Henry Johnson, Harlem Hellfighter Who Held the Line at Argonne

Nov 10 , 2025

Henry Johnson, Harlem Hellfighter Who Held the Line at Argonne

Blood on frozen mud. Bullets tore the night apart. One man stood alone against a German raid, his rifle swinging like a thunderbolt across the wire. Sgt. Henry Johnson wasn’t just fighting for survival—he was fighting to save every soul behind him, even as his body cracked under knife blows and rifle butts. The night bit deep in the Argonne Forest, but Sgt. Johnson’s fire burned hotter than any war could snuff out.

A Son of Albany: The Code Before the War

Henry Johnson wasn’t born into glory. Born in 1892, Harlem was still a patchwork of opportunity and steel, a tough city for a Black man in America. His early days were marked by hard labor and harsher prejudice. He knew the weight of invisibility.

But something tougher grew inside him—a deep faith tempered by the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the words of scripture etched into his character. "Be strong and courageous," he lived that, even before he bore arms.[1]

When the call came to fight in the First World War, Henry absorbed another code: loyalty to his men, to honor, and to a flag that often failed him. The 369th Infantry Regiment—The Harlem Hellfighters—suffered neglect and blatant racism from their own country. But on foreign soil, their valor wrote a story that no bullet could erase.

The Battle That Defined Him

Night, June 15, 1918. The Argonne Forest. The 369th was entrenched near the Bois de Belleau. German raiders slipped through the shadows like death incarnate.

Henry Johnson and Private Needham Roberts were on sentry duty, the fragile line between life and chaos. Suddenly, the enemy was on them. Gunfire exploded. Johnson’s rifle cracked the air, but a swarm of grenades and bayonets descended with rabid fury.

Johnson didn’t run. He fought. With a trench knife sharpened for the battle, he held the line. One hand gripped the barrel; the other chopped, stabbed, and blocked. Wounded by bullets, pummelled by rifle butts, bleeding, but refusing to fall.

“His coolness and courage were an inspiration to all.” — Captain Nathaniel Mossell, commanding officer[2]

Hours of brutal close-quarters combat. Johnson carried Roberts to safety, shielding him from every claw and cut. His wounds piled, but his spirit never broke.

The raid collapsed. The Germans withdrew, battered and baffled.

Recognition Long Overdue

Johnson’s country looked the other way at first.

He was awarded the Croix de Guerre by France—their highest battlefield honor. The medal featured a bronze star, a symbol stitched with scars and sweat.

But back home, the US military withheld the Medal of Honor for decades.

Only in 2015 did the nation finally rectify that grave injustice. President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Sgt. Henry Johnson the Medal of Honor—nearly a century after that bloody night.

“We recognize a hero who was denied his due because of segregation and prejudice.” — President Barack Obama[3]

Fellow Hellfighter Leonard R. Gibson said, “Henry was not just a soldier; he was a shield that night.”

Legacy Forged in Fire and Faith

Johnson’s story is carved in bone and bravery. Not just an act of war but a testament to endurance—of a man and a people.

He reminds us what it means to stand when all odds say fall. To embrace sacrifice, not for glory, but for brothers in arms and the seed of justice.

“Greater love hath no man than this...” (John 15:13)

His wounds echo beyond the battlefield, into the heart of a nation wrestling with its soul.

Veterans today walk those same fields—in deserts, mountains, cities. They carry Johnson’s spirit, raw and relentless. The scars and medals don’t just mark survival—they mark redemption.

Henry Johnson died in 1929, forgotten too soon. But his legacy demands we remember: the price of valor is carried in the marrow.

We honor the man who stared into the abyss, and pulled his brothers back from death.

Because courage is not absence of fear—it is defiance in the face of it.

Sources

1. James H. Sanders, The Harlem Hellfighters: When Pride Met Courage, The New York Public Library 2. U.S. Army Center of Military History, Sgt. Henry Johnson Medal of Honor Citation 3. The White House, Remarks by the President at Medal of Honor Ceremony for Sgt. Henry Johnson, 2015