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World War I Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient
Corporal Freddie Stowers, U.S. Army
In the years since the Medal of Honor was first established by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 up to the end of the Korean War , 62 African American soldiers, sailors, and army scouts have received the Medal for gallantry and heroism in the face of battle. Almost all of them were awarded prior to 1914, designating gallantry in the Civil War , the western campaigns or so-called Indian Wars, and the Spanish American War . Only one medal was awarded to a black soldier during World War I, and none of the 433 Medals granted were awarded to blacks during World War II. In 1992, the U. S. Army reviewed the W.W. II records of African American service men and women, and seven candidates were subsequently recognized for their valor.
For most African Americans , the United States' entry into World War I in the Spring of 1917 held the promise that patriotic service could improve their opportunities and treatment in postwar America. W. E. B. Du Bois , the nation's principal African American leader, called on fellow blacks to "close our ranks shoulder to shoulder with our white fellow citizens." Unstinting patriotism, he wrote, would result in "the right to vote and the right to work and the right to live without insult."
Before they could fight the Germans in Europe, however, blacks had to face the opposition of many white Americans. Sen. James K. Vardaman (D-Mississippi) condemned any mobilization plan that would result in "arrogant, strutting representatives of black soldiery in every community." Black leaders had to overcome considerable resistance, especially from southern Democrats, to their insistence that African Americans be included in any wartime draft. Ultimately, their efforts were successful, and 367,710 African Americans were drafted during the war. By this time, however, blacks in the American military had come to expect little in the way of recognition for their service in any branch of the armed forces. Few African Americans served in the U.S. Navy and none in the Marine Corps. The army was strictly segregated, maintaining four black units, the 24th and 25th Infantry and the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry Regimentsall under the command of white officers.
When posted in the western and southern United States, African American soldiers faced harsh treatment, intimidation, and lynchingyet no white citizen was ever punished for engaging in such assaults. On the other hand, in the 1906 Brownsville Affair, 167 black enlisted men were discharged without honor after a Texas shooting incident in which the men quite likely had no part. President Theodore Roosevelt ordered the discharges despite the regiment's recent and courageous service in Cuba and the Philippines during the Spanish-American War of 1898.
As the nation mobilized for war, African American leaders faced great difficulties in furthering the opportunities for blacks within the armed services. In light of the service academies' longstanding hostility to black cadets, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) pressed for the establishment of a training school for black officers. NAACP efforts resulted in the establishment of a Colored Officers' Training Camp (COTC) at Fort Dodge in Des Moines, Iowa. During the war, Fort Dodge trained and commissioned 639 African American officers. Although symbolically important, the existence of these black officers did little to alter the great racial imbalance: African Americans comprised 13 percent of active-duty military manpower during the war, but only seven-tenths of 1 percent of the officers.
Black aspirations were dealt a further setback when members of the Third Battalion of the 24th Infantry took part in the Houston Mutiny of August 23, 1917the first race riot in American history in which more whites than blacks died. The violence left 16 whites and four black soldiers dead. After hasty courts-martial, 19 more African American soldiers were executed for their part in the mutiny, and numerous others received lengthy jail sentences. Lt. Col. (Ret.) Michael Lee Lanning, author of The African-American Soldier, concluded that a key factor in the riot was, ironically, the previous transfer of 25 of the battalion's most senior sergeants to Des Moines to attend COTC, leaving only one experienced company first sergeant and seriously undermining battalion discipline. In the years to come, this incident effectively undermined any proposal to increase the role of black troops.
African Americans did find greater opportunities once the nation entered the war, which had been ongoing in Europe since August 1914. Many southern blacks moved to the North to take industrial jobs created by the wartime economy. Their numbers added to what would later be known as the Great Migration, a population movement that created or greatly augmented black communities in many northern cities. In addition, 200,000 black soldiers were deployed to Europe, some serving with the American Expeditionary Force and others detailed to the French Army. But the vast majority of these troops were relegated to Services of Supplies (SOS) units and labor battalions. The War Department did not order its four black regiments to Europe, evidently in response to the Brownsville Affair and the Houston Mutiny. Rather than taking part in World War I, the army's most experienced soldiers remained at their posts along the Mexican border.
Instead the army organized two new black combat divisions, the 92nd and 93rd Divisions, through which some 40,000 soldiers saw combat in Europe. But Gen. John J. "Black Jack" Pershing , the supreme commander of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), evidently had misgivings about using African American combat troops. When the 93rd arrived in France, General Pershing turned the unit over to the French army.
Both the 93rd Division and the French inadvertently benefited from white Americans' unwillingness to serve alongside blacks. The 369th Regiment of the 93rd Division included Lt. James Reese Europe, the black society musician from New York City who organized the regimental band. Lieutenant Europe was the first black officer to lead troops into combat in World War I, and he and his band introduced the French to African American music, preparing the way for a lasting French fascination with jazz.
