Fort Johnson is among nine Army posts that have been selected to be renamed as the Pentagon ditches Confederate honors across its installations.
to news accounts from the time. The unit had been denied a parade when they left for the war. Now, the men marched along Fifth Avenue, with thousands of fans craning for a view. Some called out, “Oh you Black Death” — the nickname given to Johnson for his actions when the Germans attacked.He set out on a speaking tour, said genealogist Megan Smolenyak, who researched his story for the Army.
“Henry was one of the first Americans to receive France’s highest award for valor,” President Barack Obama said during his 2015 posthumous Medal of Honor ceremony. “But his own nation didn’t award him anything — not even the Purple Heart, though he had been wounded 21 times. Nothing for his bravery, though he had saved a fellow soldier at great risk to himself. His injuries left him crippled. He couldn’t find work. His marriage fell apart. And in his early 30s, he passed away.
Johnson was destitute when he died in 1929, with his death certificate listing myocarditis as the cause. Some accounts say he did not receive the medical benefits he had earned. But Smolenyak said records show he drew monthly compensation and had been hospitalized at Walter Reed, the Army medical center.Naming a base in his honor “feels long overdue,” Smolenyak said.
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