Captain William Bainbridge a gold medal. It survives in the U.S.S. Constitution Museum. Ten more gold medals were voted to U.S. Navy officers in 1813 and 1814. Of those 10 medals, just three survive: the one voted to Captain Robert Henly (privately owned), the one voted to Lieutenant Stephen Cassin (Winterthur Museum), and the one to Captain Lewis Warrington (United States Naval Academy Museum).

The first Congressional Gold medals voted to U.S. Army officers in the War of 1812 were authorized in November 1814, after all but two of the Naval medals had been approved. Aside from the present medal, three of those medals are known to have survived, just one of which is privately owned. The medal voted to Major General Winfield Scott is in the National Museum of the United States Army. Major General Andrew Jackson-s medal - the only other one presented to a future President - is in poor condition but survives in the collection of the American Numismatic Society. Major General Alexander Macomb-s medal remained in the possession of his descendants until 2015 when it was sold in a Swiss auction; it remains in private hands.

Of the 27 Congressional Gold medals authorized for the War of 1812, just 10 survive, including this medal. Of those 10, only this medal, Henly's medal, Hull's medal and Macomb's medal are outside of institutions. As the only presented to the ninth President of the United States, William Henry Harrison's medal is unquestionably the most historically significant of these.

Relatively few Congressional Gold medals were voted for military exploits after the War of 1812. Ulysses S. Grant's medal for Vicksburg and Winfield Scott's medal for the Mexican-American War are both in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution. All three gold medals presented to General Zachary Taylor for victories of the Mexican-American War remain in private hands. We have sold all three, including the 1848 medal for the Battle of Buena Vista that realized $460,000 in November 2006.

In the 20th century, Congressional Gold medals have taken on a different level of importance, with medals struck and presented to entertainers (Walt Disney, Bob Hope), authors (Louis L'Amour), politicians (Hubert Humphrey), foreign heads of state (Queen Beatrix), organizations (American Red Cross), and groups of people (Navajo Code Talkers, Women Airforce Service Pilots). Most of these have never appeared on the public market, and are destined for institutional collections from the moment they are struck.

Significance

Any Congressional Gold medal is a unique physical manifestation of this nation's values in precious metal, produced by a general agreement of a deliberative body that rarely agrees on anything. Harrison's defeat of Tecumseh's warriors and the British forces represented, at that moment in history, the highest aspirations of the United States: expansive, empire-challenging, on a pre-destined trajectory across the American continent. Four American Presidents received Congressional Gold medals for their military exploits: Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, and Ulysses S. Grant. Jackson's and Grant's medals are both forever in museum collections. Harrison's is one of two War of 1812 military medals in gold in private hands. It is the only Congressional Gold medal owned by two Presidents of the United States. It is the only one associated with a great indigenous leader, Tecumseh. While restrikes in bronze were made for collectors by the United States Mint, this is the sole example ever struck in gold or any other precious metal. It is unique, uniquely historic, and tells a uniquely American story of a uniquely American figure. As a collectible or the centerpiece of an interpretive institutional collection, this medal is a landmark. This is its first ever auction appearance.

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August 2021 ANA Auction - Session 6 - Tokens and Medals - Lots 5001-5236

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