The Fidelity Medallion

An interesting bit of trivia is that the oldest military decoration in American history belonged to a Schoharie County resident, David Williams, who moved here from Westchester County in 1805.

The Fidelity Medallion is also known as the André Capture Medallion and Congress ordered it to be procured for three privates in the New York State Militia – Isaac Van Wart, John Paulding, and Williams on November 3, 1780.  Two years after the capture of Major John André, George Washington presented the Fidelity Medallion to the trio in a ceremony at Verplanck’s Point in September 1782. Afterwards, Washington hosted the three militiamen at a celebratory dinner.

The Fidelity Medallion is considered the oldest military decoration in United States history. Although Congress had authorized four gold medals and two silver medals prior to the Fidelity Medallion, the Fidelity Medallion was the first to be made and presented, making it the oldest. 

Paulding’s and Williams’ medals were donated to the New York Historical Society by their respective families and displayed until they were stolen from a locked exhibit showcase in 1976. In 2023, Van Wart’s descendants donated his Fidelity Medallion to the New York State Museum.

Notwithstanding the significance of André’s capture, the names of the captors would have gone unrecorded by history if not for Washington. Paulding, Van Wart and Williams, along with five of their companions, delivered André to Lieutenant Colonel John Jameson on September 23, 1780, at a Continental post in North Castle and then went on their way.  In his initial letter to Washington, Jameson did not mention their names, writing that “Inclosed you’ll receive a parcel of Papers taken from a certain John Anderson who has a pass signed by General Arnold as may be seen The papers were found under the feet of his Stockings he offered the Men that took him one hundred Guineas and as many goods as they wou’d please to ask.” The following day André addressed a letter to Washington in which he revealed his name and rank.

It was Washington who did not let the story of the unnamed militiamen go untold. Washington ordered the three captors of André across the Hudson to Tappan.  A problem arose at first because Jameson could only find Paulding, writing to Washington on September 27, “This will be delivered [to] you by John Paulding one of the Young Men that took Major André and who nobly refused any sum of Money that he should demanded, The other two Young Men that were in Company with him are not yet found as soon as they arrive they shall be sent on.”

Jameson successfully tracked down Williams and Van Wart and they joined Paulding at Tappan a few days later.  The celebrity status of the rustic militiamen began to develop as they made the rounds.  A Continental soldier wrote in his diary on September 30 “The three heroes who took Mr. Andrie yesterday came to the Army and were conversed with by many.”

Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Hamilton would help the trio’s fame grow in a letter to Lieutenant Colonel John Laurens by contrasting Arnold’s ethics with those of the captors:  

He [André] tempted them with the offer of his watch, his horse and any sum of money they should name. They rejected his offers with indignation; and the gold, that could seduce a man high in the esteem and confidence of his country, who had the remembrance of past exploits; the motives of present reputation and future glory to ⟨cloak⟩ his integrity, had no charm for three simple peasants, leaning only on their virtue and an honest sense of their duty.  While Arnold is handed down with execration to future times, posterity will repeat with reverence the names of Van Wert, Paulding and Williams!

The rising stars met with Washington. Satisfied that all was in order, Washington introduced the captors to Congress on October 7:

I have now the pleasure to communica⟨te⟩ the names of the Three persons who captured Major André and who refused to release him notwithstanding the most earnest importunities and assurances of a liberal reward on his part. Their conduct merits our warmest esteem and I beg leave to add, that, I think, the public will do well to make them a handsome gratuity. They have prevented in all probability our suffering one of the severest strokes that could have been meditated against us. Their names are John Paulding—David Williams and Isaac Van Wart.

Congress responded to Washington’s recommendation in less than a month by ordering that the Fidelity medallion be struck to memorialize the capture and granting each captor a generous military pension. Thomas Jefferson predicted that the names of the captors would be “recorded with glory in history.”

An elated Major General The Marquis de Lafayette wrote to Benjamin Franklin in France: “I cannot resist the opportunity of Copying to you the following Resolve of Congress relative to the three Virtuous young Men, Paulding, Williams, and Van Wert, each of whom have also been presented with a Farm from the State of New York.”