USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester county; a narrative history, Volume II > Part 37
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740
WORCESTER COUNTY
The share taken by Worcester in financing, not only the Red Cross, and other humanitarian agencies, and most of all the raising of stupendous quotas of Liberty Loans, while an old story now, was a most brilliant piece of work done by bankers, corporations, business and professional men, and the plain everyday citizen. Two millions of dollars for Red Cross and closely asso- ciated work; then a campaign for $350,000 for the first Young Men's Chris- tian Association War Fund-$393,000 was subscribed-and this but for one phase of the association's work; a third drive for more than half a million dollars for the "United War Work" activities of the Young Men's Christian Association, Knights of Columbus, Young Women's Christian Association, Jewish Welfare Board and Salvation Army, when $1,067,000 was actually subscribed, all were parts of a glorious whole. The Liberty Loans, one to four, and the fifth, the Victory Loan, called for impossible feats as measured by anything that had ever occurred in the history of the Worcester district. Yet every quota was oversubscribed, even the last and most difficult Victory Loan. To the five issues of bonds the county subscribed as follows :
First Liberty Loan
$17,966,350
Second Liberty Loan
34,500,300
Third Liberty Loan
20,211,550
Fourth Liberty Loan
37,224,650
Victory Loan
22,915,200
Frank A. Drury was chairman of the Worcester Committee for the first three loans, when the maximum asked of Worcester was $18,505,800. The total raised was $42,072,500. Charles L. Allen headed the committee on the Fourth Liberty Loan campaign which secured $19,239,150. The committee that directed the drive for the last, and most difficult, Victory Loan was led by John E. White, and again the quota was exceeded, and the amount of the bonds sold reached $12,283,000. "There probably was not a business man or official in Worcester who did not, directly or indirectly, work enthusias- tically for the success of the stupendous funded issues that came before the people of Worcester for consideration and subscription during the war period." While figures and facts above mentioned had to do mainly with the city of Worcester, a like spirit was manifested in every part of the county, and similar great efforts made with like laudable success. The numbers of the municipalities and the irregularities of accounting and report, make a com- pilation of results impossible. One may approximate what the citizens of the county contributed to the prosecution of the war, by consideration of the following totals for the county seat.
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WORLD WAR
WORCESTER'S WAR CONTRIBUTIONS.
Certificates of indebtedness ; all national and savings banks that handled government loans $ 41,062,000 00
First Liberty Loan 11,082,100 00
Second Liberty Loan 22,530,000 00
Third Liberty Loan .
8,462,400 00
Fourth Liberty Loan
19,239,150 00
Victory Loan
12,911,700 00
United War Work Fund
1,071,543 00
Red Cross Fund, '17
636,217 00
Red Cross Fund, '18
927,049 00
War Savings Stamps Campaign
882,300 00
Y. M. C. A. Fund, '17
393,000 00
Jewish War Sufferers' Fund 150,000 00
American Fund for French Wounded to April, '19 99,696 51
American Fund for French Wounded Hospital
18,017 06
Worcester Branch, Surgical Dressings Committee
32,425 65
Worcester War Chest
28,537 OI
Halifax Relief Fund
26,986 56
K. of C. Campaign
72,752 64
Fatherless Children of France, Worcester and Worcester County
41,910 00
Armenian Citizens' Contribution to National Armenian Relief Fund
35,000 00
Y. W. C. A. Hostess House Fund
19,783 16
Assumption College S. A. T. C. Fund
26,094 00
War Camp Community Service
16,000 00
Smileage Campaign
12,902 05
Belgian Relief Fund
16,000 00
Red Cross Fair
11,671 00
Palestine Restoration Fund
10,000 00
Welcome Home Fund
18,493 64
Armenian and Syrian Relief Fund
7,136 00
Soldiers' Library Fund
7,773 98
Clark College Ambulance Fund
8,000 00
Serbian Relief Fund
3,500 00
Metal Trades Red Cross Auxiliary Ambulance Fund
4,51I 00
Prince of Wales Fund (sent to England)
2,400 00
Italian War Relief Fund
6,678 86
Evening Post Tobacco Fund
1,661 47
Notre Dame Alumnae Fund for Restoration of Mother House at Namur 3,300 00
Battery B Tag Day
2,920 33
Battery E Tag Day
5,000 00
A Co., 104th Regiment, Tag Day
3,209 16
C Co., 104th Regiment, Tag Day
4,095 75
H Co., 104th Regiment, Tag Day .
