Page:The Book of Orders of Knighthood and Decorations of Honour of All Nations.djvu/617

 SCHWARZBURG-SONDERSHAUSEN (PRINCIPALITY).

MEDALS AND DECORATIONS OF HONOUR.

1. Cross and decoration for distinguished service were instituted on the 22nd May, 1838, by Prince Günther, for long military service.

Years of war for the Principality count double, while those spent in active service, among the troops, of other German states, are included in the term required for the decoration. This latter consists for officers of a gold cross, showing on the obverse the initial of the Prince, surmounted by the coronet, and on the reverse the No. XX. (Plate 83, No. 2). It is worn at the left side of the breast, by a blue and white ribbon, after twenty years faithful service and irreproachable conduct, and passes by the name of the Cross of distinguished service.

The decoration for privates or sub-officers, is a buckle with the initials of the Prince on it, and is worn in the same manner as the previous (No. 3). It passes by the name of 'Distinction of Service,' and is divided into two classes, for fifteen and ten years' service (No. 3). The decoration of the first class is of gold, and that of the second, of silver.

2. Medal of War; was instituted for the campaigns of 1814 and 1815, and distributed amongst all the military of the line, as also volunteers and militia, who shared in them. It bears on the obverse the inscription: Schwarzburg-Sondershausen (as legend), 'Im Deutschen Freiheit's Kriege, 1814 und 1815' (In the German War of Liberty, 1814 and 1815), while the reverse shows the initials of the Prince in monogram (No. 4).