With the French, the 93rd experienced far greater acceptance and more equal treatment than that provided by the U.S. Army. The unit served heroically throughout the remainder of the war, suffering a casualty rate of 35 percent. The 369th Infantry Regiment spent more than six months on the front lineslonger than any other American unitduring which it neither surrendered an inch of Allied territory nor lost a single soldier through capture. In the 369th alone, 171 officers and men received either Croix de Guerre or Legions of Merit from the French government.
During the war, no black soldier received the Congressional Medal of Honor, America's highest award for military heroism. In 1991, however, President George Bush presented relatives of Cpl. Freddie Stowers with what he termed a "long overdue" Medal of Honor in recognition of Stowers's heroism on September 28, 1918, while serving in France with the 371st Infantry Regiment, 93rd Infantry Division. Stowers rallied his company after it encountered withering machine-gun and mortar fire that exacted 50 percent casualties and killed or wounded all of the company's more senior officers. After capturing a German machine-gun position in the first trench, Stowers was leading his men against a second trench line when he was mortally wounded by machine-gun fire. Even after being hit, he continued to crawl forward, and when he could crawl no farther, he continued to shout encouragement to his men. Inspired by Stowers's heroism, the company overran the remaining German positions.
Corporal Freddie Stowers, 21, was from Sandy Springs, South Carolina. On September 28, 1918, just six weeks before the end of World War I, Stowers was killed as he led a squad from the all-black 371st Infantry Regiment into no-man's land in France and defeated German troops. His commanding officer recommended him for the Medal of Honor, but the nomination languished for 70 years - "misplaced," the Army said. In 1988, after two congressmen resurrected the case, President George H. W. Bush awarded the medal posthumously to Stowers' two surviving sisters. He is the first African American soldier from World War I or World War II to receive the distinguished Medal of Honor. He joined the First Provisional Infantry Regiment (Colored), US Army on October 4, 1917, shortly after it was organized in August 1917 at Camp (now Fort) Jackson, SC. The First Regiment was composed of black men from the first military draft of WWI. On December 1, 1917, he was promoted to Private First Class, the same day his unit was redesignated the 371st Infantry Regiment of the 186th Infantry Brigade. He was shipped Overseas to join the American Expeditionary Force on April 7, 1918.
Cpl. Freddie Stowers grave at Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, France - Courtesy of Find A Grave
Remarks at a Ceremony for the Posthumous Presentation
of the Medal of Honor to Corporal Freddie Stowers
April 24, 1991
Welcome to the White House. I salute the Vice President and Mrs. Quayle, and Secretary Cheney, other members of our Cabinet, General Vuono, distinguished Members of Congress who are with us today, and former Congressman Joe DioGuardi. I'm especially glad Joe's with us here today. To the former Medal of Honor recipients, I salute each and every one of you. To Georgiana Palmer and Mary Bowens -- the sisters of today's honoree are with us, and don't they look lovely. We are just delighted.
And a note of more than trivial passing: the honoree's great-grandnephew, Staff Sergeant Douglas Warren, of the 101st Airborne -- he returned -- he looks a little jet-lagged to me, but he returned just last night from Saudi Arabia. And I want to welcome you home.
And we also -- to do equal time to the Air Force, why, we salute you, Mr. Stowers, also back here. He's at Langley.
So, it's a lovely day here, and we welcome each and every one of you to the White House. We want to honor a true hero, a man who makes us proud of our heritage as Americans, a man who, in life and death, helped keep America free. I speak of Corporal Freddie Stowers, to whom posthumously we present our highest military award for valor: the Medal of Honor. It's an award for bravery and conscience, the compendium we call character.
Today, Corporal Freddie Stowers becomes the first black soldier honored with the Medal of Honor from World War I. He sought and helped achieve the triumph of right over wrong. He showed, as this year has proved again, that an inspired human heart can surmount bayonets and barbed wire.
Seventy-three years ago, the Corporal first was recommended for a Medal of Honor, but his award was not acted upon. In 1987, then-Congressman Joe DioGuardi and my friend the late Mickey Leland, known to many here, from Houston, discovered the Stowers case while conducting other research. And the Army took up the case. And last November, the Secretaries of the Army and Defense recommended that Corporal Stowers receive the Medal of Honor. I heard his story, accepted their recommendation enthusiastically.
It's been said that the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience but where he stands at times of challenge. On September 28th, 1918, Corporal Freddie Stowers stood poised on the edge of such a challenge and summoned his mettle and his courage.