1,543 00
G Co., IOIst Regiment, Tag Day 6,010 50 .
G Co., IOIst Regiment, Drive
. .. . 7,344 26
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WORCESTER COUNTY
Worcester Garrison Army and Navy Tag Day
2,000 00
Mothers' Club Tag Day 3,160 50
British Soldiers' Tag Day 2,600 00
Public School Children's Contributions
3,39I 98
Salvation Army Fund, '17 .
500 00
Smoke Fund for Battery Boys
500 00
Total
$119,920,966 77
Upon the occasion of the proclamation of peace, Frank Roe Batchelder said in the Worcester Daily Telegram : ,
" Worcester has every cause for pride in those who served at home. The story of the conversion of Worcester industries from the pursuits of peace to the service of war is a record of great achievement, made possible alike by men in the office who planned the work, and the men and women in the shops who accomplished it.
"While industrial Worcester worked day and night to furnish material of war, her women enrolled under the banner of mercy and gave of their time and strength in splendid measure to bind up the wounds of the stricken and bring comfort to the bed of pain.
"As Worcester gave her blood and brains and energy to the winning of the war, so with equal readiness she poured millions into the National Treas- ury, and into all the auxiliary services of help and relief. Even the poorest found the means to give generously to sustain the common cause, and the rich found in the war's uses for their wealth the greatest good it had ever brought them."
But Mr. Batchelder prefaced these paragraphs with the words: "To the soldiers who endured the hell of actual war the first honors are due."
How many Worcester men and women served in the World War is not known. A compilation of the names on the Honor Roll of the city gives 14,095. It is of course incomplete. An official navy report records 2,580 in the United States Navy and the Naval Reserves as coming from Worcester, and there were 350 from the city in the Marine Corps in France. The total number of Massachusetts men in the Army and Navy was 198,929, of whom 220 were drafted. It is probable that about 21,000 approximates the number to be credited to Worcester County. The first fine flush of enthusiasm for histories, statistics, memorials and rewards of "our young heroes in arms," has passed, and like the young men themselves, who upon their return to civil life tried to forget, it would seem that the present generation has forgotten.
There are many difficulties in the way of one who would recount the stories of our soldiers and sailors, either as individuals or groups. An ade- quate tale would include the histories of probably every division of the American Armies and of the fleet. Although sixteen years have elapsed
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since the war, there is yet no complete roster of even those who paid the great sacrifice. It is a matter of record, however, that men from Massachusetts met death in every division of the United States Army. The great obstacle to the compilation of any adequate sectional or even State, history of local men or units, was created by the policy of the Regular Army authorities of breaking up local units, National Guard or National Army. The National Guard companies, and divisions, were accepted as units, and then scattered to camps all over the United States, a practice which was continued overseas. Whether this policy had for its purpose the quenching of sectionalism, or the prevention of any locality from suffering undue losses of its citizens, or simply to stop any region from taking too great pride in the military achieve- ments-who knows? A well-known general from the Commonwealth said in print : "A deliberate policy was adopted of destroying all State allegiance and particularly of uprooting the National Guard tradition and the dual system of military organization provided for in the American Constitution."
