The little blue ribbon has 13 stars.  Not an unlucky number, unless your name is King George.  It was created at the time of the Civil War.    The first one struck was for the Navy, then from the same die was struck the Army version. (The Navy medal has an anchor.)  The title is a link to a page where you can look over the various editions. 
 

                                         Lewis Phife
 

Photo: HomeOfHeroes

Rank and Organization: Sergeant, Company B, 8th U.S.
Cavalry. 
Place and Date: Arizona, August to October 1868.
Entered Service At: Marion, Oreg. 
Born: 31 October 1846, Des Moines County, Iowa. 

Citation: Date of Issue: 24 July 1869. 
 
           Bravery in scouts and actions against Indians.

OMED: In these politically correct days, Lewis Phife has been discarded.  Unlike the other recipients we've shown, we can find no public record of the events surrounding his award, his life, his death.  Perhaps he must be punished, the memory of his service expunged, because 130 years after his heroism, only soldiers who fought in culturally proper battles are admired.

But, we say to the spirit of Sgt. Phife, you won the West, and the West saved the world in two later wars.  If you had lost the West, Europe would be fascist, Africa and South America would be colonies, the Japanese Imperial Empire would now rule cruelly over all of the East of the world and the Jewish people would be gone from the Earth.

Well done, Sgt. Phife, and Godspeed.
 

In bellum pons fortis