The Croix de Guerre — Cross of War — was established by France in 1915 to recognize acts of bravery in the presence of the enemy. It could be awarded to individual soldiers, to units, and to foreign nationals serving with French forces. The Palm (Palme) was the highest device attached to the Croix de Guerre, reserved for extraordinary valor rather than the other levels of the award. Johnson’s Croix de Guerre avec Palme placed him among the most distinguished recipients of the award.
The prompt guardrails for this article flag a specific caution: the Croix de Guerre is not France’s highest national military award. France’s highest national order is the Legion of Honor, established by Napoleon and awarded to French citizens and foreign nationals for exceptional service to France. The Croix de Guerre is a campaign award for valor in combat rather than the highest honor in the French military hierarchy.
Johnson was described in some accounts as the first American to receive France’s highest award for valor — a characterization that conflates the Croix de Guerre avec Palme with the Legion of Honor in ways that the accuracy of the record requires distinguishing. What is documented is that Johnson received the Croix de Guerre avec Palme, that the Palm was its highest device, and that this award placed him among the first Americans to receive it in the First World War. The French military orders that accompanied the award described his action with the specific language of their commendation: a “magnificent example of courage and energy.”