Samuel M. Sampler

Samuel Major Sampler was a World War I U.S. Army soldier and Medal of Honor recipient. He was born on January 27, 1895, in Decatur, Texas, and later entered military service from Altus, Oklahoma. During the war, he served as a corporal in Company H, 142d Infantry Regiment, 36th Division.

On October 8, 1918, near St. Étienne, France, Sampler’s company was advancing under heavy German machine-gun fire when it suffered severe casualties and was stopped. Seeing the enemy position on higher ground, Sampler picked up captured German hand grenades and moved forward alone under fire. His assault silenced the machine-gun nest, killed two German soldiers, and forced the surrender of twenty-eight more, allowing his company to resume its advance.

His action took place during the final phase of the war on the Western Front and fits the Meuse-Argonne campaign context. For his service in World War I, he is strongly supportable for the World War I Victory Medal with the Meuse-Argonne Battle Clasp under the U.S. WWI campaign-medal framework. The Texas State Historical Association also reports that he received the French Croix de Guerre and the Italian War Cross, though the checked sources do not specify the Croix de Guerre device, such as palm or star.

Sampler survived the war and died on November 19, 1979, in Fort Myers, Florida. He is remembered as a Texas-born Medal of Honor recipient whose single-handed attack broke a German strongpoint and helped reopen his company’s advance.

Medal of Honor citation

His company, having suffered severe casualties during an advance under machine-gun fire, was finally stopped. Cpl. Sampler detected the position of the enemy machine guns on an elevation. Armed with German hand grenades, which he had picked up, he left the line and rushed forward in the face of heavy fire until he was near the hostile nest, where he grenaded the position. His third grenade landed among the enemy, killing two, silencing the machine guns, and causing the surrender of 28 Germans, whom he sent to the rear as prisoners. As a result of his act the company was immediately enabled to resume the advance.