Sergeant
Sergeant (abbreviated to Sgt. and capitalized when used as a named person's title) is a rank in many uniformed organizations, principally military and policing forces. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and other uni ...
Paul H. Weinert (July 15, 1869 – January 19, 1919) was an American soldier in the
U.S. Army who served with the 1st U.S. Artillery during the
Indian Wars. He was one of twenty men who received the
Medal of Honor
The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest military decoration and is awarded to recognize American soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, guardians and coast guardsmen who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor. ...
for gallantry at what was then called the Battle of Wounded Knee, but now commonly called the
Wounded Knee Massacre, taking charge of the battery when his commanding officer was severely wounded, on December 29, 1890.
Biography
Paul H. Weinert was born in
Frankfurt, Germany on July 15, 1869. He later emigrated to the United States and joined the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
from
Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
in November 1886 (claiming to be 21 because he was underage). He was assigned to Battery E of the 1st U.S. Artillery and became a
Corporal by age 20.
Weinert was present at the
Wounded Knee Massacre when, on the morning of December 29, 1890, members of the
7th U.S. Cavalry Regiment surrounded the camp of the Sioux chieftain
Big Foot in order to apprehend weapons from his band. His unit, consisting of four
Hotchkiss gun
The Hotchkiss gun can refer to different products of the Hotchkiss arms company starting in the late 19th century. It usually refers to the 1.65-inch (42 mm) light mountain gun; there were also a navy (47 mm) and a 3-inch (76&nbs ...
s, moved in after the fighting started and began giving artillery support to the cavalry troops. When his commanding officer, Lieutenant Harry Hawthorne, was severely wounded he assumed command and, with another soldier, directed artillery fire and successfully cleared out a key position, a ravine "pocket", supposedly occupied by a number of the Sioux warriors. He and the second cannoneer remained under heavy fire during the battle, at one point causing a round to be knocked out of Weinert's hands as he was about to load, resulting in the gun carriage being riddled with bullets. The two continued manually moving the cannon with each discharge to move it into a better position until the end of the battle. For his actions, he received the
Medal of Honor
The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest military decoration and is awarded to recognize American soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, guardians and coast guardsmen who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor. ...
along with four other artillerymen. He was discharged in 1895, and served again from 1898 until 1899.
More recent reports have shown that unarmed civilians were hiding in the ravine, and that "Weiner's firing inflicted terrible damage, undoubtedly killing and wounding many women and children."
Weinert died in
Milton, Massachusetts on January 19, 1919, at the age of 49. He is one of two MOH recipients, along with
Edward A. Gisburne, interred at
Milton Cemetery
Milton Cemetery is a historic cemetery at 211 Centre Street in Milton, Massachusetts. Established in 1672, it is the town's only municipal burying ground. There are three distinct sections to its grounds: the original burying ground, a tract ...
.
Medal of Honor citation
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company E, 1st U.S. Artillery. Place and date: At Wounded Knee Creek, S. Dak., 29 December 1890. Entered service at: Baltimore, Md. Birth: Germany. Date of issue: 24 March 1891.
Citation:
Taking the place of his commanding officer who had fallen severely wounded, he gallantly served his piece, after each fire advancing it to a better position.
Concerns
There have been several attempts by various parties to rescind the Medals of Honor awarded in connection with the
Wounded Knee Massacre. Proponents claim that the engagement was in-fact a massacre and not a battle, due to the high number of killed and wounded Lakota women and children and the very one-sided casualty counts. Estimates of the Lakota losses indicate 150–300 killed, of which up to 200 were women and children. Additionally, as many as 51 were wounded. In contrast, the 7th Cavalry suffered 25 killed and 39 wounded, many being the result of friendly fire.
["Plains Humanities: Wounded Knee Massacre". Retrieved December 9, 2014.]
Calvin Spotted Elk, direct descendant of Chief Spotted Elk killed at Wounded Knee, launched a petition to rescind medals from the soldiers who participated in the battle.
The Army has also been criticized more generally for the seemingly disproportionate number of Medals of Honor awarded in connection with the battle.
[Green, Jerry (1994). "The Medals of Wounded Knee". Nebraska State Historical Society, also available in Nebraska History #75, pp. 200–208. Nebraska State Historical Society History.] For comparison, 20 Medals were awarded at Wounded Knee, 21 at the
Battle of Cedar Creek, and 20 at the
Battle of Antietam
The Battle of Antietam (), or Battle of Sharpsburg particularly in the Southern United States, was a battle of the American Civil War fought on September 17, 1862, between Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and Union G ...
.
Respectively, Cedar Creek and Antietam involved 52,712 and 113,000 troops, suffering 8,674 and 22,717 casualties. Wounded Knee, however, involved 610 combatants and resulted in as many as 705 casualties (including non-combatants).
[Brown, p. 178, Brown states that at the army camp, "the Indians were carefully counted." Utley, p. 204, gives 120 men, 230 women and children; there is no indication how many were warriors, old men, or incapacitated sick like Big Foot.]
See also
*
List of Medal of Honor recipients for the Indian Wars
References
Further reading
*Jensen, Richard E., ed. ''Voices of the American West: The Settler And Soldier Interviews of Eli S. Ricker, 1903-1919''. Vol. 1. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005.
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weinert, Paul H.
1869 births
1919 deaths
German mass murderers
German war criminals
American Indian Wars recipients of the Medal of Honor
United States Army Medal of Honor recipients
Military personnel from Frankfurt
People from Milton, Massachusetts
United States Army soldiers
German-born Medal of Honor recipients
Emigrants from the German Empire to the United States
Pine Ridge Campaign
Native American genocide perpetrators