Nov 09 , 2025

Sgt Henry Johnson and the Valor of the Harlem Hellfighters

Sgt. Henry Johnson didn’t break when the night split open with gunfire. Bullets ripped his flesh. He held the line anyway. His hands, broken and bleeding, gripped the rifle like a lifeline. Around him was chaos, death stalking the trenches, but Johnson became a wall of iron. No man passed—not on his watch.

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Background & Faith

Born Henry Lincoln Johnson in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 1892, he grew up in a country that still treated him like a second-class citizen. A Black man in the Jim Crow South, he learned young the brutal cost of honor and dignity. Faith was his armor; belief in something higher his sanctuary. He joined the 15th New York National Guard Regiment, later the 369th Infantry Regiment—“The Harlem Hellfighters”—a unit formed for Black soldiers, sent to the crucible of the First World War.

Johnson’s Bible was a quiet witness to his resolve. Scripture wasn’t just words; it was a code. “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9) Those words rang louder when the bullets started flying.

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The Battle That Defined Him

May 15, 1918. Somewhere in the Argonne Forest, France.

Under a shattered moon and tangled trees, German raiders crept toward the 369th’s position, aiming to silence it. Sgt. Johnson was on sentry duty with Private Needham Roberts. Surprise became survival—a brutal fight to the death.

Against a dozen enemy soldiers, Johnson fought with Hellfighter fury. Despite multiple wounds—bayonet cuts, bullets tearing through flesh—he shoved, stabbed, and shot. When his rifle broke, he picked up a knife and closed the distance. He was twice the man, fighting not just for his life but for his unit’s survival.

His actions saved Roberts and stopped the raid. Johnson’s left arm was shattered. His hands were left unusable. Yet, he didn’t falter. The official citation attributes to him a fight “incalculable in its steadfastness.”¹

The scars didn’t just tell of wounds; they told of a warrior faced with annihilation and refusing to bow.

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Recognition in a Divided Nation

Johnson’s valor was clear, but recognition was slow and scant for Black soldiers. It took decades for the Medal of Honor to come. In 1919, France awarded him the Croix de Guerre, lauding his “extraordinary heroism.” The U.S. awarded him the Purple Heart and the Distinguished Service Cross for wounds and bravery. But the highest honor was delayed until 2015, posthumous and long overdue—President Barack Obama bestowed the Medal of Honor nearly a century later.²

Colleagues described Sergeant Johnson as “a quiet man, fierce in battle.” His sergeant said, “He saved us all that night. If not for him, every man would have been lost.”³

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Legacy & Lessons

Johnson teaches the cost of courage is often etched in silence and neglect. Racism kept one of America’s fiercest soldiers waiting decades for acknowledgment. But the fight wasn’t just for medals. It was for dignity, for brothers left behind, for a nation still wrestling to live up to its own creed.

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) Johnson embodies that sacrificial love—flawed, battered, but unbroken.

And so his story is not just history. It’s a hallowed call to remember all who bleed for liberty, those forgotten and those famed. They shoulder the scars of battle and the wounds of injustice. They remind us that valor knows no color, and faith—whether in God or country—fortifies the soul against the darkest nights.

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Sgt. Henry Johnson stands eternal—not just as a soldier, but as a testament: Sacrifice carved in flesh and legacy etched in honor. Because sometimes, the greatest battles are fought not just against the enemy, but against a world slow to see the hero beneath the scars.

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Sources

1. U.S. Army Center of Military History, Medal of Honor Citation — Sergeant Henry Johnson

2. The Harlem Hellfighters: When Pride Met Courage, American Battle Monuments Commission, 2015

3. Richard Slotkin, Lost Battalions: The Great War and the Crisis of American Nationality

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