Freddie Stowers

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Corporal Freddie Stowers (1896 - September 28, 1918) was a posthumous Medal of Honor recipient who fought and died in World War I.

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[edit] Early life and induction into the Army

Stowers was born in Sandy Springs, Sorth Carolina, the grandson of a slave. Before the war, he worked as a farmhand. He married a woman named Pearl, with whom he had one daughter, Minnie Lee.

Stowers was drafted into the Army in 1917, and assigned to Company C, 1st Battalion of the segregated U.S. 371st Infantry Regiment, originally part of the 93d Infantry Division (Colored). Although his unit arrived in France as part of the American Expeditionary Force, Stowers' regiment, like the others in the division, was seconded to a French Army division in need of reinforcement.

[edit] The assault on Côte 188

Early on the morning of September 28, 1918, Stowers company was ordered to assault Côte 188, a tall, heavily defended hill overlooking a farm near Ardeuil, France. At first, the German defenders offered stiff resistance, bombarding the Americans with mortars, raking them with machine guns and keeping up steady rifle fire. The advance was not halted, however; with the Americans steadily gaining ground, and the Germans communicated their surrender with verbal and hand signals. This however proved to be a ruse, and as Company C drew near the German trenches, the machine guns opened up again. Within minutes, the company's strength was reduced by half. The lieutenant commanding Stowers' platoon went down, followed by the more senior noncommissioned officers. Corporal Stowers, trained to lead a section of a rifle squad was now in command of a battered and demoralized platoon.

Stowers began crawling toward a German machine gun nest and shouted for his men to follow. The platoon successfully reached the first German trench line and reduced the machine guns by enfilade fire. Stowers then reorganized his force and led a charge against the second German line of trenches. 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 not to be discouraged and to keep going and take out the German guns. Inspired by Stowers courage, the men forged ahead and successfully drove the Germans from the hill and into the plain below. Stowers, meanwhile, succumbed to his wounds on Côte 188 . He is buried, along with 133 of his comrades, at the Meuse-Argonne Cemetery Romagne-Meuse, France.

[edit] Posthumous award

Shortly after his death, Stowers was recommended for the Medal of Honor; however, this recommendation was never processed. Three other black soldiers were recommended for Medals of Honor, but were instead awarded the next best thing, the Distinguished Service Cross. This decision may have partly been motivated by institutional racism; however, it should be noted that the criteria for the Medal of Honor were becoming stricter during this time period, partly due to a perception that it was being awarded too frequently, especially to members of the Army, while members of the naval services could receive one of two different medals, both called the Medal of Honor. Marine officer Smedley Butler, for instance, might have received three or four, instead of two, total Medals of Honor, or he might have received only one, if the actions for which they were awarded had occurred only a few years earlier or later than they did. Many possibly deserving whites and persons of color were denied medals, while some possibly less deserving people received them. In Stowers' case, the official position is that his recommendation was "misplaced," which is plausible given that the other three MOH recommendations for black soldiers were at least processed, even if the decision to award the DSC remains controversial and possibly racism-related.

In 1990, at the instigation of Congress, the Department of the Army conducted a review and the Stowers recommendation was uncovered. Subsequently, a team was dispatched to France to investigate the circumstances of Stowers' death. Based on information collected by this team, 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.

[edit] Legacy

Taylor K. Beattie, in his article for the magazine Military History compared Stowers to the more famous Sergeant Alvin York. Both were poor, semi-literate southern farm boys who were drafted into the Army and earned the Medal of Honor for their extraordinary and inspirational courage under fire on the Western Front. York, however, survived the war and returned home to national acclamation; while Stowers made the ultimate sacrifice for his country, but remained an obscure figure who was not given his due until nearly a century after his death. Would Stowers have received the same attention as York, had he lived? It is impossible to say, but given the level of racism in the United States at the time, especially in the South, it seems unlikely. Still, Stowers helped to prove that black soldiers officered and trained by educated black men could fight just as well as white units, even when the better-educated officers went down in combat. (Prior to World War I, black units had only white officers). If Stowers is forgotten today, this lesson was not. Additionally, the outcome of the Stowers review led to a new Army study in 1992, which found that several African American and other minority DSC recipients from World War II were actually deserving of Medals of Honor that were not awarded because of bias on the part of the Decorations Board. Their crosses were upgraded to Medals of Honor which were presented to recipients or their survivors by President William J. Clinton.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  • Beattie, Taylor V. "Personality: Seventy-three years after his bayonet assault on Hill 188, Freddie Stowers got his Medal of Honor." Military History August, 2004. Volume 21, No. 3.


[edit] External links

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