USA > South Carolina > Spartanburg County > A history of Spartanburg county > Part 25
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Lieutenant Schwing had been in practical command during ac- tive fighting. He boasted of Company F that they were hard fighters and hard workers and were not afraid of the devil himself. They were in the thick of the hardest battles of the entire war and not once did the commanding officers hear a single word of complaint,
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even when the men were ordered over the top without breakfast. They slept in every barn in France, and there was not one serious breach of discipline. Some of them drank too much red wine, and therefore dug many holes and refilled them.
The men told the home folks that the fighting strength of the company was not at any one time more than 160 men, yet that it had an official record of having captured 576 Germans, including eight officers. After its part in the actions of September, its fighting strength fell to 29, because of casualties. When decorations and citations were considered, Company F led all the rest, for it had a Congressional Medal of Honor-one of the six won by South Carolinians-and one officer and five enlisted men had been cited in Division General Orders for meritorious conduct.
Nothing better exemplifies what a melting-pot the American Ex- peditionary Force was than an analysis of the roster of Company F as of March 6, 1919, when it was ready to embark for home. It carried the names of 229 men. Of these, 46 were Spartans and 69 were from other towns in South Carolina. The company still re- garded itself as the Hampton Guards, even though nearly half the men in it were from 25 other States. Tennessee furnished 22 of these men ; Minnesota and Iowa, 11 each; Georgia, 8; Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, had 5 each; North Carolina, 4; South Dakota, New York, Illinois, Alabama, Missouri, Virginia, had 3 each ; New Jersey, Louisiana, Arkansas, West Virginia, Kentucky, Mississippi, 2 each ; and Oklahoma, Vermont, Colorado, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, 1 each. Of the 90 men who left Spartanburg with the Hampton Guards 75 per cent, according to estimates of some members of the company, won commissions in the course of the war.
Spartanburg's Welcome to Her Own Boys On March 31, 9,000 men of the Thirtieth Di- vision paraded in Columbia, and Gary Evans Foster of Company F sat in the reviewing stand. Immediately afterward the mustering out began, April 2, 1919. Company F went home.in two special cars attached to the Carolina Special. The entire population welcomed them. Sixty Confederate Veterans of Camp Joseph Walker formed a guard of honor. There was no parade, for each soldier was seized upon by his family or sweetheart and Mayor Floyd led the rejoicing throng to the Soldiers' Club, which was headquarters for an all-day recep- tion. The men were guests for lunch at the Tri-Color Tea Room
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of the Church of the Advent. On this occasion the Reverend W. H. K. Pendleton and Colonel T. J. Moore made speeches of wel- come. After the luncheon there was dancing at the Soldiers' Club ; and during the afternoon Mrs. Fred Robertson, on behalf of the Cowpens Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, in a speech gracious and witty, presented to Gary Foster a silver loving cup.
In the evening the finest dinner the Hotel Cleveland could spread was served the Confederate soldiers and the returned Hampton Guards. Mayor Floyd was toastmaster and former Governor John Gary Evans made an eloquent address of welcome. Interesting responses were made by Lieutenant James A. Schwing and Major Cecil C. Wyche, commander of the Second Battalion, to which the Hampton Guards belonged. President H. Nelson Snyder of Wof- ford College made the concluding address.
Record of Company C 117th Engineers
In the midst of intense rejoicing at the return of these men, Spartanburg people did not forget how large a number of their boys were still in the service-many still overseas. The first body of Spartans to go overseas had been Company C, 117th Engineers, Forty-Second Di- vision. After the final review of the Forty-Second Division, Major General W. C. Langfit cited the 117th Engineers for gallantry, saying :
. The regiment participated in all of the engagements of the Forty-Second Division, frequently operating with bravery and dash as infantry, and yet always attending to its proper en- gineering duties. . . Served as a reserve through those mem- orable days during which the fate of the world hung in the bal- ance, and as such it suffered. .. At Chateau-Thierry . .. the engineers were everywhere. . . It was the engineers who made possible the retention of that narrow strip along the north bank of Ourcq. .. When more troops were needed to strike the final blow that broke the backbone of German resistance, it was the engineers . .. that struck it. They dropped their tools, picked up their rifles and advanced ... reached the farthest point of advance of any dismounted elements of the Rainbow Division ... could not rest, for they had to police the battlefield, one of the most disagreeable tasks that falls to a soldier's lot ... the engineering feats performed by this regiment during the brief period of open warfare (south of Sedan) were marvelous. . .
