Paul H. Weinert

Sergeant 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 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.

Paul H. Weinert
Paul H. Weinert as appearing in O.F. Keydel's Deeds of Valor: How America's Heroes Won the Medal of Honor (1907)
Born(1869-05-28)May 28, 1869
Frankfurt, Germany
DiedJanuary 19, 1919(1919-01-19) (aged 49)
Milton, Massachusetts, United States
Place of burial
Milton Cemetery
Allegiance United States
Service/branchUnited States Army
Years of service1886 - 1895, 1898 - 1899
RankSergeant
Unit1st U.S. Artillery
Battles/warsGhost Dance War
AwardsMedal of Honor

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 from Baltimore, Maryland 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 guns, 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.[1][2][3] For his actions, he received the Medal of Honor[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] along with four other artillerymen.[15] He was discharged in 1895, and served again from 1898 until 1899.[16]

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."[17][18]

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.[19][20]

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.[21]

Concerns
Mass Grave for the Dead Lakota After the Engagement at Wounded Knee

There have been several attempts by various parties to rescind the Medals of Honor awarded in connection with the Wounded Knee Massacre.[22][23][24] 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.[25][26][27]

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.[28]

The Army has also been criticized more generally for the seemingly disproportionate number of Medals of Honor awarded in connection with the battle.[29] For comparison, 20 Medals were awarded at Wounded Knee, 21 at the Battle of Cedar Creek, and 20 at the Battle of Antietam.[29][30] Respectively, Cedar Creek and Antietam involved 52,712 and 113,000 troops, suffering 8,674 and 22,717 casualties.[31][32][33][34][35] Wounded Knee, however, involved 610 combatants and resulted in as many as 705 casualties (including non-combatants).[36][25]

