harlem hellfighters henry johnson

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty: He took more bullets in his side, then his hand, but kept shooting until he shoved an American cartridge clip into his French rifle and it jammed.By now, the Germans were on top of him. In 1996, In recent years, a chain-of-command endorsement in the form of a memo from Gen. John J. Pershing, commander-in-chief of the American Expeditionary Force in World War I, written just days after Johnson’s heroics in the Argonne, was discovered in an online database by an aide to Senator Charles Schumer of New York. Private Johnson distinguished himself by acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a member of Company C, 369th Infantry Regiment, 93rd Division, American Expeditionary Forces, during combat operations against the enemy on the front lines of the Western Front in France on May 15, 1918.

Johnson’s inability to hold down a job led him to the bottle. Until President Harry Truman integrated the military in 1948, soldiers of color had to serve in “all-black” units.Even though segregation was still in full force in both civilian and military life when the United States entered the First World War in 1917, thousands of black Americans rushed to enlist. Additional Veterans Bureau records refer to Johnson receiving monthly compensation and regular visits by Veterans Bureau medical personnel until his death.Interest in obtaining fitting recognition for Johnson grew during the 1970s and 1980s. Johnson then hurled a grenade toward the fence, which brought a volley of return gunfire from the Germans, as well as enemy grenades. Johnson had him lie in the trench and hand him grenades, which the Albany native threw at the Germans. His book Johnson enlisted in the United States Military on June 5, 1917, joining the all-black New York National Guard 15th Infantry Regiment, which, when mustered into Federal service, was redesignated as the 369th Infantry Regiment based in Harlem. He simply tried to carry on as well as a black man could in the country he had been willing to give his life for. From 1919 on, Henry Johnson's story has been part of wider consideration of treatment of African Americans in the Great War.The French Army and people had no such problem and were happy and welcoming to accept the reinforcements.The 369th got off to a rocky departure from the United States, making three attempts over a period of months to sail for France before finally getting out of sight of land. Harlem Hellfighter Hero: Henry Johnson. With dozens of bullet and shrapnel wounds, he knew he was lucky to have survived. Even then, their transport, which had stopped and anchored because of a sudden snow storm that arose before they could get out of the harbor, was struck by another ship due to the poor visibility. smithsonianmag.com Like hundreds of thousands of young American men, Henry Johnson returned from World War I and tried to make a life for himself in spite of what he had experienced in a strange and distant land. Although African Americans had been serving in the U.S. Armed Forces since the Revolutionary War, they still faced discrimination and segregation within the military. In November 1991 a monument was erected in Albany, New York's In December 2004, the Postal facility at 747 Broadway was renamed the "United States Postal Service Henry Johnson Annex". His discharge records erroneously made no mention of his injuries, and so Johnson was denied not only a Purple Heart, but a disability allowance as well. And on the night of May 15, 1918, Army Pvt. (New York Division of Military and Naval Affairs) When reinforcements arrived, Johnson passed out and was taken to a field hospital. Henry Johnson, a member of … Roberts didn’t get far before he decided to return to help Johnson fight, but he was hit with a grenade and wounded too badly in his arm and hip to do any fighting. Wielding only a knife and gravely wounded himself, Private Johnson continued fighting and took his Bolo knife and stabbed it through an enemy soldier's head.