Previously we have featured articles about all of the WW1 Medal of Honor recipients with a Kansas connection. However, we missed one.

Pfc. Charles Barger, 354th Infantry, 89th Division, was born in Galena, Kansas but grew up in Scott City, Missouri. Post-war he lived in and around Kansas City, except for a six-month re-enlistment in the army in 1921. He was then a Kansas City police officer for over 12 years, and was shot five times in the line of duty.

His 1918 Medal of Honor Citation reads:

Learning that two daylight patrols had been caught out in No Man’s Land and were unable to return, Pfc. Barger and another stretcher bearer upon their own initiative made two trips 500 yards beyond our lines, under constant machine-gun fire, and rescued two wounded officers.

There’s more to know about Pfc. Barger. Click here to read it.

James (“Jim”) Patton BS BA MPA is a retired state official from Shawnee, Kansas and a frequent contributor to several WW1 e-publications, including "Roads to the Great War," "St. Mihiel Tripwire," "Over the Top" and "Medicine in the First World War." He has spent many hours walking the WW1 battlefields, and is also an authority on British regiments and a collector of their badges. An Army Engineer during the Vietnam War, he does work for the US World War 1 Centennial Commission and is affiliated with the WW1 Historical Association, the Western Front Association, the Salonika Campaign Society and the Gallipoli Association.