Medal of Honor Recipient’s Family Ties to Black Patriot of the American Revolution Corporal Fred B. McGee posthumously received the Medal of Honor, highlighting Black Patriots’ long history of military heroism from the Revolution to today. By Patrick S. Poole
In a White House ceremony on January 3rd, the daughter of Corporal Fred B. McGee received his posthumously awarded Medal of Honor for his heroic actions in the Korean War. His was one of several from the Korean and Vietnam Wars during the ceremony. While McGee survived the war, he died in 2020 while his family continued to campaign for his award to be upgraded to the Medal of Honor.
His actions on Hill 528 near Tang-Wan-Ni, Korea, on June 16, 1952, occurred while serving with the 17th Infantry Regiment, one of the few American military units that had been racially integrated at that time. According to his Medal of Honor citation, McGee was a light machine gunner when his platoon assaulted a fortified enemy position. Braving machine gun and mortar fire, he laid down covering fire for the assaulting troops. When his squad leader was wounded, McGee took command and exposed himself in order to lead the squad forward to a position to neutralize an enemy machine gun.
When the machine gunner was mortally wounded, he ordered his squad to withdraw and volunteered to cover their retreat and to help recover the dead and wounded. He aided a wounded man to safety despite being subjected to considerable mortar and artillery fire. He was initially awarded the Silver Star and two Purple Hearts for his action on Hill 528.
While he was still fighting in Korea, his heroism was depicted as part of a series called “Heroic Comics” published by Famous Funnies. Yet when the comic came out, he was depicted as a White man. He later told the Cleveland Plain Dealer, “When I first heard it was coming out, I was pretty excited. I saw the comic while I was still in Korea in 1953. I looked at it, saw that my character was white, and felt it did not seem right. I was mad. I felt like someone was getting the accolades for what I did.”
As a private citizen, Fred McGee lived a life of selfless public service alongside his wife, Cornell, receiving various civic honors, including being inducted into the Ohio Military Hall of Fame in 2002.
Shortly before his death, he was accepted as a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, one of a growing number of Black Americans seeking acceptance into the organization and the Daughters of the American Revolution.
As I documented in my recently published book, Black Patriots: Recovering a Lost History of the American Revolution, thousands of Black Patriots—slave and freemen alike—served and fought for American independence from the first shots of the Revolutionary War at Lexington Green and Concord to Yorktown and the final British evacuation. Fighting in integrated units, Black Patriots served in large numbers in virtually every battle and major skirmish of the Revolution. At the Battle of Monmouth in June 1778, more than 700 Black Patriots were accounted for from the brigades that had participated in one of the largest military actions of the war.
Black Patriots also fought on the bloody frontiers of the fledgling nation, frequently countering Native American tribes allied with the British. This is where Fred McGee’s patriot ancestor, Henry Dorten, enters the story. Born into slavery in Bladensburg, Maryland, in 1748, Dorten escaped his bondage and fought as a free man during the American Revolution. We know details about his militia service thanks to details he provided in 1832 when he applied for a soldier’s pension for his service.
Drafted into the Pennsylvania militia in 1777, he was marched to Fort Pitt, serving under the command of Capt. William Foreman. Dispatched to monitor Indian raids along the Ohio River, his company was ambushed about twelve miles south of modern Wheeling, West Virginia (then Fort Henry), but Dorten was among the few of Foreman’s men to make their escape. As I recount in my book, Henry Dorten was able to make his way to Fort Henry to alert them of the attack. His October 1777 discharge is included in his pension files. He later served a term in 1778 and enlisted in June 1781 in Maryland and was likely present for the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.
What I discovered while conducting research for my book is that a number of Black Patriot descendants continued their family’s tradition of military service. Jude Hall of New Hampshire escaped slavery, enlisted in May 1775, and fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill among numerous other battles, serving almost continuously until discharged when the Army was disbanded in late 1783. Two of Jude Hall’s grandsons, Moses and Aaron Hall, served in the 3rd U.S. Colored Infantry and the famed 54th Massachusetts in the Civil War.
Black Patriot Bazaleel Norman of Maryland fought at Monmouth, Camden, Cowpens, Guilford Court House, and Eutaw Springs, after the war eventually settling in Marietta, Ohio. Three of his grandsons would die in the Civil War: Henry L. Norman of the West Virginia Calvary was a POW and died at the notorious Confederate prison camp at Andersonville; Azariah Norman died of wounds and may be buried as an unknown at Arlington National Cemetery; Corp. Horace Norman died in service on April 24, 1864, and is buried at Hampton National Cemetery. Bazaleel’s great-grandson, Henry A. Norman, graduated flight school on December 7, 1943, and served during World War 2 as part of the famed Tuskegee Airmen, later serving in Korea and retiring from the Air Force as a major.
Fred McGee has now taken his place among the ever-growing Roll of Honor of Black Americans who have bravely fought America’s wars from its very beginning, frequently at the cost of their own lives—heroism, service, and sacrifice all Americans should recognize and celebrate.
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Patrick S. Poole is the author of Black Patriots: Recovering a Lost History of the American Revolution (2024) and the forthcoming Rocking the Cradle of Revolution: Women and the Fight for American Independence (2025). You can find him on X: @pspoole.
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