The Army renamed Fort Polk, Louisiana, to Fort Johnson on June 13, ending a switch consistent with a 2021 Naming Payment directive requiring the eradicating of all names on Safety Division property. that commemorate the Confederacy.
Fort Johnson, one amongst 9 Army installations given a model new nickname as part of the protection, was chosen to honor New York Nationwide Guard Sgt. William Henry Johnson, a black soldier in World Wrestle I whose heroism on the doorway strains in France earned his title a spot in historic previous as a result of the Lionheart of the famed Harlem Hellfighters.
Johnson was in his mid-20s when he left his job as a railroad porter in Albany, New York, and joined the Army. It was June 1917. America declared warfare on Germany two months earlier and Johnson was eager to hitch the battle.
Standing merely 5'7″ tall and weighing 175 kilos, Johnson enlisted in Brooklyn and was subsequently assigned to C Agency of the fifteenth New York Infantry Regiment, an all-black Nationwide Guard unit that later turned the 369th Infantry Regiment – additionally known as… – turned the Harlem Hellfighters.
The 369th was the first black struggle regiment to serve inside the American Expeditionary Forces. Sooner than the unit's formation, black troopers who wished to serve in struggle labored spherical U.S. navy protection by changing into a member of the French or Canadian armies in its place.
The racism that black troopers confronted on the time was excessive. US Regular John G. Pershing even went so far as to jot down a pamphlet entitled “Secret Knowledge on Black American Troops,” throughout which he urged French authorities in direction of relying on black American troopers. Throughout the correspondence, Pershing wrote that the boys of the 369th have been “inferior” to white troopers, posed a “mounted threat to Folks” and lacked a “civic {{and professional}} conscience.”
Ensuing from a misplaced reputation, Johnson's unit was initially tasked with labor-intensive duties. Until 1918, after they’ve been ordered into battle and assigned to the French navy, which appeared to care far a lot much less about race than their American allies.
Standing guard alongside French forces near the Argonne Forest inside the early hours of Would possibly 15, 1918, Johnson and 17-year-old Needham Roberts.
At spherical 1 a.m. the two males have been shot at by a German sniper. Johnson opened a subject containing 30 grenades and set them up for quick deployment. Moments later, inside the horrible darkness of the Western Entrance, Johnson heard the piercing sounds of a minimal of twelve Germans pushing their method via the fence surrounding the submit.
Johnson threw a grenade inside the path of the commotion and all hell broke unfastened. The German invaders fired pictures and grenades on the 2 guards, immediately injuring Roberts.
Unable to walk, Roberts sat upright inside the trench and continued firing Johnson shells – nevertheless the Germans continued to advance.
Johnson shortly exhausted his present of grenades and subsequently suffered a rifle jam, with the enemy troopers inside touching distance.
Numerous German troopers tried to get Roberts out of the ditch and seize him, so Johnson went to work.
He climbed out of the quilt of the ditch and charged in course of the enemy. As he did so, he swung his rifle, his fists and a bolo knife in all directions in a furious battle of punches, punches and slashes.
“Every slash meant one factor, contemplate me,” Johnson recalled.
Johnson stabbed a German inside the stomach after which killed a lieutenant sooner than being shot inside the arm. He was then attacked from behind by one different, which he fended off by ramming his knife into the German's ribs.
The increasingly more wounded and exhausted Johnson lastly managed to tug Roberts to safety merely as reinforcements arrived.
The small nevertheless herculean soldier then fainted, exhausted from the hours-long battle, and suffered 21 wounds to his arm, toes, face and once more – most of which have been from knives and bayonets. Johnson's left foot was moreover shattered and he later wanted to have a metallic plate inserted in a French hospital.
As dawn broke, the Folks found 4 ineffective Germans and proof {that a} minimal of 10 to twenty others had been involved inside the assault.
Johnson's ferocity earned him the nickname “Black Lack of life.” In recognition of his actions, France awarded him the Croix de Guerre with a gold palm for distinctive bravery. In doing so, Johnson turned the first American to acquire France's highest award for bravery. Roberts moreover acquired the Croix de Guerre.
The Harlem Hellfighters subsequently fought in frontline trenches for 191 days, struggling 1,500 casualties by the highest of the warfare, larger than any single American unit all through World Wrestle I in every lessons.
When Johnson returned to New York, the severity of his accidents prevented him from returning to his prewar job at Union Station in Albany. Sadly, Johnson turned to the bottle, alienated himself from his family and lightweight from the memory of those who as quickly as celebrated his heroism.
Johnson contracted tuberculosis and later died penniless of myocarditis in July 1929 on the age of 36. He is buried at Arlington Nationwide Cemetery.
In 2015, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Johnson the Medal of Honor. Johnson was moreover awarded the Purple Coronary coronary heart and the Distinguished Service Cross in 1996 and 2002.
Initially printed by Navy Cases, our sister publication.