Sumter sharecropper receives posthumous Purple Heart

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Brig. Gen. Milford H. Beagle Jr., Fort Jackson commanding general, and Command Sgt. Maj. Jerimiah Gan, present Perry James the Purple Heart and a certificate for Sgt. Perry Loyd for wounds received during World War I. Loyd, a native of Claremont County, which is now part of Sumter County, was honored posthumously Saturday for his service during World War I with a Purple Heart, nearly 72 years after his death. Loyd's family received the medal on his behalf at Fort Jackson. Loyd deployed as part of the 371st Infantry Regiment in the 93rd Division as part of the only drafted African-American regiment to fight in WWI. He enlisted in Camp Jackson, now Fort Jackson, on Oct. 10, 1917, when he was 23 and ended his service in February 1919 after sustaining an injury in action the fall before. After his discharge, he returned to his life as a sharecropper in Sumter. He died in 1946 at the age of 61 without knowing his chain of command had recommended he receive the Wounded Chevron, which later qualified him for the Purple Heart Medal.

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