Brave soldier stands tall. (The Goodness of America).

Henry Lincoln Johnson was born in North Carolina in the late 1890s, but the exact year and date of his birth are unknown. His family moved to Albany, New York, where he grew up, and where as a youth he worked as a redcap at Union Station. In 1917, as a young man standing all of 5'4" tall, Johnson enrolled as a private in the New York National Guard. Though small in stature, he would eventually become the most acclaimed member of the Guard's all-black 369th Infantry Regiment, dubbed the Harlem Hellfighters.

The 369th was sent to France shortly after Christmas 1917 to serve as stevedores and laborers. But after the French Fourth Army suffered horrendous casualties fighting the Germans, and desperately needed additional manpower, the 369th was "loaned" to it, the first military unit in U.S. history to serve as an integral part of a foreign army. During a February 2001 ceremony in France honoring the men of the 369th, retired French Army General Ivan Dujon recalled how they "suffered heavy casualties; many were killed but they never had a prisoner taken and never lost a foot of ground during the trench war."

While on sentry duty shortly before dawn on May 14, 1918, Private Johnson and Needham Roberts, another 369th soldier, were in a trench when a raiding party of about 20 German soldiers tossed a grenade at them. In the ensuing explosion, both Americans were injured -- Johnson alone suffered 21 wounds -- and Roberts was (momentarily) taken prisoner.

Despite his injuries, Johnson opened fire on the German contingent, and when he ran out of ammunition charged with a knife in one hand and his empty gun in the other. As described by Stars and Stripes for February 21, 2001, "Johnson, using a butt stroke of his rifle and a bob knife, freed Roberts and between them killed four Germans, wounded several others and held their post as the rest fled." Historians have labeled the clash "The Battle of Henry Johnson."

France subsequently awarded Johnson its highest decoration for bravery, the Croix de Guerre (War Cross) with Gold Palm. He became the first American ever to receive it. Former President Theodore Roosevelt ranked him among the bravest Americans of World War I. He was promoted to sergeant in the National Guard, received a ticker-tape parade in New York City, and was portrayed as a hero in national advertisements for postwar stamps. Following his death in 1929, Sgt. Johnson was buried with military honors in Arlington National Cemetery. Albany honored him posthumously with a street, a building, a statue, and a City Hall mural.

While the French promptly recognized Sgt. Johnson's heroism, it was not until 1996 that the U.S. government posthumously awarded him with a Purple Heart (for the battlefield wounds). The year before, a coalition of New York veterans groups, military organizations, historians, and politicians, had launched a campaign to have his bravery formally acknowledged with appropriate military decorations. Their efforts paid off this year when, during a ceremony at the Pentagon on February 13th, Sgt. Johnson received the Army's Distinguished Service Cross, the second-highest award for outstanding acts of heroism against an armed enemy. The medal was presented to his only surviving son, Herman A. Johnson, 87, who himself served with distinction as an aviator with the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II.

Sgt. Johnson's admirers are now working toward a Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military commendation for gallantry "above and beyond the call of duty."