WWI Medal of Honor - Vintage
by Weston Westmoreland
Title
WWI Medal of Honor - Vintage
Artist
Weston Westmoreland
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
World War I Medal of Honor Corporal Freddie Stowers. Vintage version.
The grave of the first of the two African American men awarded the Medal of Honor in the WWI, at the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery.
Stowers' company was ordered to assault a tall, heavily defended hill in the Ardennes region of France. The German soldiers offered stiff resistance but the Americans gained ground steadily until the Germans communicated their surrender with verbal and hand signals. As the Americans drew near the German trenches, the machine guns opened up again. The company was mowed down by half in no time. The lieutenant and the more senior noncoms went down and Corporal Stowers, trained to lead a section of a rifle squad, had to take command of the battered and demoralized platoon.
Shouting for his men to follow, Stowers began crawling toward a German machine gun nest. The platoon reached and captured the first German trench line. Stowers reorganized his force and led a charge against the second German line. During this assault, Stowers was struck by an enemy machine gun, but kept going until he was struck a second time. He collapsed from loss of blood, but ordered his men to keep going. The men forged ahead and successfully drove the Germans from the hill. Stowers, meanwhile, succumbed to his wounds. He is buried, along with 133 of his comrades, at the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial east of the village of Romagne-sous-Montfaucon.
Shortly after his death, Stowers was recommended for the Medal of Honor; however, this recommendation was never processed. In 1990, at the instigation of Congress, the Department of the Army conducted a review and the recommendation was uncovered. The Army Decorations Board approved the award of the Medal of Honor. On April 24, 1991 seventy-three years after he was killed-in-action, Stowers' surviving sisters, Georgina and Mary, received the medal from President George H.W. Bush at the White House.
Located on a small valley , the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery is the biggest American cemetery in Europe. It covers 130.5 acres and over 14,000 American soldiers rest in it, most of whom lost their lives during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive of World War I.
The cemetery consists of eight sections behind a large central reflection pool. Behind and above the grave sections, there stands a square chapel with two loggias. Along their walls the names of the missing have been carved in stone. The list includes the disappeared in the region and in northern Russia.
Walking those cemeteries is never easy. A century has passed, but the soldiers resting there remain young kids forever. They lost their lives and their future. Their wives, the kids they would have had... so much to sacrifice for one single person.
You can learn more about what drives me in my blog:
http://inspiringthoughtsandimages.com/
Weston Westmoreland.
Uploaded
October 17th, 2016
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