USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928, Volume II > Part 9
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Suddenly at 3:15 in the morning, while the dispositions were still being made, there fell upon the two lines a deluge of heaviest shells that in eight minutes had destroyed all defenses and the lines of communication by wire and runners to headquarters. Gas shells were among them. The barrage moving onward, a column of shock troops rushed in along the woods on the east and another between Companies C and D. Altogether there were 3,000 selected troops against 500 Connecticut men. Captain Locke emerged from the wreck of his dugout only to find a stream of the enemy pouring into the trench. Scorning the demand to surrender, he emptied the contents of his revolver before the enemy's fire ended his life. Freeland, near Seichprey, was tossing a bomb from his trench when it exploded, inflicting wounds which proved fatal after he had been taken into the German lines. Griswold had arranged one platoon and was hurrying to his other when he passed through the barrage. Running back through it to the place where his men had been he was seized by three Germans who started for the rear with him. In the flashes of light, he studied them carefully, stumbling along over the rough ground. With a quick lurch he tripped one, knocked down another as a bursting shell furnished light and was away before the third could gather himself. Then assembling the remnants of his platoons, he succeeded in evading the shock column and getting back to the defense line. Lieut. Benjamin C. Byrd of Hartford, D Company, while selecting a place for his men to rally, fell into the enemy's hands.
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Meantime the energetic Major Rau, though stunned at first by a piece of shell, had begun organizing orderlies, cooks, clerks and twenty men of the First Division who had been left as pris- oners when that division had turned over the sector. With knives, clubs and guns he fell upon the enemy now sweeping into the village. At regimental headquarters, where Adjt. Emerson G. Taylor of Hartford and the other staff officers were studying the amazing situation through their glasses and sending out runners for the information that ruined wires could not bring, Colonel Parker had seen the rocket signals and the artillery was putting over a counter barrage from what comparatively few guns it had. With no hope of reinforcement, Rau reorganized the men and, resorting to tactics that astonished the well-drilled Germans, checked the advance till the enemy retired with what prisoners he had-for headquarters to question, uselessly, and to inspect as samples of the newly arrived American reinforcements. They were good samples; they continued stoical when a hearty German major laughingly asked them about a number of the officers of the One Hundred and Second, calling them by name, and re- counted his own experiences in earlier days in a New York cafe; and they were of those who had added another thrilling chapter to the military history of their county and their state and nation. The American loss had been 360 casualties and 130 captured. In Bristol in particular, Seichprey Day is commemorated each year. Major Rau, who was to win further distinction before his death, was awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Gold Star with corps citation.
The Aisne Marne campaign cut short a brief period of rest at Toul. On June 30 the division entrained for this defensive against the much advertised deadliest thrust of all. Major How- ard was promoted to the command of the division machine-gun outfit, in which capacity he had been acting, and Captain Bulkeley succeeded him in command of the One Hundred and First Bat- talion. In the same month of July, Gen. George H. Shelton, U. S. A., of Seymour, Conn., became brigade commander in succession to General Traub, promoted. The brigade was in Liggett's First Corps, Degoutte's Sixth French Army. (Details of the cam- paigns can be found in Volume V, "History of Connecticut," 1925.) To the people at home, tracing with colored pins on their
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maps, it looked as though Ludendorf might tear out of his big salient across into Paris or southerly; there were rumors that Foch had a secret army somewhere but there was no evidence of it as the days went by, and as to where one's own friends were, no one knew anything except that they were "somewhere in France." The "secret army" was being assembled to attack the enemy's right as he advanced and to destroy his whole salient. The late- arriving Americans, having proved their mettle, were being given places of honor. In the regulars or in the National Guard units, they rendered good account, as when Lieut. Caldwell Colt Robin- son of Hartford, in the Marine Corps, on June 26, near Chateau Thierry, gave a conspicuous example of heroism at the cost of his life. Liggett's corps and French division was the first dis- tinctively American command in the war and marked the first time since the Revolution that French troops had served under an American commander. From near Thierry, Foch's secret army extended northeasterly for many miles. It was to swing southerly with the Thierry territory as a pivot. The Twenty-sixth Division was selected to be near that pivot when the swing should be made, its left beyond Belleau Wood.