He and the men of Company C, 371st Infantry Regiment, began their attack on Hill 188 in the Champagne Marne Sector of France. Only a few minutes after the fighting began, the enemy stopped firing and enemy troops climbed out of their trenches onto the parapets of the trench, held up their arms and seemed to surrender. The relieved American forces held their fire, stepped out into the open. As our troops moved forward, the enemy jumped back into their trenches and sprayed our men with a vicious stream of machine gun and mortar fire. The assault annihilated well over 50 percent of Company C.
And in the midst of this bloody chaos, Corporal Stowers took charge and bravely led his men forward, destroying their foes. Although he was mortally wounded during the attack, Freddie Stowers continued to press forward urging his men on until he died.
On that September day, Corporal Stowers was alone, far from family and home. He had to be scared; his friends died at his side. But he vanquished his fear and fought not for glory but for a cause larger than himself: the cause of liberty.
Today, as we pay tribute to this great soldier, our thoughts continue to be with the men and women of all our wars who valiantly carried the banner of freedom into battle. They, too, know America would not be the land of the free, if it were not also the home of the brave.
The soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, coastguardsmen of Desert Storm -- a group that includes Staff Sergeant Warren -- all these valiant Americans are heirs to the legacy of Corporal Stowers and the men of Company C. No nation could be more proud of its sons and daughters than we are of them.
Today, we celebrate their achievements, but we also heed these words echoing over the centuries: Only the dead have seen the end of war. We owe it to Freddie Stowers and those who revere his legacy to defend the principles for which he died and for which our great country stands.
In that spirit, I am honored to welcome two of his sisters -- Georgiana Palmer, of Richmond, California, and Mary Bowens, of Greenville, South Carolina. They will accept the award on behalf of their late brother, the text of which I will now ask Sergeant Major Byrne to read the citation.
[At this point, the citation was read.]
I think that concludes the service, but I'd like to ask the Vice President and Secretary of Defense and General Vuono and General Powell to come up and thank our recipients. And maybe the other members of the Joint Chiefs would join us. I think it would be most appropriate.
Note: The President spoke at 3:08 p.m. in the East Room at the White House. In his remarks, he referred to Vice President Dan Quayle and his wife, Marilyn; Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney; Gen. Carl E. Vuono, Army Chief of Staff; former Representatives Joseph J. DioGuardi and Mickey Leland; Georgiana Palmer and Mary Bowen, sisters of Corporal Stowers, and S. Sgt. Douglas Warren and T. Sgt. Odis Stowers, his great-grandnephews; Secretary of the Army Michael P.W. Stone; Sean Byrne, Army Aide to the President; and Gen. Colin L. Powell, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Medal of Honor Citation:
Corporal Stowers, a native of Anderson County, South Carolina, distinguished himself by exceptional heroism on 28 September 1918, while serving as a squad leader in Company C, 371st Infantry Regiment, 93rd Infantry Division. His company was the lead company during the attack on Hill 188, Champagne Marne Sector, France, during World War I. A few minutes after the attack began, the enemy ceased firing and began climbing up onto the parapets of the trenches, holding up their arms as if wishing to surrender. The enemy's actions caused the American forces to cease fire and to come out into the open. As the company started forward and when within about 100 meters of the trench line, the enemy jumped back into their trenches and greeted Corporal Stowers' company with interlocking bands of machine gun fire and mortar fire causing well over fifty percent casualties. Faced with incredible enemy resistance, Corporal Stowers took charge, setting such a courageous example of personal bravery and leadership that he inspired his men to follow him in the attack. With extraordinary heroism and complete disregard of personal danger under devastating fire, he crawled forward leading his squad toward an enemy machine gun nest, which was causing heavy casualties to his company. After fierce fighting, the machine gun position was destroyed and the enemy soldiers were killed. Displaying great courage and intrepidity, Corporal Stowers continued to press the attack against a determined enemy. While crawling forward and urging his men to continue the attack on a second trench line, he was gravely wounded by machine gun fire. Although, Corporal Stowers was mortally wounded, he pressed forward, urging on the members of his squad, until he died. Inspired by the heroism and display of bravery of Corporal Stowers, his company continued the attack against incredible odds, contributing to the capture of Hill 188 and causing heavy enemy casualties. Corporal Stowers' conspicuous gallantry, extraordinary heroism and supreme devotion to his men were well above and beyond the call of duty, follow the finest traditions of military service and reflect the utmost credit on him and the United States Army.
Some of the Colored men of the 369th (15th NY) who won the Croix de Guerre for gallantry in action l-r Front row Pvt. Ed Williams, Herbert Taylor, Pvt. Leon Fraitor, Pvt. Ralph Hawkins, Back row Sgt. H.D. Prinas, Sgt. Dan Storms, Pvt. Joe Williams, Pvt. Alfred Hanley, and Cpl. T. W. Taylor.
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