Medal of Honor Monday: Four Receive Highest Award for Valor on Samoa

One sailor and three Marines were awarded Medals of Honor for bravery during the Second Samoan Civil War, April 1, 1899. 

The combatants were Samoans, Americans and British, who fought against the Germans and a rival Samoan group.  

U.S. and British forces landed on the island of Upolu at Apia. They marched 10 miles along the coast to Vailele to fight. This expeditionary force included 26 Marines, 88 sailors and 136 Samoans.  

When they arrived at Vailele, they were ambushed by over 800 enemy Samoans hiding in the jungle. Alarmed, the allied Samoans ran off, leaving the sailors and Marines to do the fighting. The leader of the expeditionary force, Navy Lt. Philip Lansdale, ordered the men to fall back, as they were badly outgunned and outnumbered.  

During the fight, Lansdale was wounded and couldn’t move. Navy Ensign John R. Monaghan disobeyed the order to fall back and continued fighting. After the battle, Monaghan and Lansdale were found dead, side by side. 

Marine Corps Pvt. Henry L. Hulbert, despite suffering wounds, conducted a one-man delaying action, laying down heavy fire that enabled the landing force to withdraw to a defensible position covered by the guns of the warships offshore. 

Under fire from three sides, Hulbert stood his ground until the main group established a new defensive perimeter.  

In support of the Medal of Honor, which was awarded, Navy Secretary John Davis Long wrote: “The gallantry of [Pvt.] Henry L. Hulbert, who remained behind at the fence till the last and who was with Lansdale and Monaghan when they were killed, I desire especially to mention.” 

Marine Corps Sgt. Michael Joseph McNally, Marine Corps Sgt. Bruno Albert Forsterer and Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Frederick Thomas Fisher, who also distinguished themselves in battle, were all awarded the Medal of Honor as well. 

Forsterer was, ironically, born in Konigsberg, Germany, July 14, 1869. He served in the Marine Corps for 13 years, attaining the rank of gunnery sergeant. After serving, he became the editor of the Oakland Tribune newspaper. He died June 13, 1957, and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia. 

Hulbert, born in Kingston upon Hull, England, Jan. 12, 1867, served in the Marine Corps from 1898 to 1918, attaining the rank of sergeant major and later captain. During World War I, he fought in the battles of Belleau Wood, Château-Thierry and Blanc Mont Ridge, all in France. On Oct. 4, 1918, he was killed in action at Blanc Mont Ridge, posthumously earning the Navy Cross, Distinguished Service Cross and French Croix de Guerre. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. The destroyer USS Hulbert, commissioned in 1920, was named after him.  

McNally, born June 29, 1860, in Manhattan, New York, served from 1897 to 1915, attaining the rank of sergeant major. On Nov. 2, 1916, he disappeared from a Baltimore Steam Packet Company steamer. His body was recovered three weeks later; he was buried in Portsmouth, Virginia. 

Fisher, born in England, June 3, 1872, died April 15, 1906, while serving aboard the battleship USS Kearsarge and was buried in Los Angeles. 

President Theodore Roosevelt awarded all four Medals of Honor in 1901. 

Although Monaghan was never awarded the Medal of Honor because naval officers at the time were not eligible, the destroyer USS Monaghan, launched in 1911, was named for him and served in World War I. Also, the destroyer USS Monaghan, launched in 1935, was named for him and served during World War II before sinking during a typhoon in December 1944.  

The Tripartite Convention of 1899 concluded the Second Samoan Civil War, in which Germany gained Western Samoa and the United States gained Eastern Samoa. Also, the Samoan monarchy was abolished, and Samoan autonomy officially ended. On Aug. 29, 1914, during the early days of World War I, New Zealand forces seized Western Samoa from Germany. New Zealand retained control of Western Samoa until 1961, when it was granted independence and became Samoa. 

The United States made American Samoa a U.S. territory in 1900. The U.S. Navy administered the territory until 1951, when the Interior Department took over. 

The territory’s capital, Pago Pago, has a deep natural harbor that is considered strategically important to the United States.  

Samoa, in the South Pacific, consists of two large islands and seven tiny ones, totaling 1,093 square miles and American Samoa, 50 miles east, across the International Date Line, consists of seven small islands totaling 77 square miles. 

This article is part of a weekly series called “Medal of Honor Monday,” in which we highlight one of the more than 3,500 Medal of Honor recipients who have received the U.S. military’s highest medal for valor.