Von Boehm advanced confidently. The pivot held firmly while the far-distant left swung south to make the line perpendicular with the determined front line along the Marne. Von Boehm's communications were being annihilated. He was astonished but kept on. The swinging line was shaping like a nut-cracker. He drew back his front, and on July 20 the left became the pivot with the first pivot driving into the vitals of his army. The Allies at last had taken the initiative and were thereafter to hold it, with- out a moment's rest. Foch alone knew the plan; officers and men of the advancing host went blindly through one perilous place after another, sometimes exhausted, often puzzled by the in- definiteness of the objective, but still on and on. Lieutenant- Colonel Howard was wounded while inspecting his line near Vaux, ahead of the infantry, and was out of the fight till the 22nd. Infantry, machine-guns, artillery, each was doing the other's part time and again. The Yankee Division, as the Twenty-sixth was called, stormed Torcy, Bouresches and Belleau and went through Gonetrie Farm without much regard to the rules it so carefully had learned. The One Hundred and Second had been the last to quit the pivot point (the 20th) and to rush on with or without sup-
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port as the case might be in this every-man's fight, Foch's steady push behind them all, night and day. Confused orders had pre- vented the relief of the brigade at the edge of La Fêre Foret on the 24th; instead the division headquarters was calling for the impossible, and General Shelton was so indicating when on the 25th the Forty-second Brigade did execute the relief movement. Twelve miles had been covered in the seven days. The artillery and the signal troops were to continue till August 4 and be in at the glorious finale. The division had lost 20 per cent of its strength; the One Hundred and Second lost 139 killed, 440 wounded.
The last heroic act of Major Rau had been on this advance at Trugny and Epieds where machine-gun nests were thick and had to be rushed by infantry without much artillery aid. For that, the distinguished-service cross was to be awarded him. On that last morning of July 25, before the relief of the brigade had been effected and with the expectation of going into action at dawn, he was struck by a shell. Coming to Burnside not long after his birth in Lorraine, Major Rau saw his first service in Cuba in 1902, after which he returned to Burnside. From being a private in K Company of the First Infantry, Connecticut National Guard, he was successively sergeant-major, second lieutenant, first lieu- tenant and captain of H Company and in 1914 major. He distin- guished himself by his faithful work in the Mexican-border cam- paign.
Under command of Col. Hiram I. Bearss of the Marine Corps, the regiment participated in the brilliant St. Mihiel campaign- Pershing's choice as soon as he had carried his point for a distinct American army, and the largest American army ever assembled. The troublesome old salient must be eliminated. The Yankee Division of Gen. George H. Cameron's Fifth Corps was the divi- sion selected to cut through from the northwest and meet the First Division at Vigneulles. Camouflaged artillery cleared an opening with the heaviest bombardment on record, lasting seven hours. Soaked through by heavy rain, the division went over at 8 o'clock September 12 and pushed along the rough highway through dense woods till 9 in the evening, when there was a pause for instruc- tions. Enemy retreating up the salient could be heard in the woods on both sides of the road. Word came to proceed at once,
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and by Colonel Bearss' orders the regiment strode on into the thick darkness in column of squads, defying rules of warfare, Captain Thompson's battalion setting a lively pace. The machine- gunners, compelled to abandon their motors long since, carried their guns by hand. The column was at Vigneulles at 3 in the morning, so much ahead of time that air men mistook it and dropped bombs which wounded thirty. Connection was soon made with the First Division, which had been delayed by hard fighting. Foch wrote Pershing: "The American First Army under your command has achieved in the first day a magnificent victory by a maneuver which was as skilfully prepared as it was valiantly executed."
Marcheville, September 26, would have been a side issue had it not been marked by a wonderful exhibition of courage. The world said Foch would now capture Metz. He had in mind the destruction of armies, not the capture of towns. To keep up the guessing, however, and conceal the real offensive, which was the southern end of Hindenburg's famous line itself, he favored intermittent attacks along the Meuse heights. The French would rush out, capture a village and get back for evening mess. The Americans were more serious-minded. Colonel Bearss sent out two columns to crush Riaville and Marcheville with trench line between. The artillery opened early. By 9 o'clock Thompson's battalion was in Marcheville. While the French, satisfied, were returning from their objective, the Americans were preparing their town for formal occupation. By noon, however, they were forced to seek cover from the heavy cannonade. Colonel Bearss and staff officers who had come out between the two columns took refuge in an old German dug-out. Officers of this and of the One Hundred and Third's battalion in Riaville were fearless in organ- izing a defense. At a lull in the firing, Bearss and his officers bolted for their own line but were cut off by the approaching enemy. The party of sixteen took cover in a trench where Colonel Howard prepared a defense with two machine guns. Five of the men were killed. A reinforcement of forty men under Lieut. F. K. Linton, One Hundred and First Engineers, enabled them to try a counter attack to cover their retirement. Linton was mortally wounded. By 7 o'clock, rocket signals had brought an artillery
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barrage which made a shield behind which the whole expedition reached the quarters at Saulx.
