The mass of the graves at Meuse-Argonne ABMC Cemetery belong to men who did not win medals but still did their duty. They made up the main throng of the two million strong American Expeditionary Force in France during World War One. In two previous posts, I talked about the stories of the men honored with the Medal of Honor or some honored with the second highest Distinguished Service Cross. In this post, some of the other stories found among the graves at Meuse-Argonne come to light. The stories are mostly of officers for their lives were generally a little longer and better recorded than the greater numbers of young enlisted men just starting out in life.

WEST POINTERS

Like many of the dead buried here at Meuse-Argonne, most of those who graduated from the Military Academy at West Point were young. Of the six West Pointers here, four graduated from West Point only after the US entered into the war in April 1917.

Captain Francis Eugene Dougherty of the 41st Regiment-3rd Division took command of his battalion for only 24 hours before an artillery shell mortally wounded him 15 October 1918. Dougherty fell with 46 other men within fifty yards of each other during the German barrage. The same day, one of his classmates, Captain George Wilbur Sackett died from machine gun fire as he led his Company F 11th Regiment-5th Division.

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MEDICAL STAFF —-

physicians SERVING AS INFANTRY

Several physicians lie here at Meuse-Argonne. Major Alfred Reginald Allen was a renowned neurologist in Philadelphia. Allen was also a musician, musical writer, photographer and was married with two children. He attended the first officer training class at Plattsburg in 1915, renewing his training a year later. With America in the war, Allen became major in October 1916 deciding he could make more of a difference on the field of battle than off. Directing his battalion of the 34th Regiment-79th Division, the major fell from artillery shrapnel 29 September 1918 near Nantillois. He died the next morning. A cenotaph remembers Dr Allen in Laurel Hill Cemetery of Philadelphia. Allen left behind a wife and a set of twins.

dOCTORS FALLING IN ACTION

First Lieutenant Clyde Everett Shedd, also originally from West Virginia, graduated from the Oakland (California) Medical School in May 1917. Assigned to the 327th Regiment-82nd Division, Shedd died from an artillery blast at Fleville 16 October 1918.

Captain Timothy Lawrence Barber Jr. graduated from the Medical College of Virginia-Richmond. A physician-surgeon in Charleston, West Virginia before the war, he accidentally dropped a match on some flares left behind in a crater by retreating Germans. Both he and Captain Melvin M. Augenstein, a dentist, died a few days after from the burns they incurred – 10 October 1918. A cenotaph in Charleston remembers the young doctor who left behind his wife and a little son.

A little further afield, First Lieutenant William Shorter Bull, with the 114th Regiment-29th Division, died in Belgium at Malbrouck Hill. Originally buried at Samogneux Military Cemetery, his remains ended here at Meuse-Argonne. Two cenotaphs remember him on the other side of the Atlantic. One is in his hometown of Cranbury, New Jersey and another in Circleville, New York at the family’s plot.

OTHER DOCTORS

Henry Grady Adams was a 27 year old physician from Rock Springs, Wyoming. He had grown up in Alabama graduating from the Oklahoma University College of Medicine in 1915. He died at Langres 23 September 1918, Langres was where new medical officers went for a two-week indoctrination course to orient them to war medicine. Possibly, Adams suffered an accident there.

Doctors were not immune to the Spanish flu. First Lieutenant Leslie James Phillips graduated from Queen’s University in Medicine in Kingston, Ontario in 1912. Practicing in the little town of Weyerhaeuser, Wisconsin before offering to serve, Assigned to serve on the 132nd Ambulance Corps on the 108th Sanitary Train of the 33rd Division, Phillips died 13 October 1918 from complications of the flu, weakened from the strain of overworking taking care of the large numbers of wounded from the Meuse-Argonne.

Nurses – FLU

Three of four nurses buried at Meuse-Argonne ABMC also died from flu complications. Caroline H. Christman, 39 years old, had spent two years in Shanghai as a nurse before the war. She completed graduate work at the Harvard Medical School, as well, before joining the nursing corps.

Annie Dade Reveley, 38 years old, worked as a nurse with the Evacuation Hospital #4 until her death 18 October 1918, also from the flu.