General Langfit could not too enthusiastically praise the "initia- tive, resourcefulness, and do-or-die" with which the engineers did
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their "very remarkable and invaluable engineering work, with in- sufficient tools, materials not suitable, days of hard marching with no food and no sleep."
The engineers left Brest April 13, disembarking in New York on April 28. After ten days at Camp Merritt, New Jersey, they went to Columbia and were mustered out at Camp Jackson. After organizing Company C, First Lieutenant English and Captain A. V. Hooks had gone away. When they returned, Johnson had become a colonel, Hooks a major, and English was captain of the company. The engineers were tired of parades and begged to be mustered out as rapidly as possible ; and so, May 13, they began scattering to their homes as quietly and unostentatiously as they had left them, more than two years earlier.
The Wildcats and In June the Spartans of the Eighty-First Di- vision-the Wildcats - returned to America.
The Sightseeing Sixth
They had reached France in August, and on February 11 they had received their gold stripes for six months of foreign service. The Wildcats were reviewed by Pershing, and com- mended in a letter written April 1, 1919. They participated in action from September 18 to October 19, and again November 6-9. They were in the Army of Occupation, and had banjo players among the Alabama boys, sweet-voiced singers from Tennessee, Southern Negro imitators from the Carolinas, soft-shoe dancers from Florida, and parody singers, comedians, and story-tellers from the Bronx, with a sprinkling of talent from other States. But they were homesick, and were delighted when, in June, they began to start home, arriving at various ports of debarkation. South Carolina's men arrived at Charleston and were demobilized at Camp Jackson.
Spartanburg's men in the Sight-Seeing Sixth came home with lively accounts of "quiet" days spent in France, and of their six- teen-day hike across country, during which they slept at night in pup tents and by day marched immeasurable miles in the rain.
Record of Mayor Floyd had planned a great all-day celebra-
Spartanburg's tion to honor Spartanburg County soldiers, those Soldiers belonging to the Regular Army and Navy, individ- uals who had volunteered under other flags, the volunteer companies, and also the 2,897 drafted men-the largest number supplied by any county in South Carolina. The estimate was made that the total number of Spartans in the World War exceeded 4,000. As events
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turned out, the men came home so gradually and with such a dis- taste for parades and speech-making, that the mayor's plans did not materialize, and the seventy-five sheep he had ready for the great day were never barbecued.
A soldier who served six months in home training camps or in this country was entitled to wear on his sleeve a silver stripe as recognition of that service. Similarly six months' overseas service entitled him to wear a gold stripe. A soldier wore a stripe for each wound he received. An organization usually displayed a "service flag," which had a blue ground and bore a white star for each mem- ber or employee in the army. The star representing a soldier who had died for his country was replaced with a gold star. Later a gold star was pinned on the mother or widow of a dead soldier, and such women were accorded special consideration on official occa- sions. Soldiers who exhibited unusual courage or resourcefulness were decorated with medals or cited in general orders for special praise.
Three sons of Spartanburg families died before any Spartanburg unit had gone across : Second Lieutenant William Montague Nicholls of the Royal Field Artillery, British Army ; First Lieutenant Frank Gibbes Montgomery of the American Aviation Detachment at Tours, France; and Lieutenant Louis Armistead Freeman of the Sixth Infantry, United States Army.
Nicholls was a son of Judge George W. and
William Montague Nicholls Mrs. Minnie L. Nicholls, and had a soldier's education-having attended the Citadel at Charleston, South Caro- lina, and the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. He was a one-time member of the Hampton Guards. Early in 1915 he volun- teered for service with the British and was made a second lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery. He was wounded at La Chapelle, France, March 23, 1915, but recovered. In the bloody battle of Loos, September 26, 1915, he was killed, and was buried on the battlefield.
Frank Gibbes Lieutenant Frank Gibbes Montgomery, the eldest Montgomery son of Walter S. and Bessie G. Montgomery of Spartanburg, was a Wofford alumnus and an honor graduate of Yale University. He enlisted, May 2, 1917, as aerial squadron private first-class at Memphis, Tennessee. He was shortly afterward sent to the aerial grounds at Columbus, Ohio; transferred to Fort
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Wood, New York, July 23, 1917 ; and arrived in France, August 13. He joined the Aviation Detachment at Tours, France, August 15th ; was transferred to Avord, September 12th, and on October 12th, was sent to Issoudon, the largest aviation field in the world. He graduated as pilot-aviator November 16, 1917, receiving the French brevet of "Pilot Aviateur" No. 8448, and was commissioned First Lieutenant, A.S.O.R.C., December 11, 1917, entering service under the commission the day following. While temporarily assigned to Base Section 3, England, he met his death while on duty, flying in an aeroplane with a British officer at Hythe, England, on March 6, 1918. At the time he was assigned to duty at a school for aerial gunnery at Hythe, and the flight was his first at that place.
