Henry Johnson was a World War I soldier who singlehandedly beat back a German assault while critically wounded. William Henry Johnson (he rarely used William) was born around July 12th, 1892 in Winston Salem, North Carolina, Johnson moved to New York as a teenager. He worked various jobs - as a chauffeur, soda mixer, laborer in a coal yard, and a redcap porter at Albany's Union Station. Henry enlisted in the U.S. Army, June 5, 1917, just two months after America entered World War I. He was assigned to Company C, 15th New York (Colored) Infantry Regiment - an all-Black National Guard unit that would later become the 369th Infantry Regiment. At that time, Blacks could only join some divisions of the military. They were also always assigned to non-combat, support roles.
Initially Johnson and some of the unit worked guard duty in New York (Albany and Rotterdam) until the men were sent to Spartanburg, South Carolina, for combat training. Southerners resented Black men in Army uniforms. The locals pushed them from the town sidewalks and refused to sell the soldiers snacks and cigarettes. When the military saw what was happening, they did what they could to speed the 369th Infantry Regiment, part of the segregated 93rd Infantry Division, was departure to Europe. Their colonel, William Hayward, a White New York lawyer, knew the men and believed they should be eligible for combat. When the ruling from the military finally changed, American units were not enthusiastic about having these men march alongside them. The French , who were losing many soldiers, were not as discriminatory about skin color, for they needed and welcomed the help.
Provided that African-American units were prohibited serving alongside White Army units, General John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary forces, eventually brigaded and attached this infantry regiment to French forces during the war. The men in the 369th were glad they would be given combat roles, but they faced additional challenges. Orders were given in French, and they were assigned French firearms. After being taught enough French to understand orders, the 369th Infantry was sent to bolster France’s 161st division on April 8, 1918 to help protect the country’s Argonne Forest region at the front line seeing intense combat. Johnson served one tour of duty to the western sector of the Argonne Forest in France’s Champagne region from 1918-1919.
About 2:00 A.M. on May 15, Johnson and his partner Pvt. 17-year-old Needham Roberts, were assigned to sentry duty. They were stood watch near a bridge when they heard clipping sounds. A small German patrol was determined to eliminate the outpost and take prisoners back to learn about the American force. Suspecting the clipping noise was the sound of German soldiers cutting fencing around the perimeter, Johnson ordered Roberts to get reinforcements as he lobbed a grenade in the general area of the noise to root out any enemy forces. The enemy returned fire. As Roberts rose to leave his sentry position, he was wounded badly by enemy grenade sharpnel. Both men saw that he could not make it back to warn the others. Johnson was left to fight on his own.
Johnson unpacked a box of 30 hand grenades. Roberts was strong enough to pull himself to a sitting position so he could hand the grenades to Johnson. When the grenades ran out, Johnson grabbed his rifle and began firing. He soon ran out of ammunition. The only solution he could think of was to try to load his French-assigned rifle with American bullets. Johnson accidentally jammed his French rifle after trying to reload it with ammo meant for American weaponry. Using his rifle like a club in one hand and wielding a bolo knife with the other, Johnson charged into the fray and engaged in face-to-face combat. “[I] slashed in a million directions. Each slash meant something, believe me,” Johnson said later. In the midst of the fight, he saw two of the German soldiers attempt to capture Roberts but intercepted them.
Johnson would swing, stab, slash, and club whomever came into his path, regardless of the additional bullets that struck him. Johnson fought the swarm of German soldiers for an hour before reinforcements arrived. At daylight, members of the 369th, along with their French comrades, could finally see what remained in the battle area. They estimated that about 20-35 Germans had approached. Four Germans lay dead, and the French were able to recover the weapons of many others. Henry Johnson and Needham Roberts were taken to a field hospital. Both were patched up, and it was determined that Johnson had incurred 21 separate wounds. The spirited yet skinny Johnson was praised by his peers, with them calling the altercation “The Battle of Henry Johnson” and nicknaming him “Black Death.”
After this battle, the Germans began referring to the 369th as "Hollenkampfer", German for hellfighter. This was soon amended to be Harlem Hellfighters. Undermining the racist contention that Black men lacked courage, they fought and won many battles. They also suffered the most losses of any American regiment, with fifteen hundred casualties. They never lost a foot of ground or had any man taken prisoner. During World War I, the Harlem Hell Fighters spent 191 days in the front-line trenches, spending more time in continuous combat than any other American unit of that size. Johnson and Roberts were both made sergeants. They also received France’s highest military honor, the Croix de Guerre. Johnson’s carried the added distinction of Croix de Guerre avec Palme “extraordinary valor.” He was the first American to receive this high honor from the French government.
The 369th Infantry was the first unit to return to New York after the war, and a big parade, running from 23rd Street and Fifth Avenue to 145th Street and Lenox Avenue in Harlem, was held in their honor. Though they were delighted to be recognized with this parade, the U.S. military barred them from the all-encompassing Victory Parade held later in the spring. On February 17, however, they enjoyed glorious honors. There were multitudes of well-wishers all along the parade route. On February 18th, 1919 a reporter for The New York Times wrote that "candy and cigarettes were tossed to the men by the cheering crowd". In Harlem, the outpouring of people was overwhelming. Schoolchildren were given the day so that they could attend and celebrate the men’s homecoming.
Colonel Haywood led his men on the parade route with great pride. However, the most famous face in the parade was Sgt. Henry Johnson—the man who became known as the “Black Death.” Former president Teddy Roosevelt even said Johnson was one of the five bravest Americans to serve during the war. At the end of the parade, the 2,900 soldiers were packed on to subway cars to travel to the 34th Street Armory where they were to be honored with a chicken dinner. Their families–so excited to be with them–followed. These African American servicemen weren't allowed to participate in the main victory parade.
Initially the military capitalize on his heroism. He was photographed for recruitment posters, and he toured the country for the military, helping to sell Victory War stamps. Johnson later gave speeches about his experiences. He spoke about the difficulties Black soldiers faced, even from some White American soldiers. The army responded by trying to arrest him for wearing his military uniform after the end of his commission. After this, his paid speaking events stopped. The multiple wounds and injuries Johnson sustained forced him to discharge from the army. His discharge papers didn’t mention his injuries nor the bravery he displayed. He was forced to return to his job as a porter in Albany, struggling to make ends meet as his injuries made it incredibly difficult to work.
Even though he was a war hero, Johnson was still a Black man, and a Black person in America in 1919 meant succumbing to Jim Crow laws and racism. In the wake of the war, there was a surge in racial violence. Race riots erupted in several cities, the most significant occurring in Washington, DC, and Chicago. In 1929, at 32 years of age, Johnson succumbed to a heart condition called myocarditis. Recognition from the United States was slow in coming. In 1996, President Bill Clinton gave Johnson a long overdue Purple Heart for his service. The U.S. Army awarded Johnson the Distinguished Service Cross in 2002. Henry Johnson finally received the nation’s highest honor, the Medal of Honor, posthumously, on June 2nd, 2015-eighty five years after he died.