Samuel Woodfill, Medal of Honor Hero Who Fought at Cantigny

Oct 06 , 2025

Samuel Woodfill, Medal of Honor Hero Who Fought at Cantigny

Samuel Woodfill didn’t just face hell—he tore it apart with his bare fists and an unyielding jaw. Under the hail of German machine guns, he clawed forward alone, dragging his men out of chaos with grit, guts, and raw, bloody courage. In the mud, through the wire, amidst screams and dying light, he became the embodiment of relentless warrior spirit—the man who would not quit until the last enemy fell.

Forged in Coal Dust and Church Hymns

Born in 1883, near West Virginia’s rugged hills, Samuel Woodfill grew up amid coal mines and hard labor. His upbringing was stripped of luxury but steeped in grit and faith. Raised in a devout Christian household, the Bible was his compass, the church hymns steadying the storms in his soul. “The Lord is my rock and my fortress,” he lived by those words, carrying them like a talisman into every battle.

Before the war, he was no stranger to hardship—a miner, a laborer, a man with hands forged for work and eyes sharpened for survival. His code stood simple and unshakable: Duty. Honor. The brother beside you.

The Battle That Defined Him: Cantigny, June 1918

When the U.S. 1st Division hit Cantigny in early June 1918—their first major engagement on the Western Front—Woodfill was thrust into hell fire and steel. It wasn’t just another firefight. It was a crucible, a test of every ounce of courage and cunning.

Machine guns spat death. Barbed wire snatched flesh. The landscape was a graveyard of hopes and men.

Woodfill led from the front, ignoring the wounds ripping through his flesh. With a pistol in one hand and a knife in the other, he charged enemy trenches, hand to hand. Alone, he silenced three machine gun nests—each a bullet-spewing death trap—and captured their crews under an unrelenting barrage. His actions shattered the German line, lifting the morale of the American forces.

One eyewitness recalled, “Woodfill was everywhere at once. We thought he couldn’t be human.” That raw fury beneath discipline shifted the tide at Cantigny.

His Medal of Honor citation recounts it plainly:

“With complete disregard for his own personal safety, he personally accounted for eight enemy soldiers and forced the surrender of 17 others.”[1]

The Nation Recognizes a Warrior

By war’s end, Woodfill had earned the nickname “The Idol of the Infantry” among American soldiers and commanders alike. His courage was not theatrical. It was gritty reality. It was the gut-churn of a soldier who knew that leadership meant being the first to face death.

He garnered the Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross with Oak Leaf Cluster, the French Legion of Honor, and Croix de Guerre—an arsenal of honors that spoke in cold steel to his valor. General John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Forces, famously called him one of the greatest fighting soldiers of the war.[2]

Woodfill’s humility never wavered. When pressed in interviews, he would downplay his exploits, saying, “I just did what any man ought to do.”

Legacy Etched in Blood and Faith

Woodfill’s story is not a tale of glory or vanity—it’s a chronicle of sacrifice and redemption. He made it through the smoke and rot to remind a broken world that courage isn’t the absence of fear but the will to walk through it anyway. His scars were both physical and spiritual, and his life after war carried the same hard truths.

He lived quietly after the war, spending his days with family, avoiding fanfare. But every veteran who spoke of him knew: Woodfill embodied the warrior’s sacred duty—to protect, to fight, to lead with an iron heart, wrapped in the faith that a higher cause endures beyond the carnage.

“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life… shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” — Romans 8:38-39

His legacy is etched in mud and blood, commanded by the unyielding echo of that faith—the unshakable truth that behind every soldier’s sacrifice lies a hope that transcends war.

Samuel Woodfill did not seek glory. He sought to stand, relentless and unbroken, where others faltered. Because the cost of war is blood, but the price of courage is eternal. To remember him is to remember all who have borne the burden and pressed forward.

Their scars are our inheritance. Their faith, our foundation.

Sources

[1] U.S. Army Center of Military History, Medal of Honor Recipients: World War I [2] Robert W. Nevin, “Samuel Woodfill: Idol of the Infantry” (Association of the United States Army Journal, 1948)