Portrait of an American Rifleman:Samuel Woodfill

It was a humble Christian man, adopted as Kentucky's own, who was known to French Field Marshall Ferdinand Foch as “the first soldier of America” and known to General Pershing “as America's greatest doughboy” (a nick-name American soldiers of that generation picked up during the dusty marches of the Spanish American War). Until Pershing selected Samuel Woodfill as one of three American soldiers to be honored at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in 1921, Woodfill had lived in the same obscurity his name and story would return to generations later. At the time, a Congressional Medal of Honor winner with decorations from six other nations, Woodfill held more medals than any other soldier in the army. He received standing ovations when spotted at public events; he even met with the president. Congress and the New York Stock Exchange both interrupted business to honor him. Today it is speculated that he is most well known as the namesake of Woodfill Elementary School.

During Samuel Woodfill's own elementary years, hunting with the musket his father carried in the Mexican and Civil Wars, he was already considered a good shot by age 10 and later was know in the Army for his exceptional marksmanship. In Alaska, before The Great War, he honed his skill as a rifleman and is reported to have once taken 3 caribou from 1800 yards. In comparison to many of the other troops of the American Expeditionary Force that were rushed to Europe, Woodfill had what must have seemed magical skill with a rifle from his years of practice on American soil. It's been said that in his hands a rifle was as steady as if on a tripod or locked in a vise.

On October 12, 1918, at Cunel, France, during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, Lieutenant Woodfill eliminated five machine gun nests and 21 German soldiers with 21 rifle rounds, his sidearm, and a pickaxe. The 35 year old lieutenant's company came under machine gun fire while moving towards the village of Cunel under foggy conditions. Woodfill dispatched himself, followed by two soldiers at 25 yards, to stalk out the machine guns. Seeing flashes from a church bell tower, he killed five German machine gunners from 300 yards with five shots. He then eliminated another machine gun from a barn loft. Next, taking cover in a shell hole, he was overcome by mustard gas; recovered, he moved to the rear of a gravel pile. From this vantage point he took out a third machine gun nest from 40 yards. His rifle now empty, he killed an escaping soldier with his pistol and another after moving to the machine gun's position. After that, Woodfill killed a German sniper who was spotted by one of his men. After passing through the village, he destroyed another machine gun crew, taking three prisoners. Spotting the fifth machine gun crew, he killed all five, then dove into a trench occupied by two German soldiers. The first he killed with his pistol, which then jammed, leaving him only a pickaxe to finish the other. Unofficial Army accounts of the events of the day state that most of Lt. Woodfill's kills were head shots. Removal of the machine guns allowed the company to advance through the village of Cunel, a skirmish in what has been billed as one of the bloodiest single battles in U.S. History and the battle that won the war.

Samuel Woodfill survived the war with only shrapnel wounds, re-enlisting in the Army to later retire as a sergeant. During his brief national fame, the humble Woodfill squashed congressional candidacy speculation and tired of being what he called a “circus pony.” He then returned home, slipping into poverty and obscurity. After the outbreak of World War II, the old soldier was commissioned as an Army Major at the age of 59 and spent most of the war as an Army instructor in Alabama.

After his second career in the Army, Samuel Woodfill retired to a farm in his native Indiana where he died at age 68. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Years earlier, a few days after Woodfill performed the Medal of Honor winning attack, he wrote a message to his wife on the back of her picture that he carried in his shirt pocket: “I will prepare a place and be waiting at the Golden Gait [sic] of Heaven for the arrival of my Darling Blossom.” Later, Woodfill reportedly said, “I guessed wrong. There was no German ammunition with my name on it that day.”

Portrait of an American Rifleman:Isaac Davis

After the renowned battle between the British Regular Army and the American Colonial Militia at Lexington and Concord, Lord Percy, an officer of the British Army remarked about the colonists that “there were men amongst them who knew what they were about.” Isaac Davis was a man who knew what he was about. Isaac Davis wasn’t just some farmer with a musket. A gunsmith by trade and a captain of the militia in Acton, Massachusetts (an organized group of able bodied men dedicated to the defense of their town), Isaac Davis played a significant role in supplying arms to his community and preparing for its defense. And on April 19, 1775, those preparations made history.

General Gage, commander of the British troops in Colonial America, predicted that local opposition to his troops might be “irregular, impetuous, and incessant” and the “bushmen” could be troublesome, men “who from their adroitness in the habitual use of the Firelock suppose themselves sure of their mark at a distance of 200 rods [1100 yards?].” But the British troops who marched to Concord from Boston to seize and destroy “. . . all military stores whatever” did not expect the organized opposition they met. Isaac Davis, a man of 30, with a wife and four children, was captain of Acton’s Minuteman Company. His men carried their muskets with them at all times. Davis’s men drilled twice weekly, practicing marksmanship in a field behind the Davis home since November of 1774, and were all outfitted with bayonets and cartridge boxes (which aided in increasing their rate of fire) provided by Davis himself. When the men were alerted of the British march, 37 of them rendezvoused at Davis’s house. Each man carried his musket, powder horn, cartridge box, bayonet and a ration of bread and cheese. Davis reportedly said before leaving his home, “I have a right to go to Concord on the King’s Highway and I will go to Concord.”

The Acton militia gathered with militia from Concord and other surrounding towns at a hill above Concord’s North Bridge. British troops were guarding the bridge to assure retreat of their fellow soldiers searching a nearby farm. As the militia officers were meeting, smoke was seen rising from Concord. Mistakenly believing that British troops were burning the town, the militia officers decided to take the bridge and go to the aid of the townspeople. Upon the approach of the militia men, the British Redcoats began retreating across the bridge towards Concord tearing planks off the bridge as they withdrew. For unknown reasons, Davis’s men were placed in the lead, a position normally reserved for a more senior officer. It is possible that Davis and the men of Acton led the formation due to their superior training and possession of bayonets. When asked if he was afraid to lead his men at the front, it is reported that Captain Davis replied “No, I am not and I haven’t a man that is.”

Reports of exactly what happened next are conflicting, but what is known is that as the militia moved toward the bridge with the orders, “Don’t fire first. . . don’t fire first!”, several volleys occurred between the British regulars and the colonists, with Isaac Davis being the first to fall by a fatal shot. The militia then crossed the bridge giving heavy fire with superior marksmanship. The militia pursued for a short distance and then took position on a hill while the “regulars” retreated. The rest of the day went as poorly for the British troops as they were routed by the “country people” all the way back to Boston.

Decades later, the famed Senator Daniel Webster spoke of Isaac Davis: “An early grave in the cause of liberty has secured to him the long and grateful remembrance of his country.” Today, every April 19th, proud New Englanders celebrate “Patriot’s Day” by retracing the “Line of March” from Acton to Concord, where a statue of a minuteman crafted in the likeness of Davis’s descendants stands. The statue is engraved with Emerson’s verse:

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,

Their flag to April's breeze unfurled.

Here once the embattled farmers stood,

And fired the shot heard round the world.