Massachusetts was fortunate, or unfortunate, in having a large number of National Guard units kept together and sent abroad as a division, the famous 26th or Yankee Division, In this Division, Worcester was repre- sented by six complete companies, of the 104th Infantry, B and E Batteries of the 102d Field Artillery, Company G of the IOIst Infantry, and smaller detachments of men in other sections. The Yankee Division was the first of the American Expeditionary Forces to be fully organized, first to cross the Atlantic as a division, and "long before any other unit had done anything but participate in raids, units of the 26th were meeting the Prussian Guards, the flower of the Imperial Army. It was the first to go into the battle line as a division, and long before any of the regular army divisions had engaged the Germans, units of the Yankee Division had fought in three battles, Apre- mont, Seicheprey and Xivray." All of which is not simply a boast but a matter of genuine importance for here was a body of non-professional sol- diers, volunteers who had taken up arms for their country, trained mainly under citizen officers and commanded, for the most part, by them. One writer has called attention to the fact that :
"There can be no doubt that the Division (26th) from the first showed distinctive character. The great outstanding fact which explains this distinc- tion is, first, the whole division came from a small, thickly populated section of the United States. All the organizations from which it was built were of New England ; practically every man and an overwhelming majority of the line officers were Yankees; every New England State was represented in it; and the Division had headquarters in Boston and was mobilized, trained and equipped in Boston. Secondly, and perhaps of more importance, the Division was a National Guard Division, except for a few men who came from the
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WORCESTER COUNTY
National Army draft at Camp Devens to fill up the places left vacant by rejections of guardsmen. The men were volunteers, and for the most part, they were successful business and professional men."
The Yankee Division, with its large contingent of Worcester city and county men, went overseas section by section from September 7, to October 4, 1917, and did not concentrate as a division until a number of weeks later. On February the 26th it went into the firing line at Chemin des Dames, the first of the American divisions to be so honored. From that time the YD's remained in the line of combat until the Armistice. It received its baptism of fire in the first so-called "quiet sector." After six weeks in the trenches, instead of being given the usual rest period and the further training which was in order, the Yankee Division took over a wide front at Toul, where at Apremont the 104th Infantry and the IOIst Artillery beat back the first attack in force made against American troops. General Edwards wrote of this event, in part : ". ... And those men fought there for five days around Hill 320 in front of Apremont. They wiped out 700 Germans, made 40 prisoners and buried 200 Boches. The French army commander cited 117 men of the 104th and they got the Croix de Guerre in a very impressive ceremony when they were withdrawn. They also pinned the Croix de Guerre on the colors of the regiment, and I don't know that this had ever occurred before. It was the first time that troops had ever won in that sector, but from that time on we absolutely owned No Man's Land."
To relate the history of the division in detail, or even full outline, is impossible here. The best two books on the subject are: With the Yankee Division in France, by Frank Palmer Sibley, a newspaperman, and Harry A. Benwell's History of the Yankee Division. After Apremont came Chateau- Thierry, where even the French expected the enemy to break through to Paris, but which proved to be the turning point of the war. At one time the Yankee Division was the only body of troops between Chateau-Thierry and the French Capital. As a result of its stiff defense the regiment came to be known as the "Saviors of Paris." In the counter offensive of the Allies, the Aisne-Marne offensive, the division took Belleau Wood and Torcy on the first day, and in the final drive advanced against the best German troops for a distance of twelve miles. Casualties amounting to a third of its strength were met, and ten days were spent in amalgamating 6,000 replacements and intensive training. Then the 26th was thrust into battle that reduced that supposed impregnable St. Mihiel Salient, where the division was used as shock troops. It held and consolidated the area won during the following few weeks, and were assigned to the playing of the rôle of an army intending to break through to Metz, but which was really a move to prevent the enemy from withdrawing troops to send into the Argonne-Meuse sectors. Addi-
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tional honors were won on the great plain of the Woevre, and then the Yankees were transferred to the line north of the famous citadel of Verdun, where on October 16 companies of the 104th fought one of the severest minor engagements of the war.
