Medal of Honor
Recipient: Private Robert Lester Blackwell (1895–1918)
Unit: Company K, 119th Infantry, 30th Division
Award Date: 1919 (posthumously)
About Private Blackwell
Private Robert Lester Blackwell was born near Roxboro in 1895. On October 11, 1918, near St. Souplet, France, his unit was cut off and exposed to intense artillery and machine gun fire. When two volunteers sent for help were killed, Blackwell volunteered for the deadly mission and lost his life attempting to save his fellow soldiers.
About the Award
Blackwell was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty." On May 6, 1919, his father, veteran James B. Blackwell, received the medal at the State Capitol. Governor Thomas Bickett noted that "no earthly honor, we understand, can take the place of the boy who comes not."
Blackwell was one of only two North Carolinians to receive the Medal of Honor during World War I. The family later donated the medal to what is now the North Carolina Museum of History.