This month marks the third anniversary of the United States’s disastrous withdraw from Afghanistan – just the first of many foreign policy disasters under the watch of Joe Biden and his top military leaders. But rather than addressing these failures – for which there has yet to be any accountability – or the historic military recruiting shortfall, the Biden Department of Defense is instead spending its time and energy targeting Medal of Honor recipients from a battle that occurred 134 years ago as the next victims for a left-wing “reckoning.”
Late last month, Biden Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced that he was directing the agency to review the 20 Medals of Honor awarded to U.S. service members for their actions during the Battle of Wounded Knee, which took place in South Dakota in 1890. According to a memorandum issued by Austin, a panel of “five experts” will “conduct a review of each Medal of Honor awarded to an Army Soldier” which may “consider the context of the overall engagement as appropriate.”
The Battle of Wounded Knee, or what some revisionist historians refer to as the Wounded Knee Massacre, was an engagement between The U.S. 7th Cavalry regiment and a group of the Lakota people on December 29, 1890. The night before, a Lakota-Sioux leader named Spotted Elk convened a meeting of Lakota chiefs on Wounded Knee Creek. He was a disciple of the Ghost Dance movement, a growing Native American prophecy that foretold of a savior who would lead them to victory against American settlers.
The following day, American troops were ordered to disarm all Native Americans present at the meeting. In doing so, one Native American discharged his weapon. Some scholars believe he was deaf and unsure of what was happening; others maintain he refused to give up his rifle and opened fire on the Americans. The specifics remain opaque.
Regardless, following the shot, chaos ensued, with federal troops and Native Americans firing on one another. When the smoke cleared, 31 Americans lay dead and 33 were wounded. In addition, 90 Native American warriors were killed. Tragically, because the engagement occurred in the midst of a Native American encampment, between 150 and 300 noncombatant women and children were killed as well.
The staggering civilian casualties have led to the labeling of the engagement as a “massacre.” This, in turn, has led many liberal historians and progressives to castigate the U.S. soldiers involved as bloodthirsty and dishonorable.
However, based on the first-hand accounts of the battle, we know that the majority of the civilian casualties were likely caused by the presence of four M1875 Mountain Guns. These light cannons were fired into the mele due to poor senior leadership, resulting in significant friendly fire.
As horrifying and unnecessary as this tragedy was, there were nonetheless moments of bravery and gallantry that shine through in the Medal of Honor citations from the battle.
1st Lieutenant John Chowning Gresham, for instance, was cited for “searching among the dead and wounded, [bringing] out 19 women and children” to safety even as the battle was still raging and he faced “the constant danger of suddenly running into those who were still unhurt and who had been firing on the Troops at every opportunity.”
24-year-old Joshua Herzog received the Medal of Honor for going “to the rescue of the commanding officer who had fallen severely wounded, [picking] him up, and [carrying] him out of range of the hostile guns.”
Sergeant Bernhard Jetter, age 28, was cited for “distinguished bravery” for “killing an Indian who was in the act of killing a wounded man.”
Sergeant James Ward received his medal for continuing to fight after being thrown to the ground and stabbed multiple times.
Private Hermann Ziegner, age 26, distinguished himself “by exposing himself to the fire of the Indians and volunteering to go to the support of Captain Varnum, and there again attracting attention by his coolness and gallantry.” Ziegner later went on to lead men up San Juan Hill in the Spanish-American War.
Up and down the list of Medal of Honor recipients from the battle are actions of uncommon bravery, where soldiers risked life and limb to protect their brothers-in-arms.
Yet now the Biden administration at the behest of liberal activists eager to capitalize on their next opportunity for performative outrage is setting up to smear the legacy of these heroes.
At the same time, not a single person has been fired for the botched Afghanistan withdrawal that left 13 American service members dead. In fact, Biden and Harris both declared the operation a “success.” In the years that followed that moment of national shame, Russia seized the opportunity of weak American leadership and invaded Ukraine, Iran has unleashed its proxies in the Middle East, and Hamas fighters launched a brutal assault on Israel.
Still, Biden’s military leadership has faced no accountability and is instead focused on stripping dead soldiers of their medals to appease left-wing activists.
Andrew Shirley is a veteran speechwriter and AMAC Newsline columnist. His commentary can be found on X at @AA_Shirley.
