United States
Henry Johnson
1892–1929 Private, 369th Infantry Regiment; Medal of Honor (2015) for action in the Argonne, May 1918
Born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, William Henry Johnson moved to Albany, New York, as a teenager and worked as a redcap porter at Union Station. He enlisted on 5 June 1917 in the all-black 15th New York Infantry, soon redesignated the 369th Infantry Regiment, attached to the French army. On a night in mid-May 1918 (sources give 14 or 15 May), Johnson and Private Needham Roberts, on sentry duty in the Argonne, were attacked by a German raiding party. Johnson fought with his rifle butt and a bolo knife, kept Roberts from being captured and suffered 21 wounds. France awarded him the Croix de Guerre with palm. He died in 1929; the Purple Heart (1996) and the Medal of Honor (2015) came posthumously.