What was to the soldiers of the 26th one of its greatest disasters was the ordering home, on October 22, 1918, of General Clarence R. Edwards. The ostensible reason given for relieving him, and other former National Guard officers, was that experienced officers were needed at home to act as instructors of the National Army Corps, although it was already realized that the enemy was about beaten and the divisions still remaining in the United States would never cross the seas. The YD-this insignia was not adopted until October 23-was seriously weakened by disease (influenza mainly), months in flooded dugouts, stations that were quagmires, wet and cold clothing, insufficient food, the recurring gas attacks, constant sniping, and artillery barrages. It was a tremenodus further blow to the morale of the division that under these circumstances and despite its worthy record, it was made to feel that its leaders should be unappreciated and the division itself considered a mere pawn on the chessboard of army manoeuvers. While negotiations for an armistice were practically, and perhaps actually, completed, the Yankee Divi- sion, at nine-thirty of the morning of November II, 1918, began an ordered, and orderly attack and, within the next hour and a half, won the required objectives, just as the great silence of the Armistice brought respite to the enemy. There was little rejoicing in the 26th, particularly the 104th Regi- ment, drugged as they were with the fatigue of service, particularly that uncalled for final attack. The Yankees were named as one of the first organi- zations to have the honor of going to the Rhine. It was too completely worn out to accept the honor, for it had rendered a longer term of service than any other American division in the Meuse-Argonne offensive.
On January 8, 1919, the 26th was ordered to prepare to return to the United States. To the larger histories one must go for accounts of a review and the awarding of commendations by President Wilson, at Chaumont, France, of the colorful God-speed given the regiment by the French, and of the last grand review in France, on February 19, 1919, in the fields near Mayet. On April 4 the first transport bearing units of the Yankee Division arrived in Boston, and by the 25th the division was in Camp Devens. Although frowned upon by the War Department, a divisional parade was made in Bos- ton, before 300,000 rejoicing observers. In 1927, ten years after the units of the 26th Division began to mobilize, twelve hundred veterans of the many thousand young and strong who had gone overseas, marched quietly to the State House in Boston to be present at the unveiling of a mural memorial. This great painting depicts the 104th Regiment standing at attention before
746
WORCESTER COUNTY
General Pasaga and his aide, the French commander, decorating the regi- mental colors. A few minutes before its unveiling, Chaplain William Farrel, of the regiment, offered a prayer as the notes of "Taps" ended : "God forbid another war: God forbid another war-but if we must fight again, let the spirit of the brave boys of this regiment guide you in your country's hour of need."
The 104th Regiment was, of course, the pride of the Worcester region, because nearly a thousand of its men had, from first to last, been members of it. When it and other Worcester veterans of the Yankee Division marched the streets of the city, a hundred thousand greeted them vociferously and with gratitude that so many had returned safely. The Worcester "Tele- gram" upon this occasion, after pointing out the remarkable history of the division, added :
"The officers of the Worcester units have fought, died, and have earned high places in the United States Army. Col. John F. J. Herbert has made wonderful history with his generalship; Major Thomas F. Foley, formerly commander of Company G, who commanded the 3d Battalion of the IOIst Infantry, has won the Distinguished Service Cross, the Croix de Guerre, and five divisional citations. Major Frank W. Cavanaugh, 5Ist Artillery Brigade, who left Worcester in command of E Battery, and Capt. George Jones, win- ner of the Distinguished Service Cross, commanding E Battery, led their men in such a splendid way as to earn high recommendation from the superior officers.
"Lieutenant, now Captain Archie F. Murray, A Co., 104th Infantry, regimental gas officer while he was with the unit until ordered home, so lived with his men that many wept to see him go; Lieutenant, now Captain, George C. Corbin, G Co., who refused to leave his men until he had to be carried from the trenches-such men it was that helped to make the Yankee Division.
"And the honored dead; in letters of gold shine the names of those who have made the Supreme Sacrifice, and their cross is the only cross that hun- dreds of Worcester soldiers have won with their life's blood.
"Corporal Homer J. Wheaton, winner of the Distinguished Service Cross at Chemin des Dames; Private James E. Mulvehill, Chemin des Dames ; Lieut. Harry Rockwood Knight, Apremont; Lieut. William P. Fitzgerald, Vaux, in the Chateau Thierry sector ; Capt. Ralph E. Donnelly, St. Mihiel; Chaplain Walton S. Danker, Royaumiex; Capt. Willard Smith, St. Mihiel- the deeds of these will live forever, as long as things material endure."