Among those who received decorations for that exploit was Colonel Howard-the Croix de Guerre with palm and citation in division general orders. He also was to receive the distinguished- service cross, and, after his other services on the general staff and as assistant chief of staff of the division, including detail to the Army General Staff College at Longres, the rank of chevalier of the Legion of Honor. On request of the French commander of the corps, there was citation for the whole of Major Thompson's battalion and decoration of the colors.
September 26 also was the day when Foch's 4,000,000 from the North Sea to Verdun began to move on the redoubtable Hin- denburg line. Pershing had chosen the Verdun end. Amid hard- ships and handicaps of the worst, he fared through to his objec- tive. In his opening cannonade 3,000 guns burned more powder than was consumed in the whole Civil war. From this the scale of operations may be better imagined. Of conditions while gain- ing the objective, this from a citation won by Col. Halstead Dorey, a South Manchester officer in the regular army, gives an idea: His men were exhausted after twelve days of constant fighting with heavy losses; he himself, though badly wounded, went through the barrage to the front line and reorganized his forces.
It was at the moment of low morale, preceding the advance, that General Edwards was among those chosen to go back to America to train new men, and thereby morale in the Yankee Division was lowered still further. Officers and men were ailing ; bad transportation kept down the food supply; minor local attacks were discouraging and the new general caused a disagree- able shake-up among the higher officers. But if there was exhaus- tion on one side, there was more of it and more to dishearten on the other. The enemy saw natural and artificial obstructions overcome day by day till on November 1 Berlin learned from President Wilson of the "fourteen points" with reservations, on the basis of which the Allies would consider peace. The kaiser left; Socialist Ebert was president. And in achieving the impos- sible, the Hartford men had had what seemed the roughest of places in the rough Argonne. They were among those who had had to make the Germans learn that they could not break in on the right flank, no matter what advantages the terrain gave them.
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Major Bulkeley of the Machine-Gun Battalion was gassed but would not go to hospital till November 22. The Croix de Guerre was his. Lieut. Rodman W. Chamberlain of New Britain re- ceived the distinguished service cross. Capt. Rawdon W. Myers of Hartford succeeded Bulkeley for a time, then Maj. L. H. Watres of Pennsylvania and then Maj. Stillman F. Westbrook, of Hartford, who had been an officer in B Company before getting his majority in the One Hundred and Fourth Infantry. Lieut. Philip S. Wainwright of Hartford was appointed ordnance in- spector.
Over a hundred men from the county obtained commissions at training camps and were assigned to various branches of the serv- ice. Dr. Paul Waterman, an eminent Hartford physician who had been in command of the Sanitary Detachment of the First Regi- ment at the outbreak of the war, had made an enviable record during these strenuous days. He had been assistant division surgeon, had served as liaison officer at headquarters of the Eleventh French Army Corps, as assistant to the chief surgeon of the Twenty-first Division and as commander of the One Hun- dred and First Sanitary Train when on October 1, 1918, by reason of his skill in organizing hospitals, he was appointed divi- sion surgeon of the Fourth Division, U. S. A., and was given full colonelcy the following July. His career later in civil life was to be cut short by his sudden death in July, 1923. Earl D. Church, who before the war had been major in the Ordnance Department, was made lieutenant-colonel in the Ordnance Department, A. E. F., and received the distinguished service medal "for zeal, loyalty and efficiency" in these last days.
