Joseph B. Adkison participant of World War I
Joseph Bernard Adkison (January 4, 1892 – May 23, 1965) was an American soldier serving in the U.S. Army during World War I who received the Medal of Honor for bravery.Biography
Adkison was born in West Tennessee, and entered the Army in 1917 in Memphis. He lived in Atoka, Tennessee when he entered the army. By mid-1918, Adkison and his division were involved in combat in France. On September 29, 1918, near Bellicourt, France, Adkison, by then a Sergeant, found himself and his platoon pinned down by heavy German machine gun fire located fifty yards to their front.
Adkison, acting alone, charged the machine gun nest, kicked it over into the enemy trench, and using the bayonet fixed on his rifle captured the three man machine gun crew, allowing his platoon to advance. He was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1919, and was one of six soldiers from Tennessee to receive that medal for their service during the First World War. Another of the six was Alvin York, subject of the film Sergeant York starring actor Gary Cooper.
Adkison received the Medal of Honor at the Atoka Presbyterian Church. The church had a stone monument made to honor the occasion. The Atoka Board of Mayor and Aldermen named a street in his honor. Adkison Circle passes in front of the property and home his mother bought in 1906. During Tennessee Homecoming '86, the stone from the church was moved to a newly named Adkison Park, also in front of his home in the Town of Atoka.
Adkison died in 1965, and is buried at Salem Cemetery next to the Salem Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church near the Town of Atoka, Tennessee.