Henry Johnson

Henry Johnson — William Henry Johnson on some papers — was born in Winston-Salem and worked as a redcap in Albany when he enlisted in the 15th New York, later the 369th Infantry. The regiment served under French command because the American army was slow to use Black soldiers as soldiers. The French were not slow to need men in the line.

On the night of May 15, 1918, Johnson and Needham Roberts held an outpost in the Argonne when a German raiding party came in. Johnson fought with a rifle, then a bolo, and kept Roberts from being taken. He was badly cut. France gave him the Croix de Guerre with palm. The United States waited. A Purple Heart came in 1996. The Medal of Honor came on June 2, 2015.

He died on July 1, 1929. Some later notices placed the death in Illinois; the death certificate used in modern accounts places it in Washington, D.C. He is buried at Arlington. This page will not invent the hour of the raid or a nickname as if it were an order. It will say a porter from Albany did the work a sentry is for, and the country was late to write it down.