Brave soldier stands tall. (The Goodness of America).(Henry Lincoln Johnson, acclaimed member of New York National Guard, Harlem Hellfighters, decorated for 1918 heroism)

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 ...