After the armistice, division headquarters were at Montigny- le-Roi, with the Fifth Corps, Maj .- Gen. C. P. Summerall. Adju- tant Taylor of the regiment was appointed acting adjutant of the brigade. He had attended the Staff College, had been with the British at Cambrai and other points and had been serving on the divisional staff since early August. His next appointment, with rank of lieutenant-colonel, was to be to headquarters of the Sixty-seventh Division, U. S. A. (Organized Reserves), and in 1923 to be colonel of the Three Hundred and Fourth Organized Reserves. Anson T. McCook, son of Rev. J. J. McCook, who had been captain in the Three Hundred and Fourth and Three Hun-
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dred and Twentieth, was appointed major in the Three Hundred and Fourth Reserve Corps. The days before sailing for home were enlivened by receptions for President Wilson, General Pershing and General Petain, who personally decorated the colors of the regiment and of Thompson's battalion in honor of Marche- ville.
Several of the civilian volunteers in the work of the Red Cross, the Y. M. C. A., the Knights of Columbus, the Salvation Army and other organizations which had done so much for the comfort of the soldiers, improved the opportunity to call on their old friends. Among those who had been prominent in this service were Hon. Everett J. Lake, Rev. Dr. Ernest deF. Miel of Trinity Church of Hartford, who went over twice, Rev. Charles E. Hesselgrave, of Manchester, Miss Anna deLacy Cary of Wethersfield, George B. Thayer of West Hartford, Frank P. Furlong, Maj. Frank E. Johnson and Rev. John Brownlee Vorhees of Asylum Hill Congre- gational Church. Mr. Vorhees had endeared himself to the men when he was wounded by a shell. After long suffering in army hospitals, he was brought to New York early in 1919, but there succumbed. Rev. Mr. Vorhees was born in Blandenburg, N. Y., in 1875, where his father was minister of the Reformed Church. He was graduated at Rutgers in 1896 and at the New Brunswick Theological Seminary in 1899. Before coming to succeed Rev. Mr. Twichell he was pastor of the Union Reformed Church of New York.
It was a comfortable trip home. In large part the soldiers were indebted for this to a South Manchester officer, Brig .- Gen. Sherwood A. Cheney, U. S. A., who received his distinguished- service medal for efficiency as "director of army transport serv- ice in returning soldiers." After a review in Boston, witnessed by most of New England, discharge papers were issued at Camp Devens April 28-30. Arrangements were made by which on April 30 the colors of the Connecticut organizations should be de- livered to the state. In the absence of Col. Douglas Potts, the commanding officer at the time, and Lieut .- Col. William Beck of Georgia, Michael A. Connor, who had gone over as captain of the Supply Company and had come back a battalion commander, was at the head of the troops. Lieutenant-Colonel Howard, who had come home just previously, was the marshal of the parade and
RED CROSS PARADE, HARTFORD Thousands of the city's foremost women marching, May 18, 1918
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RETURN OF HARTFORD COUNTY TROOPS, A. E. F.
Passing Reviewing Stand at Municipal Building, Hartford, April 30, 1919
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Capt. J. H. K. Davis his chief of staff. The city's population was swelled by 100,000 from around the state.
For decorations, enthusiasm and excellence of details, nothing like this ever had been witnessed in Hartford's history. The parade escort consisted of the First Regiment, Connecticut State Guard, the Governor's Foot Guard, the Putnam Phalanx, the United Spanish War Veterans, and the Veteran Soldiers, Sailors and Marines, among whom was Boatswain's Mate Shapiro, who had won special citation for saving men of a munition ship that was blown up off the French coast while he was serving on the Sultana. Following these came the Hartford County men of the Fifty-eighth Engineers, Colonel Goodman, and several hundred returned soldiers, marines and sailors-the sailors commanded by Lieut. Lawrence A. Howard,-a platoon of colored men, Ca- nadian, English and French veterans, Highlanders and Poles. The Yankee Division was represented by fully 1,500. Majs. Emerson G. Taylor and James A. Haggerty (of New Haven) and Capt. William Walker acted as battalion commanders, under Major Connor. Major Westbrook led the Machine-Gun Battalion, Capt. H. Wyckoff Mills commanding Company B and Capt. Raw- don W. Myers Company C. The wounded rode in cars driven by members of the motor corps of the Red Cross of which Mrs. James L. Goodwin was captain. At the reviewing stand in front of the Municipal building were the members of the Grand Army of the Republic, Governor Holcomb, Mayor Kinsella, former Senator Bulkeley and members of the Legislature and of the city govern- ment. Boy Scouts of the Y. M. C. A. stood in front on the right and those of the Orphan Asylum on the left. A bulldog mascot, wearing a wound stripe, trotted with the regimental colors, and a solemn-visaged "Kaiser's Goat" with K Company.
