Since its inauguration in 1862, the Medal of Honor has gone through an evolutionary standard. Until World War I, many of the deeds that led to their award were not described in convincing detail. Sometimes it took a witness of the act of heroism to supply those details. An early case in point occurred during the Boxer Rebellion.

On Oct. 18, 1899, a Chinese nationalist movement called the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists, or Boxers by foreign observers, rose up against the seven concession cities representing the Western imperialist powers on Chinese soil, also turning their wrath on merchants, missionaries, Christian converts and other westernized Chinese.

While the Europeans and Americans (the only dominant foreigners who did not hold any Chinese real estate) mobilized their fo

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