Back on an August day in 1782, General George Washington ordered a "Badge of Military Merit" created. It had a purple cloth heart with a silver braided edge. Only three people are known to have been given the award during the Revolutionary War, and the idea got lost in the shuffle of a radically changing country. In 1932, on the 200th anniversary of Washington's birth, the concept was revived by the U.S. War Department and the name changed to the Purple Heart. Bearing an image of Washington, it is awarded to troops injured by the enemy.
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