See also

References
  1. Beyer, Walter F. and Oscar Frederick Keydel, ed. Deeds of Valor: From Records in the Archives of the United States Government; how American Heroes Won the Medal of Honor; History of Our Recent Wars and Explorations, from Personal Reminiscences and Records of Officers and Enlisted Men who Were Rewarded by Congress for Most Conspicuous Acts of Bravery on the Battle-field, on the High Seas and in Arctic Explorations. Vol. 2. Detroit: Perrien-Keydel Company, 1906. (pg. 325)
  2. Wilson, D. Ray. Terror on the Plains: A Clash of Cultures. Dundee, Illinois: Crossroads Communications, 1999. ISBN 0-916445-47-X
  3. Fisher, Ernest F. Guardians of the Republic: a history of the noncommissioned officer corps of the U.S. Army. Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books, 2001. (pg. 130-131) ISBN 0-8117-2784-X
  4. Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs. Medal of Honor recipients, 1863-1978, 96th Cong., 1st sess. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1979. (pg. 1020)
  5. Manning, Robert, ed. Above and Beyond: A History of the Medal of Honor from the Civil War to Vietnam. Boston: Boston Publishing Company, 1985. (pg. 83) ISBN 0-939526-19-0
  6. Hannings, Bud. A Portrait of the Stars and Stripes. Glenside, Pennsylvania: Seniram Publishing, 1988. (pg. 400) ISBN 0-922564-00-0
  7. O'Neal, Bill. Fighting Men of the Indian Wars: A Biographical Encyclopedia of the Mountain Men, Soldiers, Cowboys, and Pioneers Who Took Up Arms During America's Westward Expansion. Stillwater, Oklahoma: Barbed Wire Press, 1991. (pg. 35) ISBN 0-935269-07-X
  8. Gonzalez, Mario and Elizabeth Cook-Lynn. The Politics of Hallowed Ground: Wounded Knee and the Struggle for Indian Sovereignty. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1999. (pg. 392) ISBN 0-252-06669-3
  9. Cozzens, Peter, ed. Eyewitnesses to the Indian Wars, 1865-1890: The Wars for the Pacific Northwest. Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books, 2001. (pg. 392) ISBN 0-8117-0573-0
  10. Utley, Robert M. The Last Days of the Sioux Nation. 2nd ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004. (pg. 221-222) ISBN 0-300-10316-6
  11. Johansen, Bruce E. The Native Peoples of North America: A History. Vol. 2. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2006. (pg. 289) ISBN 0-8135-3899-8
  12. Yenne, Bill. Indian Wars: The Campaign for the American West. Yardley, Pennsylvania: Westholme Publishing, 2006. (pg. 292) ISBN 1-59416-016-3
  13. Sterner, C. Douglas (1999). "MOH Citation for Paul Weinert". MOH Recipients: Indian Campaigns. HomeofHeroes.com. Retrieved June 30, 2010.
  14. Army Times Publishing Company. "Military Times Hall of Valor: Paul H. Weinert". Awards and Citations: Medal of Honor. MilitaryTimes.com. Retrieved June 30, 2010.
  15. Zabecki, David T. American Artillery and the Medal of Honor. Bennington, Vermont: Merriam Vermont, 2008. (pg. 155-156) ISBN 1-4357-5541-3
  16. Register of Enlistments in the US Army, 1798-1914
  17. Kortenhof, Kurt (2023). "The American Tragedy at Wounded Knee". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  18. Epstein, Kayla; Horton, Alex (2019-11-28). "Soldiers got Medals of Honor for massacring Native Americans. This bill would take them away". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2023-09-07.
  19. Sterner, C. Douglas (1999). "Photo of Grave site of MOH Recipient Paul Weinert". Medal of Honor recipient Gravesites In The State of Massachusetts. HomeofHeroes.com. Retrieved June 30, 2010.
  20. Fall, William P. (Spring 2007). "A Hero for Heroes, Milton's Edward A. Gisburne". Milton Historical Society - Milton Sampler. MiltonHistoricalSociety.org. Retrieved June 30, 2010.
  21. "Medal of Honor recipients". Indian War Campaigns. United States Army Center of Military History. June 8, 2009. Archived from the original on August 3, 2013. Retrieved June 29, 2009.
  22. Dana Lone Hill (February 18, 2013). "The Wounded Knee medals of honor should be rescinded". The Guardian. Retrieved March 1, 2015.
  23. "No Medals for Massacre: Close the Open Wound of Wounded Knee". The Huffington Post. February 12, 2013. Retrieved March 1, 2015.
  24. "Lakota~WOUNDED KNEE: A Campaign to Rescind Medals: story, pictures and information". Footnote.com. Retrieved August 17, 2011.
  25. "Plains Humanities: Wounded Knee Massacre". Retrieved December 9, 2014.
  26. "The 110th Anniversary of the Wounded Knee Massacre". perspicuity.net. Retrieved March 1, 2015.
  27. "Wagner...Part Two". dickshovel.com. Retrieved March 1, 2015.
  28. Joseph Huff-Hannon (February 12, 2013). "No Medals for massacre: Close the Open Wound of Wounded Knee". Huffington Post.
  29. 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.
  30. Owens, Ronald J. (2004) Medal of Honor: Historical facts and figures. Turner Publishing Company
  31. Whitehorne, p. 15. The NPS battle summary lists Union strength of 31,945. Cullen, p. 111, states 35,000 Union effectives, including 10,000 cavalry. Salmon, p. 368, and Kennedy, p. 319, state 32,000 Union.
  32. Whitehorne, p. 17. The NPS battle summary and Kennedy, p. 319, list Confederate strength of 21,000. Cullen, p. 112, states 18,000 Confederate effectives, including 4,000 cavalry.
  33. Wert, p. 246, Eicher, p. 752. Lewis, p. 288, reports Union totals as 5,764 (569 killed, 3,425 wounded, 1,770 missing), Confederates 3,060 (1,860 killed and wounded, 1,200 prisoners). Kennedy, p. 323, reports 5,672 Union, 2,910 Confederate. The NPS battle summary reports 5,665 Union, 2,910 Confederate. Salmon, p. 372, reports Union "almost 5,700", Confederate "almost 3,000."
  34. Eicher, p. 363. Sears, p. 173, cites 75,000 Union troops, with an effective strength of 71,500, with 300 guns; on p. 296, he states that the 12,401 Union casualties were 25% of those who went into action and that McClellan committed "barely 50,000 infantry and artillerymen to the contest"; p. 389, he cites Confederate effective strength of "just over 38,000," including A.P. Hill's division, which arrived in the afternoon. Priest, p. 343, cites 87,164 men present in the Army of the Potomac, with 53,632 engaged, and 30,646 engaged in the Army of Northern Virginia. Luvaas and Nelson, p. 302, cite 87,100 Union engaged, 51,800 Confederate. Harsh, Sounding the Shallows, pp. 201–202, analyzes the historiography of the figures, and shows that Ezra A. Carman (a battlefield historian who influenced some of these sources) used "engaged" figures; the 38,000 excludes Pender's and Field's brigades, roughly half the artillery, and forces used to secure objectives behind the line.
  35. Sears, pp. 294–96; Cannan, p. 201. Confederate casualties are estimates because reported figures include undifferentiated casualties at South Mountain and Shepherdstown; Sears remarks that "there is no doubt that a good many of the 1,771 men listed as missing were in fact dead, buried uncounted in unmarked graves where they fell." McPherson, p. 129, gives ranges for the Confederate losses: 1,546–2,700 dead, 7,752–9,024 wounded. He states that more than 2,000 of the wounded on both sides died from their wounds. Priest, p. 343, reports 12,882 Union casualties (2,157 killed, 9,716 wounded, 1,009 missing or captured) and 11,530 Confederate (1,754 killed, 8,649 wounded, 1,127 missing or captured). Luvaas and Nelson, p. 302, cite Union casualties of 12,469 (2,010 killed, 9,416 wounded, 1,043 missing or captured) and 10,292 Confederate (1,567 killed, 8,725 wounded for September 14–20, plus approximately 2,000 missing or captured).
  36. 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.

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. ISBN 0-8032-3967-X
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