The space given to the story of the Yankee Division and the 104th Regi- ment must not be interpreted as meaning that these contained the only, or most of, the Worcester soldiers. As has been indicated, the 26th was one of the very few of the American divisions, where local units were kept intact,
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and whose history therefore was directly connected with a city or a county. The 26th had hardly left Camp Devens to go overseas than the recruits of the 76th Regiment entered the cantonment. There were more men from Worces- ter county and city in this than were orginally with the Yankee Division. The most of them were assigned to the 30Ist and 302d Infantry regiments, the 30Ist Field Artillery, the 30Ist Field Signal Battalion, and the 302d Machine Gun Company. Units of the 76th arrived in France between July 10 and August 8, 1918, where they were immediately distributed in small and large detachments to serve as replacements in every division on the front. The 30Ist Ammunition Train, will be recalled as "Worcester's Own Battalion." Of the Massachusetts National Guard, not taken into the 26th, there was formed from the 5th, 6th and 8th regiments, together with the addition of troops from all over the United States, the 3d, 4th and 5th Pioneer regiments. These served overseas but not as the units were first organized. As many as 350 recruits from Worcester were in the 4th and 5th Brigade of Marines in France, the 4th being notably prominent at Chateau-Thierry. There were Worcester soldiers in numbers in the Ist, 2d, 77th and 82d divisions of the American Expeditionary Forces, but their numbers and units were constantly changed, and they were in nowise Massachusetts divisions nor had regiments predominately from Massachusetts. The 82d Division, for example, is claimed by the South, yet more than 200 men from Massachusetts met death in its ranks.
Worcester gave an unusually large number of officers to the Army and Naval services, nearly seven hundred who ranked as lieutenants and ensigns, or higher. Colonel F. J. Herbert, Major Thomas F. Foley, Major Frank W. Cavanaugh, Captain George Jones, Captain F. Murray, and Captain George C. Corbin, have been mentioned in connection with the Yankee Division. Rear Admiral Ralph Earle was a native of Worcester and was responsible for sending to France the famous forty-foot naval gun that could send a 1,400-pound shell a distance of thirty-two miles-America's answer to the "Big Bertha." One may not forget such high officers as Colonel George W. Bunnell, IOIst Engineers; Colonel Robert I. Whipple, 30Ist Engineers; Colonel Edmund J. Daley, 55th Engineers ; Colonel John E. Munroe, Ord- nance Department ; Colonel Oscar N. Sohlberg; Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel McCullagh; Lieutenant-Colonel Frank W. George, orthopedic specialist ; Lieutenant-Colonel Benjamin O. Johnson, with Siberian Expeditional Lieu- tenant-Colonel Arthur D. Butterfield. Distinguished Service Crosses were awarded to Major Thomas F. Foley, Major Luke C. Doyle, Major Chester D. Heywood, Captain George W. Jones, Captain Willard Smith, Captain Starr Sedgwick Eaton, Lieutenant Joseph E. Hare, Corporal Homer J.
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WORCESTER COUNTY
Wheaton, and Privates, Raymond St. George, Saterae N. Maskas, Clifford B. Mellen, Henry S. Signor, and Alexander Zambrycyski.
Lieutenant Bruce R. Ware, of Worcester, in charge of the gun crew of the U. S. S. Magnolia on April 19, 1917, fired the first shot in the war for the United States. On November 9, 1917, Raymond F. Ronayne was the first Worcester volunteer to die in the service. The first that Worcester men under arms abroad figured in the casualty lists was on February 27, 1918, when Corporal Homer J. Wheaton and Private James E. Mulvehill, of the Emmet Guards were killed in action. The first chaplain to give his life on the American front was Rev. Walton S. Danker, of the 104th Regiment, who on June 18, 1918, died from wounds. About this time, Walter T. Hobbs, member of the Lafayette Fighting Squadron, was killed over German lines, the first of the Worcester aviators to lose his life. As the days went on the roster of those "killed in action," "died of wounds or disease" increased with sharp rapidity. Pages could be written of the brave deeds of our soldiers at home and abroad, if these deeds were known. At the end of this chapter is a partial roll of the heroic dead from Worcester.