Louis Armistead Freeman Lieutenant Louis Armistead Freeman, son of Edwin J. and Mrs. Dora C. Freeman, was the only Spartanburg graduate of West Point killed in the war. He graduated in June 1917, went overseas in 1918, and was stationed in the St. Die sector on the Lorraine frontier. On March 17, 1918, in leading his company in an attack, he received a mortal wound from which he died the same day.
J. B. White A most unusual distinction fell to Sergeant J. B. White of Spartanburg-that of receiving more wounds than any other soldier in the A.E.F. The Herald, May 31, 1918, directed public attention to White's unique record. He was wounded sixty- seven times while in France, but none of these wounds were fatal. These wounds were received in five battles and were the result of snipers' bullets, shrapnel, and machine gun bullets. White was a Regular Army man, having served three full enlistments in the Army, and also an enlistment in the Navy. He left America for France from Hoboken pier, June 4, 1917, as first sergeant of Com- pany G, 28th Infantry, First Division. White was wounded in the first Cantigny drive, June 28, 1918; in the battle of the Marne, July 20, 1918; in the battle of Sazerais, August 19, 1918; in an engagement October 5, 1918, in which he received wounds from five machine gun bullets ; and at Mouzon, November 7, 1918. He participated in the battles of Soissons, and the St. Mihiel drive, but did not receive any wounds in these fights. After the Armistice was signed, he was honored by General Pershing with a personal inter- view. Sergeant White, after his retirement, lived in Spartanburg with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. K. White. On May 12, 1920, he was
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killed in an automobile accident, and was buried in Oakwood Ceme- tery with military honors.
Citations Spartanburg County had twenty-four soldiers who
and Medals were cited or decorated by their own country or the Allies. They were :
James D. Andrews, Croix de Guerre.
Dewey G. Arnold, Distinguished Service Cross, Croix de Guerre, Silver Star.
John F. Arrowwood, Croix de Guerre.
Roe Bradley, Distinguished Service Cross, Croix de Guerre.
Will Bruce, Distinguished Service Cross.
Robert Z. Cates, Croix de Guerre.
Robert W. Collins, French Etoile Noire.
Gary Evans Foster, Congressional Medal of Honor, Distinguished Conduct Medal, Croix de Guerre, Italian Croix de Guerre, Portuguese Croix de Guerre, Montenegrin Medal of Honor. Médaille Militaire.
Thomas Frank Fielder, Italian Ribbon.
Frank Fitzsimons, Navy Cross.
Melvin N. Jardin, Distinguished Service Cross, Croix de Guerre. Carlos G. Harris, Croix de Guerre, Legion of Honor, Silver Star. Edgar McDowell, Distinguished Service Cross, Croix de Guerre. L. L. Mckinney, Distinguished Service Cross, Legion of Honor,
Croix de Guerre, Médaille Militaire.
Ira E. Major, Distinguished Service Cross.
T. C. Montgomery, Legion of Honor.
Andrew J. Padgett, Distinguished Service Cross.
Charles D. Rounds, Distinguished Service Cross.
James A. Schwing, Distinguished Service Cross, Croix de Guerre, Silver Star.
LeRoy Watson Smith, Distinguished Service Cross, Médaille Militaire.
Theron F. Stack, Purple Heart.
Joseph W. Starkey, Distinguished Service Cross.
Joseph W. Turner, Distinguished Service Cross, Croix de Guerre, British Military Medal.
Dewey A. Whitaker, Distinguished Service Cross.
Charles P. Wofford, Officier d' Academie.
