Abstract:
Robert Lester Blackwell is the only North Carolinian to have won the Congressional Medal of Honor in World War I. Private Blackwell died while carrying a message through enemy lines in France. After the posthumous award was granted, a statue was erected outside the Roxboro courthouse to honor him for his service to the country. Mr. Blackwell lived in Hurdle Mills, in Pearson County, and worked the family farm till his death in 1918.