Charlotte Cox, 42 years old, came to France as a part of the Base Hospital #42 team from the University of Maryland. She came onto active duty 13 March 1918. A month later, there were only 403 nurses in the entire Army Nursing Corps. By the end of the war, eight months more, there were 21,480. Over two hundred would die in service. The flu claimed her 28 September. Following the war, her remains were moved from the cemetery at the base hospital, which was closed, to Meuse-Argonne.

NURSES – OTHER CAUSES

Nurse Dorothy Beth Millman, 24 years old, died at Base Hospital #31 from a gall bladder inflammation, the only non-flu related death here. Her brother, drafted as a private, also served at the same hospital.

others – YMCA

Marion G. Crandell was a YMCA canteen worker when a German shell hit the hostel in which she worked. Crandell was a graduate of the Sorbonne and had been teaching French in Davenport, Iowa before the war. She was only France for two months before she died – 27 March 1918, the first American woman to die in World War One on active service. Originally, she was buried in St Menehould, but her remains transferred to Meuse-Argonne after the war.

AMERICAN RED CROSS

Armine Wodehouse Pearce was an Englishman working with the American Red Cross. Pearce worked earlier as a journalist in New York before moving to Ireland. He married a English-Irish woman, Mabel Cosgrove. She was the author of several books and formerly was married to a nephew of local Burmese king. Pearce and Cosgrove were married in 1911.

Pearce died in France 31 October 1918. His with seemingly continued a career of blackmail she and possibly Pearce had been involved with earlier. One of her victims was none other than Oscar Wilde.

OTHERS – AMBULANCE DRIVERS

Robert Pierce Hall was from Hollywood, California but more recently, the University of Minnesota. He came to France to work as an ambulance driver with the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps, an ambulance service served by Americans similar to the American Field Service. An artillery shell killed Robert 13 September 1917. He had been buried in a French military hospital and was moved here to Meuse-Argonne after the war. There is a cenotaph remembering him in Minneapolis along Victory Memorial Drive.

STILL OTHERS

Dell Berne Arrell was the last burial at Meuse-Argonne. He did not die until 15 February 1923. At the time, Arrell was a Civilian Graves Registration officer. He lies among those he registered.

Besides Arrell, there are three infants buried here, children of either civilians working at the cemetery or a soldier. One French laborer , Camille Rattier, of the 185th Labor Battalion who died 20 March 1919 is also here.

AMERICAN FIELD SERVICE ROOTS

aMERICAN FORCES

Besides the Norton-Harjes group, the American Field Service provided a place for Americans wanting to serve the French cause to work. 2,000 volunteers became ambulance drivers serving on the French fronts in France and in the Balkans on the Salonica Front. Many signed up with the American forces when the US finally entered the war in 1917.

One driver was George Merrick Hollister. He left Harvard after his sophomore year in 1916 to join the AFS, first in France and later was sent to the Balkans. Returning to the US, Hollister became an officer with the 61st Regiment-5th Division. In the Bois de Foret east of Cunel, he died from an artillery shell blast 12 October 1918 operating as a forward scout.

Tingle Woods Culbertson graduated from Princeton in 1911. Joining the AFS in the spring of 1916, the ship he came over to Europe on was torpedoed, starting his adventure off. He stayed on the western front until the US entered the war. Returning to the US, he gained a commission with the 318th Regiment-80th Division. Leading his platoon on Hill 274 in the Bois des Ogeons north of Nantillois, he died from an artillery blast 5 October 1918. His body was not initially recovered.

WITH THE FRENCH

Coleman Tileston Clark also joined the AFS in 1916. He is listed as a member of the Yale Class of 1918. Like Hollister, he spent time in the Balkans, nine months, before returning to become an Aspirant – officer-in-training – with the French Army. Clark was serving with the French artillery when he was mortally wounded on 27 May 1918, dying the following day. Originally, he was buried near Soissons, but his remains were moved here to Meuse-Argonne to be next to his brother PFC Salter Storr Clark, Jr. who died at Bellejoyeuse Farm near Grandpre, a member of the 311th Regiment-78th Division 20 September 1918. Letters from the two men were later collected into a book Soldiers Letters.

COLLEGE ROOTS —

EDDIE GRANT

There are more graduates of Harvard buried here at Meuse-Argonne. One of the more well-known is Eddie Grant. Edward Leslie Grant graduated from Harvard in 1902 going on through Harvard Law in 1909. He pursued his law practice during the winter months, playing professional baseball during the spring and summer. As a third baseman, Grant enjoyed a career taking him to Philadelphia, Cincinnati and the New York Giants. The Giants played in the World Series in 1915 and Grant made two brief appearances – a pinch hitter and pinch runner.