Surrounded by thousands at the Capitol, and joined now by Father James P. Sherry of the regiment, who had been delayed, Major Taylor presented the colors of the One Hundred and Sec- ond with the French tricolor; Colonel Goodman those of the Fifty- eighth Pioneers, and Capt. Lucius B. Barbour those of the Three Hundred and Fourth. Governor Holcomb responded with emo- tion. The colors were placed in the cases with those of the pre- vious wars. After this ceremony, the ladies of the Red Cross served an elaborate dinner in the armory.
The "boys" had returned to scenes of activity less thrilling 10-VOL. 2
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and perilous than those they had left but no less impressive in a true history of one of the foremost cities typical of American determination. On that April 30, the great Victory Liberty Loan was being subscribed to. Hartford's quota was $12,353,000; on that day Hartford's total was $18,000,000 and it was on the way. to doubling its quota. (For the five loans Hartford subscribed $134,000,000, a larger amount in proportion than any other town in the country; the state likewise led and was awarded the flag which had hung over the Capitol at Washington through the war.) They saw private lawns and vacant lots, "war gardens," which had been yielding their crops of vegetables, many of them cultivated by school children in competition. They were told of the heatless days, the gasless days, the meatless days and all the rest in the national plan of conservation during the terrible crisis. As for themselves, they saw the great factories with their addi- tions which had been running overtime and with shortage of employees, even though more women had gone in for the work, now rapidly reducing their forces in the process of readjustment. It gave them one of their overseas thrills to read of the machina- tions of the Industrial Workers of the World and the out-and-out "Reds" who were resorting to dynamite and torch. They were rejoiced to hear that Governor Holcomb-the "grand old man"- had been reelected for a third term, that he had said "American- ization is self-preservation," and that, at his suggestion, the Legislature had declared it unlawful to display the red flag. Instead of a bonus of $100 or $200 to be expended in a short time, the Legislature voted a fund of $2,500,000 to be administered in cooperation with the veterans for those who would need assist- ance. The men immediately upon their return had found open for them the Soldiers, Sailors and Marines Club in the former Halls of Record-city property that could be spared after the Munici- pal building had been occupied. There Capt. Thomas J. Banni- gan, who had been in the quartermaster's department, was ready to make them feel at home, with the backing of the city govern- ment and the people. Later and after the need of the club room was ended, Major Bannigan's duties became multifarious in con- nection with the matters of relief and helpfulness.
The men were told of the participation of the British tank in one of the "drives" the year before and of the British recruiting campaigns. Especially interesting was the incident of the Mon-
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PRESENTATION OF WAR COLORS TO THE STATE, APRIL 30, 1919 1. Governor Holcomb, 2. Major Emerson G. Taylor, 3. Major General L. F. Burpee, C. S. G., 4. Mayor R. J. Kinsella, 5. Adjutant General G. M. Cole, 6. Brigadier Gen- eral Edward Schulze, C. S. G., 7. Lieutenant Colonel J. Moss Ives, C. S. G., 8. Colonel C. E. Smith, Chief Q. M. C. S. G., 9. Colonel M. J. Wise (former A. Q. M. C. S. G.), 10. Mrs. Morgan G. Bulkeley
PRESENTATION OF WAR COLORS AT SOUTH SIDE OF CAPITOL State Guard and First Company, Governor's Foot Guard, in foreground. War vete- rans near the Capitol, April 30, 1919
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treal Black Watch with General White and other distinguished officers on October 8, 1918. For the first time since 1775 the British flag floated over Connecticut's Capitol. On the lawn be- neath were assembled the Black Watch in their kilties, the First C. S. G. in their khaki, and the Governor's Foot Guard in their brilliant British grenadier trappings of the days of '76, and there was an exchange of salutes to the colors, the Canadian band play- ing the "Star-Spangled Banner," the other bands, "God Save the King." The veterans learned of the admirable, self-sacrificing work of the State Council of Defense in all its branches, and they knew by personal experience of result of the night-and-day zeal of the Red Cross women in every town of the county.
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