Sgt Henry Johnson’s Medal of Honor and the Forgotten Courage

Jan 01 , 2026

Sgt Henry Johnson’s Medal of Honor and the Forgotten Courage

Sgt. Henry Johnson stood alone under a night sky torn by gunfire. Bullets tore through the cold air. His hands were bloodied, his body broken, but he fought on—a barrier between death and the lives of his comrades. In the mud of the Argonne Forest, he became a fortress of defiance.

Born from the Soil of Hardship

Henry Johnson was born in 1892, a son of Albany, New York, raised in a world that clipped his chances at every turn. As a Black man in early 20th-century America, his path was barred by color more than distance or danger. Yet he carried a spirit forged in faith and grit.

Johnson’s upbringing was marked by church pews and lessons that stitched courage to conviction. The Lord’s strength was his shield, the battles of life preparing him for the rage of war. He enlisted in the all-Black 369th Infantry Regiment — the Harlem Hellfighters — a unit that would carve its legacy in fire and courage on foreign soil.

The Battle That Defined Him

It was May 15, 1918, near the Bois de Belleau, when Sgt. Johnson’s legend was born.

German raiders struck at his unit’s billet under cover of darkness. The attack was sudden, brutal. Alone, Johnson confronted a dozen enemy soldiers. Despite being shot multiple times and slashed with knives, he fought fiercely. He threw grenades, wielded a rifle and a bolo knife with relentless ferocity, never yielding the line.

Several times he could have fallen back. Death’s shadow loomed closer with every wound. But Johnson held the perimeter, saving a comrade from capture or worse.

When dawn came, 17 German soldiers lay dead or wounded. Johnson was the sole defender left standing, battered but unbroken.

Recognition Forged in Fire

Henry Johnson’s valor was not immediately honored. Racism shadowed his legacy for decades. Yet his Medal of Honor — the nation’s highest military decoration — was finally awarded posthumously in 2015, almost a century later. A bitter delay masked the truth of his sacrifice but could not erase it.

His official citation describes “extraordinary heroism” against overwhelming odds.

“Sgt. Johnson fought off a raid and rescued a fellow soldier from capture, severely wounding several enemy soldiers despite being grievously wounded himself.”

The Harlem Hellfighters earned France’s Croix de Guerre with Palm for his action, too — a rare foreign honor for a U.S. soldier in WWI.

Former Secretary of the Army John McHugh once said, “Henry Johnson’s courage can uplift us all. His story is about sacrifice beyond the color line.”

Legacy Written in Blood and Honor

Sgt. Johnson’s story is not just a tale of battlefield bravery. It’s a mirror of America’s struggle with race and recognition—a testament to valor denied by prejudice but never diminished.

Veterans see in Johnson not myth, but flesh and bone—a man who bled for country that turned away from him. His scars, both physical and societal, tell us of sacrifice’s true cost.

He fought not for glory but for his brothers in arms, for the bond forged in trenches soaked with blood and mud.

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” — John 15:13

Henry Johnson’s battlefield echoes in every veteran who has faced the impossible and held the line anyway. His legacy demands more than medals — it calls for remembrance and justice, for every warrior who fights forgotten battles.

In Johnson’s story, redemption rides hard on the backs of the broken and brave. His name is a relentless beacon in the fog of war, reminding us what courage looks like when no one is watching.

# Sources 1. New York National Guard, 369th Infantry Regiment World War I History 2. Congressional Medal of Honor Society, Henry Johnson Citation 3. T.N. Smiley, The Harlem Hellfighters and the Fight for Equality, University Press 4. U.S. Army Center of Military History, World War I Medal of Honor Recipients