As a captain in the 307th Regiment-77th Division, Grant assumed battalion command when the major was wounded. As he led the battalion in the search and rescue of the “Lost Battalion”, an artillery blast killed him 5 October 1918.

POST WAR REMEMBRANCE

A plaque was set out in the centerfield of the Polo Grounds after the war. The last game at the Polo Grounds for the Giants was 29 September 1957. The Mets would play a couple more seasons here before the park was finally demolished in 1963. After the Giants last game, the plaque was stolen.

Removed to San Francisco, the Giants were given the opportunity to replace the plaque. They balked saying the plaque was for the New York version of the team. Following a blown World Series to the Los Angeles Angels and the upset in divisional playoffs the following year, the team relented, eager to put any possible curse behind them. Today, there is a replica of the plaque. It is not in center field but near the Lefty O’Doul Bridge on the right field side of the stadium. The Giants have won three World Series since the plaque was put up in 2006.

another lawyer

Eddie Grant is not the only lawyer to be buried here at Meuse-Argonne. John Case Phelps was a Yale graduate of 1906. After a year at Harvard Law and another in New York, Phelps passed the New York bar and practiced in his hometown of Binghamton. He attended Plattsburg’s training camp in 1916 going through an Officers’ Training Course the next year to gain a commission as a captain in September 1917.

Leading his company of the 309th Regiment-78th Division, he fell near Grandpre 18 October 1918 in the Bois de Loges. A cenotaph sits in the family plot back in New York: “He rests where he fell.”

one more

James Jackson Porter, whose father was a prominent New York City banker, graduated from Princeton in 1911. After graduating Harvard Law in 1914, Porter went back to New York City to practice law. It must have been a little dull because he enlisted into Troop C Squadron A of the Cavalry in the fall of 1914 eventually serving for six months of 1916 on the Mexican border.

When the US entered World War I, Porter gained a commission as a second lieutenant in August 1917. He found himself with the 10th Machine Gun Battalion-4th Division after a period working in the General Purchasing Department for the army in Paris. Porter died in action near Brienelles 6 October 1918.

OTHER COLLEGIATES

Charles Glenn Crittenden was from Pennsylvania graduating from Cornell in 1913. He became a plant pathologist with the Georgia Board of Entomology at their field station in Thomasville, Georgia. With the declaration of war, Crittenden gained a leave of absence to volunteer.

After graduating Officer Training at Fort McPherson, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant 15 August 1917, the same day he got married. Serving with Battery E 7th Artillery-1st Division, he was soon in France. A little over a mile north of the village of Very on 2 October 1918, he was mortally wounded, dying that evening.

THE CHEMISTS

William Digby Morgan earned a BS degree from Louisiana State University in 1907. He was working as a sugar chemist in Cuba when he joined the army. Before the war, Morgan had been a member of the Louisiana National Guard. In France, with the 128th Regiment-32nd Division, he served as a second lieutenant dying one day before the end of the war, 10 November 1918. A grove of 31 oak trees on the campus of LSU remembers the 31 graduates who died in the Great War – one tree dedicated to Morgan’s memory.

Another chemist, Frank Owen Amon, earned a degree first from Allegheny College going on to receive a PhD in 1915. He was an associate professor of chemistry at the Carnegie Institute also working as a research chemist. Called to service, he served as a first lieutenant and a gas defense officer. While serving at the front, Amon came down with the flu and died from pneumonia at the age of 26 on 30 September 1918.

athletes

Another Yale graduate, Hubert Coffing Williams, was a member (like Eddie Grant) of the Class of 1906. He rowed on the Four-man rowing team for Yale. Going on to gain a Masters degree in forestry from Yale in 1908, Williams worked for a couple years in the logging industry in Wisconsin. He joined the US Forestry Service in 1911, working in the Idaho National Forest. In 1916, he became the forest supervisor.