The war activities of the county seat have been given in the greater detail as illustrative of what was done in other sections of the country. More was done in Worcester than in Fitchburg, for example, only because one city is more than four times larger than the other, and was the official center of many of the organized efforts of the war time. The records, military, finan- cial, humanitarian, industrial-of Fitchburg, Leominster, Gardner, and other municipalities compare favorably with places of like size throughout the Nation. Fitchburg has its glorious pages of World War history, some of which were written before the United States had become allied with other nations. Many of its citizens answered the call of their mother country, or the urge to aid in the struggle across the sea. From the late months of 1914 to early in 1917 many had quietly enlisted under the colors of the British, France and other foreign nations. The Fitchburg units of the famous 6th Regiment, Massachusetts National Guard, were recruited to full strength and were early mobilized. But there was no room in the Yankee Division con- tingent for the 6th as a regiment, although 175 members became the IOIst Infantry, and 800 of the 6th became the 104th Infantry, commanded by Colonel William C. Hayes and later by Colonel George C. Shelton. The 26th Division had, therefore, many members from Fitchburg and the history of the "Yankees" is in a measure that of the city's soldiery. As has been pointed out, the policies of the War Department in dividing local units between all branches of the service resulted in the city having representatives in nearly all military divisions and on many naval vessels and with the Marines. For the National Army recruits, the Fitchburg district was one
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of the largest in the Commonwealth. More than 10,000 were registered, and 954 were inducted into the United States service. The Sentinel, one of the best sources of the history of this period, named on Armistice Day, 1919, 2,500 Fitchburg citizens who were or had been in the military and naval forces. The first of the many who died under arms, was William Robertson, of the Liverpool Irish Regiment, who was killed on August 8, 1916, in the Battle of the Somme. Among others who gave their lives were: Lieutenants Milton Matthews, John W. Marsh, Thomas Brown, Theodore Wyman, Les- ter A. Stone, Robert F. Stiles, and Wilfrid Fagan, sergeant of Company D, 104th Regiment, was killed near Verdun in 1918; Sergeant Burton J. Jenna died in England of pneumonia; Sergeant George T. Mack met accidental death at Camp Bartlett in September, 1917; Private Nybacka died at Fort Slocum, New York, September 18, 1918; Sergeant David Malcolm, Jr., died of pneumonia in France in October, 1918; Private Andrew J. McCabe was killed in action in France a month before the Armistice; John P. McNamara, of the Chemical Service, died of gas poisoning ; Sergeant John S. Ryan died of pneumonia at Camp Devens, October, 1918; Private John J. Sheehan was the only Fitchburg man to die in the service of the American Expeditionary Forces in Russia ; he was of Company C, 20th United States Engineers, and was killed in a railway accident. Private Raymond B. Monahan died of pneumonia at Camp Devens on September 27, 1918; Sergeant Ernest E. Merrett died of pneumonia in France, February 3, 1919; Private Robert E. McNabb, a machine-gunner, was killed in action in France, July 19, 1918; Angus K. McLean, who enlisted in a Canadian unit, was killed in action on October 2, 1918; Dennis J. O'Conner, an orderly in Medical Corps at Camp Jackson, died on his way home after being discharged in March, 1919; Ser- geant Arthur Poisson died in action in France; Private John B. Ellis was killed in action September 27, 1918; Private John F. O'Hara died of influenza at Camp Devens on September 26, 1918; Private Thomas E. Moses died at same camp six days later ; Corporal Ralph C. Robinson, who had won a divi- sion citation for bravery, died of pneumonia in France, October 22, 1918; Private Alfred J. Rousseau was killed in action on October 26, 1918; Cor- poral John McGee died of pneumonia February 5, 1919, in France; Private Joseph J. Taylor died in France October 12, 1918; Private Harold O. Yale died of pneumonia at Camp Upton, September 30, 1918; Private Paul Beau- lieu died of wounds on the day upon which the war ended, November II, 1918; Private Malachi Walsh enlisted in a British regiment and was killed in action September 20, 1917; Sergeant Albert S. Toole was killed in action on October 19, 1918; Private Adrien Yelle died of wounds, July 21, 1918; Cor- poral Lavoie, Company D, 16th Infantry, died of wounds, received in action October 9, 1918, his mother later receiving the posthumous award to him of
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