two different Mexican Border Medals in a group?

[lithgow]

Which raises the question as to what this is exactly-bought it a few years ago...

[soalebm]

Very nice group! If they all belong to one man I don't believe I've never seen such a wide array of medals for one soldier. It would be really great to find out if he was in the Spanish American War as a part of the standing army or a volunteer. The US Army was very small at this time and the nation relied on a large number of volunteers for the Spanish American War. That is why a lot of the groups you see don't include WWI items. The men served their time and went on to do other things. Then when WWI came around many of them were old enough that they were not considered for the draft.

[soalebm]

Lithgow, What you have is a Mexican Boarder Service medal that was probably awarded to a member of a national guard or reserve member. I have a set of medals from a member of the Connecticut National Guard and while doing research I came across a number of these because I guess the Conn. national guard was part of the boarder service also. Someone should be able to tell you if they were purchased by the guard units and presented as part of a veterans thing or if they were given by the government.