June 28 marked the 1914 assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand, triggering the outbreak of World War I five weeks later.
It changed the world, even to the present day. I thought of two great-uncles who went off to the war and returned to tell about it, along with a long-deceased friend, and a man I did not know but wrote about, briefly, a few months ago.
Although I never talked to Uncle Gus or Uncle Arlie about their war experiences, you can learn a lot by connecting a few words and facts on a century-old document. Uncle Gus was inducted, here, on August 8, 1918. His 1919 discharge paper is sparse, but it’s still sobering to connect dates and events. By September 4, he was on a troop ship sailing for France with the 56th Pioneer Infantry Regiment.
In 25 days, remarkably, Uncle Gus was issued uniforms, basic field gear, familiarized with the ‘03 Springfield rifle, perhaps shown a scant few tactics, then deemed ready for combat. Whew! I can recall feeling pretty lost after 25 days of a longer basic training cycle in 1974.
Two weeks after arriving in France, Uncle Gus’s 56th Pioneers were thrust into the maw of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive that would end the war on November 11. Over a million Americans would fight in that 46-day battle, resulting in 26,000 US deaths. Given Uncle Gus’s training, no wonder one report noted: “American losses were worsened by the inexperience of many troops.”
Uncle Gus was listed as not wounded, which meant he was present for duty each day, witnessing God-only-knows what horrors. (View 2022’s re-make of ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ for a chilling rendition of the battle). Credited, as well, with no decorations meant he had no Sgt. Alvin York aspirations. Simply, he was good at keeping his head low, and happy to return home after seven months of post-war occupation duty in Germany.
Uncle Arlie served as a supply wagon driver in the war. A story from another ancestor claims that Arlie, unsurprisingly, witnessed some gruesome sights while there. I am searching for evidence that he may have enlisted for the 1916 expedition to the southern border in response to incursions by Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa.
My friend, Henry, was approaching 90 when I knew him several years ago. As a message runner assigned to allied expeditionary units in 1917, he told of zig-zagging to avoid being shot by enemy aircraft.
I knew of America’s post-WWI involvement in the Russian civil war, and asked Henry what he remembered. “In formation one day,” he recalled, “they asked for volunteers to go to Russia and help feed people who were starving. A few raised their hands.” So that’s how they did it!
Edgar Dobbins of Rutherfordton volunteered for the Villa expedition, and wound up in WWI. Sadly, he was exposed to mustard gas. An uncle of a local soldier killed in WWII, Dobbins never recovered and spent most of the 1920s in and out of veterans’ hospitals before his 1931 death.
Uncle Gus was the only one of several siblings who never married. Rarely missing a square dance and similar other activities, he is remembered for his colorful personality. I wonder if that helped keep the Argonne at bay.
— Douglas Smith, Rockingham