Since the American Revolution, Congress has commissioned gold medals as its highest expression of national appreciation for distinguished achievements. Each medal honors a particular individual, institution, or event. Although the first recipients included soldiers and citizens of the American Revolution, and subsequent wars, Congress eventually broadened the scope of the medal to include actors, astronauts, scientists, physicists and other notable achievements.The first Congressional Gold Medal awarded was to George Washington, the Second Gold Medal to Revolutionary War hero General Horatio Gates. The Third Gold Medal ever awarded by Congress was to Anthony Wayne for gallantry in leading the Pennsylvania Line to take a heavily fortified British position at Stony Point, New York in 1776. At Stony Point, Wayne carried a rifle himself and his men scaled a rocky elevation in the middle of the night to envelope an entrenched British position. He received a head wound from a spent musket ball but continued to direct his men and eventually won the most significant victory in the northern front against the British – giving Washington a foothold in the north and a significant morale boost for his army.The medal was awarded to Anthony Wayne in a Ceremony before Congress, July 26, 1779.