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The Honored The names of Spartans who died in France appear Dead on the tablet at Memorial Airport, which reads :
THIS AIRPORT DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF SPARTANBURG COUNTY MEN WHO DIED SERVING THEIR COUNTRY UNDER ARMS DUR- ING THE WORLD WAR
Lieutenant Colonel J. A. Brice, First Lieutenant Louis A. Freeman, First Lieutenant T. C. Herbert, First Lieutenant Frank G. Montgomery, Lieutenant Montague Nicholls (Royal Field Ar- tillery), John T. Adams, Robert S. Bailey, Joseph A. Barker, David Barnett, Walter T. Beach, James E. Bishop, Algie D. Blackwell, Virgil Blackwell, Jule H. Browning, Ernest C. Buice, Charles M. Bullman, Vaugh Wilford Carson, Coke T. Chesney, Edgar Lee Coggins, Robert F. Coleman, William B. Crawley, James E. Culp, Bryson E. Davis, John Dockrey, Derieux Edge, Lee A. Edwards, George M. Epton, Mark E. Fisher, William Wallace Fowler, Rufus Genoble, Boyce L. Gowin, Clarence E. Greenway, John H. Griffin, William H. Hammett, Wylie C. Har- mon, Claude Russell Harrison, William Herbert Harrison, Smith J. Harvey, Brinson M. Henson, James N. Henson, W. T. Hewitt, Isaac B. Hinson, Thomas R. Hughes, Lorane Hutchens, Grover C. Kirby, Crawford Lindsay, Richard L. Lister, Furman C. Mc- Dade, Thomas O. McHugh, Ira W. Miles, Walter Ellis McMillan, David M. Miller, Paul B. Mooneyham, Elisha Morgan, Horace Newman, William F. Orr, Allen H. Owensby, George L. Painter, Lawrence P. Petty, Romeo Petty, Russell G. Quinn, Williard Robinson, Merrett Rogers, Coel D. Ross, Bernard A. Rudisail, Willie B. Sanders, Coleman Sellars, Paul E. Settle, Vasco W. Smith, William Stuart Sothern, William E. Thomas, John M. Thomas, Leroy Turney, George W. Waldrop, John G. Walker, Ralph J. Walker, Columbus C. Weathers, Thomas Dent West, Albert L. Wheeler, Robert Y. Wilkins, Lawson G. Williams, Claude Williams, Norman Wilson, Arthur J. Wood, William R. Wright. (COLORED) : Jess Bobo, Zan Cade, Dennis Chambers, Ed Collins, Marshall Collins, James Dawkins, Archie DeShields, Glen Doudle, Elliott Drummond, Fred D. Durham, Dave Foster, William Franklin, Enzy Gist, Perry Harris, Richard Henderson, Sam Hoey, Sammy Humphries, Clifton Irby, Marcellus Johnson, Giles Jones, John W. Jones, Percy Lee Landrum, Zeno Little- john, William Logan, Andy Mayo, John McBeth, John Mc- Clintock, Wm. McJunkin, Sam Means, Grover Michols, Hylie Michols, Arthur Miller, John Montgomery, Samson Moore, Charlie Nesbit, Boyd Paden, David Smith, Perry Smith, Jim Stephens, Philip Tanner, Thomas Tanner, Jos. Teamer, Edgar
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Turner, Robert C. Whitmire, Jairus Wilson, Alexander Wingo, John Young.
Gold Star Widows The women from this county who were made
and Mothers widows by the World War, so far as their names can be ascertained, are as follows :
Mrs. Nannie Barker, Mrs. David Barnett, Mrs. J. E. Bishop, Mrs. Virgie Blackwell, Mrs. Iris Gentry Bailey, Mrs. Horace Bullman, Mrs. Vannie Coggins, Mrs. John Dockery, Mrs. Mary N. Edge, Mrs. Lee A. Edwards, Mrs. Clarence E. Greenway, Mrs. Grover C. Kirby, Mrs. William T. Hewitt, Mrs. Harriett Frazier Johnson, Mrs Allen Huston Owensby, Mrs. Amanda Morgan, Mrs. Furman C. McDade, Mrs. Colem D. Ross, Mrs. Paul Settle, Mrs. W. E. Thomas, Mrs. C. C. Weathers, Mrs. Lloyd Williams, Mrs. Maude Wilkins.
Following is the list of mothers who wear the Gold Star because their sons died in the service of their country during the World War:
Mrs. M. E. Alverson, Mrs. William Durham Blackwell, Mrs. Janie K. Brice, Mrs. William M. Browning, Mrs. B. B. Bullman, Mrs. George D. Chesney, Mrs. Ada Gowan Claton, Mrs. Sallie Turner Coker, Mrs J. E. Culp, Mrs. J. A. Davis, Mrs. J. E. Freeman, Mrs. Andrew Green, Mrs. Lucy Harman Griffin, Mrs. R. C. Harrison, Mrs. Edward B. Harrison, Mrs. John S. Har- mon, Mrs. Gennie Harvey, Mrs. Columbus Henson, Mrs. J. K. Hughes, Mrs. Janie Kirby, Mrs. Mattie McHugh, Mrs. T. C. McDade, Mrs. Bettie Miller, Mrs. H. P. Miles, Mrs. Walter S. Montgomery, Mrs. Noah Mullins, Mrs. George Nicholls, Mrs. Margaret Painter, Mrs. Margaret Ross, Mrs. M. D. Robinson, Mrs. A. C. Rudisail, Mrs. Dollie Sellers, Mrs. Hattie Walker, Mrs. Sarah Weathers, Mrs. Lou West, Mrs. Amanda Wilkins, Mrs. Eila Wilson.