With the war, Williams gained a commission as a first lieutenant at he end of July 1917. He joined Company D of the 1st Gas Regiment (earlier known as the 30th Engineering Regiment – Gas and Flame). His company was helping the US 26th Division and the French 5th Colonial Division by laying down smoke on German lines in the opening of the St Mihiel Offensive 12 September 1918. Scouting ahead, Williams was wounded. Evacuated to a hospital, he was operated on dying the next day – one of only two deaths the regiment suffered in the three-day battle.

fOOTBALLERS

Captain Arthur Yancey Wear was a more mature 38 year old when dying of a perforated ulcer while leading his company of the 356th Regiment-89th Division. Wear was part of a doubles tennis team winning the bronze medal at the 1904 Olympic Games in St Louis.

Alexander Dickson Wilson was yet another Yalie graduating in 1916. He was also from Binghamton, New York. Wilson had been the captain of the varsity football team at Yale. He was one of four brothers on active duty during the war with the fifth brother serving in the YMCA. Wilson died at the age of 26 as a captain on 30 September 1918 leading a company of the 59th Regiment-4th Division.

Lieutenant Frank Jacob “Deke” Gard die a day before Wilson serving with the 362nd Regiment-91st Division, 29 September 1918 killed by a sniper. He was also 26. Gard before the war had been the captain of the Stanford rugby team also serving as the captain of the international American team in test matches against Australia in 1912 and New Zealand in 1913.

Captain Carter Cary Hamer was a captain with the 142nd Regiment-36th Division. He previously served in the Spanish-American War. At the age of 40, Hamer was another tennis expert and a violin virtuoso having studied with David Hochstein. Hochstein died during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, as well, but is buried back in Rochester, New York.

ILLNESS AND ACCIDENT

more sickness

Arthur Broadfield Warren graduated from Harvard in 1915. He spent the summer of 1914 studying at the University of Marburg in Germany. Returning to New England, Warren went on to gain a Master’s degree in Romance languages at Harvard while at the same time taking part in the officer’s training at Plattsburg. Commissioned a second lieutenant in the 167th Regiment-42 Division, he died of scarlet fever 15 April 1918 just as he arrived into the trenches of France.

work-related accidents

Captain Frederick Charles Smith was English by birth. Emigrating to the US, he enlisted in the army shortly after arriving. After spending time in the Philippines, he served as recruiting officer in Brooklyn. With the war, he was sent to Camp Jackson in South Carolina where he was given command in the 371st Regiment-93rd Division, a division comprised of African-Americans in the still segregated army.

In France, Smith endured a gas attack in late September during the opening phases of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive and was hospitalized for two weeks. He returned for the final phases of the war with his men. In January, just before the regiment was slated to return to the US, Smith, in charge of the supply company, was handling a hand grenade when it went off killing him instantly. He and his brother William Gayner Smith are remembered on a school tablet in their home town, Thornbury, Bristol, England. His brother fell at the end of the British offensive known as Third Ypres in the fall of 1917. William, like Frederick, had emigrated, but to South Africa. He died part of the 2nd regiment of the South African Brigade.

motorcycles

Frederick Wahlstom was Swedish-born. After emigrating to the US, he enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1903, serving in Cuba and Panama. Returning to the US, Wahlstrom headed up the Marine Corps’ Electrical School and was an expert marksman winning several contests.

Commissioned as a second lieutenant in July 1917, he was part of the initial American contingent coming to France with General Pershing. Wahlstrom died in a motorcycle accident 21 August 1917. Pershing was among those attending the funeral.

suicide in the line of duty?

Sherman Avery White originally grew up in New York State. The Spanish-American War saw him sign up with the 1st Nebraska Volunteer Regiment. This regiment was involved in the first actions of the Philippine War in Manila in 1899. White worked his way up to first lieutenant of Company E. When the Nebraskans went home in 1900, he stayed and gained a commission as a second lieutenant with the US 12th Regiment, staying on in the islands.

He stayed with the regiment until before the war where he served with the 51st Regiment on the Mexican border. White then came to France with the regiment part of the 6th Division as a lieutenant colonel. On 4 November, he died. Some accounts have him dying as a result of an accident, though his military records show the cause of death as “suicide in the line of duty” whatever that means?

murder

Delbert A. Thompson was a second lieutenant with the 23rd Engineers, “the Road Builders of the AEF”. He was working as a railroad engineer on 30 January 1919 when an unknown assailant shot him through the throat killing him. There is no mention of the case ever being solved.