Name Daniel Edwards | Rank Major | |
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Born April 9, 1897
Mooreville, Texas ( 1897-04-09 ) Place of burial Cunningham Cemetery, Royal, Arkansas Allegiance United States of America Battles/wars World War I
World War II Died October 21, 1967, Little Rock, Arkansas, United States Awards Medal of Honor, Distinguished Service Cross | ||
Service/branch United States Army Battles and wars World War I, World War II | ||
Daniel Richmond Edwards (April 9, 1897 – October 21, 1967) was an American soldier serving in the United States Army during World War I who received the Medal of Honor for bravery.
Contents
Biography
Edwards was born April 9, 1897 in Mooreville, Texas and graduated from the Columbia University School of Journalism. He enlisted in the United States Army in April 1917, on the day the United States entered World War I. He was sent to France as a member of the U.S. 1st Infantry Division, where he performed the actions that earned him the Medal of Honor and the Distinguished Service Cross. along with Samuel I. Parker, Edwards is considered one of the two most decorated US infantrymen by American awards; Samuel Woodfill has more counting French awards)
He married and lived in the Bronx after the war, where he was a member of the Come-Back Club, an organization for disabled and returning veterans. He also worked for Warren G. Harding's presidential election campaign, and later served in World War II.
He died October 21, 1967 and is buried in Cunningham Cemetery Royal, Arkansas.
Medal of Honor citation
Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Army, Company C, 3d Machine Gun Battalion, 1st Division. Place and date: Near Soissons, France, 18 July 1918. Entered service at: Bruceville, Tex. Born: 9 April 1897, Moorville, Tex. G.O. No.: 14, W.D., 1923.
Citation:
Reporting for duty from hospital where he had been for several weeks under treatment for numerous and serious wounds and although suffering intense pain from a shattered arm, he crawled alone into an enemy trench for the purpose of capturing or killing enemy soldiers known to be concealed therein. He killed 4 of the men and took the remaining 4 men prisoners; while conducting them to the rear one of the enemy was killed by a high explosive enemy shell which also completely shattered 1 of Pfc. Edwards' legs, causing him to be immediately evacuated to the hospital. The bravery of Pfc. Edwards, now a tradition in his battalion because of his previous gallant acts, again caused the morale of his comrades to be raised to high pitch.
In popular culture
Daniel R. Edwards appears in the 1931 short film Ripley's Believe It or Not!, No. 7.
At the conclusion of the 1962 film The Manchurian Candidate, Frank Sinatra's character reads Edwards' and Nelson M. Holderman's Medal of Honor citations.
Lowell Thomas wrote about the adventures of Dan Edwards in the book, "This Side of Hell".
In the video game Battlefield 1, the protagonist of the chapter Through Mud and Blood has the same name as Edwards. This character in the game is British rather than American and participates in the war as the tank driver for the Mark V tank named Black Bess.