Freddie Stowers

Corporal Freddie Stowers was one of the most remarkable American soldiers of the First World War, a quiet farm worker from Sandy Springs, South Carolina, whose courage on a French battlefield would echo long after his death. Born in 1896, Stowers entered a segregated U.S. Army and served with Company C, 371st Infantry Regiment, 93rd Division, one of the African American combat units placed under French command during the war.

On 28 September 1918, during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, Stowers’ company attacked Hill 188 near Ardeuil-et-Montfauxelles, France. When German troops appeared to surrender and then suddenly opened fire, the American assault was thrown into confusion and heavy casualties followed. Stowers, then a corporal and squad leader, took command in the chaos. Under intense fire, he led his men forward against the enemy trench line, continuing the attack even after being wounded.

As the fighting pressed on, Stowers was wounded a second time, this time mortally. Even then, he urged his men to keep advancing. Inspired by his courage, they pressed the attack and captured the position. Stowers died on the field, but his leadership helped secure the objective and left a lasting example of battlefield gallantry.

Although he was recommended for the Medal of Honor after the war, the recognition was lost for decades in the racial injustice of the era. More than seventy years later, his heroism was finally acknowledged. In 1991, President George H. W. Bush presented the Medal of Honor to Stowers’ surviving sisters, making him the first African American soldier of the First World War to receive the United States’ highest award for valor.

Corporal Freddie Stowers also received the Purple Heart for his mortal wounds, the World War I Victory Medal with Meuse-Argonne battle clasp, and recognition connected to the French Croix de Guerre with Palm awarded to his regiment. His story is more than a record of medals. It is the story of a soldier who led from the front, refused to stop while his men still needed him, and whose courage survived the silence of history.