Joseph Benard Adkison was born on January 4, 1892, in Egypt, Tennessee. He entered the service from Memphis, Tennessee.

Benard was a sergeant in the U. S. Army, 30th Division, 119th infantry, C Company when, on September 29, 1918, near Bellicourt, France, his platoon was pinned down by murderous machine gun fire. Acting alone, Sergeant Adkison rushed across 50 yards of open ground directly in the face of hostile machine gun fire, kicked the machine gun from the parapet into the enemy trench and at the point of a bayonet, captured the three men manning the gun. His gallantry and quick action enabled his platoon to continue its advance. Later, that same day, he was severely wounded by an exploding artillery shell, receiving wounds in the left arm, left leg and left hip.

Benard received the Congressional Medal of Honor and most certainly, the Purple Heart and at least three other medals.

As family records indicate, Benard was a very quiet man who shunned publicity. In the summer of 1919, an Army major presented the Medal of Honor to him in the Atoka Presbyterian Church. A bridge in Obion County was named in his honor.

Benard died on May 23, 1965 at the V.A. Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.