Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration of the United States Armed Forces, awarded to soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, guardians, and coast guardsmen who distinguish themselves by acts of valor above and beyond the call of duty. It is normally presented by the president of the United States in the name of Congress. There have been 3,552 Medals of Honor awarded in total.
The Medal of Honor was first established for the Naval Service on the 21st of December 1861, when President Abraham Lincoln signed bill S. 82 into law. The Army version followed on the 12th of July 1862. The first medals were formally presented on the 25th of March 1863, by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton to six U.S. Army volunteers.
The Army's Medal of Honor Review Board, established by Congress in 1916, determined that 911 awards had been granted inappropriately. The largest group consisted of 864 members of the 27th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment who received the medal for reenlisting to guard Washington during the Civil War rather than for acts of combat valor. Others revoked included civilians Buffalo Bill Cody and Mary Edwards Walker.
Private Jacob Parrott, a U.S. Army volunteer from Ohio, was the first Medal of Honor recipient. He received the award for volunteering in a raid on a Confederate train in Big Shanty, Georgia, on the 12th of April 1862, during the American Civil War. The medal was formally presented to him on the 25th of March 1863.
Mary Edwards Walker is the only woman awarded the Medal of Honor. She served as a civilian Army acting assistant surgeon during the American Civil War and received the award in 1865. Her medal was revoked in 1917 and controversially restored in 1977 by the Army's Board for Correction of Military Records.
Medal of Honor recipients are entitled to a monthly pension of $1,671.16 above any other military pensions, a ten percent increase in retired pay, eligibility for interment at Arlington National Cemetery, and automatic nomination of their children to U.S. service academies. Recipients also receive special air transportation privileges, commissary and exchange access, and invitations to all future presidential inaugurations and inaugural balls.