Remembering Those Whom Memorial Day

Honors

The United States has fought twelve major wars and numerous smaller skirmishes in its history.

Memorial Day is how we honor the soldiers, sailors, airmen, airwomen, and Marines who did not

return home. The holiday dates back to the months immediately following the Civil War when a few

towns and cities began honoring their dead. In 1868, General John A. Logan—at the time the head of

an organization for Union veterans, later a U.S. senator from Illinois, and the man for whom Logan

Circle in Washington, DC, is named—called for May 30 to be designated “Decoration Day.” He said the

purpose would be for “strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died

in defense of their country during the late rebellion.” The holiday was renamed Memorial Day after

World War I, and its purpose became to honor all Americans who have died fighting the nation’s wars.

In honor of Memorial Day, here are the stories of five Americans who were awarded the Medal of

Honor, the nation’s highest award for bravery, for making the ultimate sacrifice:

Corporal James Davidson Heriot was born on November 2, 1890, in Providence, South Carolina, a

small town located sixty miles southeast of the state capital of Columbia. After completing high school,

he attended Clemson Agricultural College, which today is Clemson University. Heriot majored in

agriculture and graduated in 1912 from what was then an all-white, male military school. He returned

home to work on the family farm and joined the South Carolina Army National Guard. The United

States declared war on Germany in April 1917. Two months later, Heriot was summoned to active duty.

He was assigned the American Expeditionary Force’s 118th Infantry Regiment, 30th Infantry Division

and ordered to France. On August 8, 1918, Allied forces launched the Hundred Days Offensive, an

effort to break through German lines and end the war. On October 12, Heriot’s division was fighting

alongside British and Australian troops at the Battle of St. Quentin Canal in Vaux-Andigny, a town in

northern France near the border with Belgium. The canal was the most heavily defended section of the

German defense known as the Hindenburg Line. After their company took heavy fire from a German

machine-gun nest, Heriot and four other soldiers decided to attack the position. Two of the soldiers

were quickly killed, while two others took cover. Heriot, however, refused to stop, covering the thirty

yards to the nest and using his bayonet to force the German gunners to surrender. Despite being

wounded, Heriot continued to fight. Later that day, he charged another machine-gun nest. This time he

was cut down by enemy fire. He was three weeks shy of turning twenty-eight, and thirty days shy of

witnessing Armistice Day. His Medal of Honor is on display at the Camden Archives and Museum in

Camden, South Carolina.