3 MAY--This Day in US Military History

1783 – The 2nd Continental Light Dragoons and the 5th Connecticut Regiment, Continental Line, left the Continental Cantonment at New Windsor and reported to the nearby headquarters of Washington at the Hasbrouck House in Newburgh.

There, before a guard mount of the 1st New York, the Commander-in-Chief awarded Sergeant Elijah Churchill and Sergeant William Brown their Badges of Military Merit. Surviving records for the period confirm the presentation of only one other Badge of Military Merit, and the decoration was not used at all after the end of the Revolutionary War.
It was revived in February 1932 as the Purple Heart out of respect to Washington’s memory and to his military achievements. The ceremony, however, symbolized much more than recognition of two brave men. Brown, a veteran of 18, had won praise for his bravery in the storming of Stony Point in 1779 and now was cited for gallantry in the trenches before Yorktown. Churchill had distinguished himself during attacks against two forts on Long Island. It represented the climax of the molding of a citizen army of volunteers and militia into a force that had fought on equal terms with one of the world’s best armies, and in doing so, had played a vital role securing freedom and independence for themselves and their fellow citizens.

https://thisdayinusmilhist.wordpress.com/2014/05/03/may-3/