When the camp was officially closed, March 25,
Changed Activities at Camp Wadsworth 1919, the War Department ordered the excel- lent hospital at Camp Wadsworth maintained as General Hospital Number 42, and it was kept in operation for the care of convalescent soldiers until September 30. On that date the 230 patients still there were transferred to a hospital at Oteen, North Carolina. The nurses, officers, and men were transferred or given their discharges. Dur- ing the six months it was maintained, Hospital Number 42 cared for 2,200 patients.
Many of these patients were well enough to be in and out of Spartanburg, as of course were the nurses, doctors, and other sol-
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diers attached to the camp. The practice was continued of holding regular dances and parties at the Soldiers' Club on Wednesday after- noons and on Tuesday and Saturday nights.
The hospital published a semi-monthly magazine, Biand Foryu, the final issue of which-published August 25, 1918-presented a review of the hospital activities, and served as a souvenir of this phase of Camp Wadsworth's history.
There were a few red-letter days in the course of the hospital's existence. One was "Flower Day"-May 4, 1918-on which the women of the County, the nurses, and various cooperating agencies so worked together that each of the more than 1,500 patients then in the hospital, on awakening that Sunday morning, found a bouquet by his bedside.
In June, seventy-five of the convalescent patients were guests of the Spartanburg Young Men's Christian Association and the Hen- dersonville Board of Trade, jointly, on an all-day outing which in- cluded lunch at an inn at Chimney Rock. The camp community en- tertained the public with music and contests on the Fourth of July, and were guests of the City on September 2, at the first noteworthy celebration of Labor Day ever held in Spartanburg, special dances and receptions being held in honor of officers, nurses, and enlisted men from the hospital.
A Visit From General O'Ryan was one of the principal speakers
General O'Ryan at the reunion of the Thirtieth Division held at its training grounds, Camp Sevier, Greenville, South Carolina, on Sep- tember 29, 1919, the anniversary of its exploits in breaking the Hin- denburg Line. General and Mrs. O'Ryan were the guests, on the following day, of the city of Spartanburg. As important to General O'Ryan as the luncheons, dinners, and public receptions tendered him was his visit to his old camp; and he expressed interest in plans for its preservation as a Memorial Park-plans which were to wait more than twenty years for fruition.
Aftermath The policy of the government concerning the camps established for training soldiers had been to sell such construction and equipment as could not be advantageously transferred to perma- nent camps. One exception was made: material suitable for road building or public utilities was given to municipalities and highway commissions. Frank Hodges, whose wife owned most of the land
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included in the Camp Wadsworth tract, was the successful bidder for the materials left on the property. Mrs. Hodges donated to the public a tract for a Memorial Park.
With the closing of the hospital the existence of Camp Wads- worth ended. A detail of thirty to fifty soldiers of the quarter- master's department cared for the final disposal of government prop- erty, and salvaging companies began their work.
The reaction from the strain and excitement of war days and war ways was so marked that the first anniversary of Armistice Day found Spartanburg unprepared with any plans for its celebration. In the morning, as the realization of this amazing situation dawned on the community, a spontaneous demand rose for some recognition of the day, and of the men who had served in the American Expe- ditionary Force. "Smokes" and "eats" were arranged for, and the evening paper announced "Open House" at the Soldiers' Club. There was a heavy rain, and only about one hundred men participated in what turned out to be to them a very enjoyable occasion. There were few speeches, but each man was called on to tell exactly what he was doing November 11, 1918, and the evening passed in exchange of reminiscences.
The strange interlude was over. Spartanburg had again proven herself the City of Success. The editor of the Herald was able to say, June 8, 1919:
The city went "over the top" in every Liberty Bond drive, and in practically every instance it not only subscribed its allotted quota in a very short while, but oversubscribed. The many and divers kinds of war work drives were all successfully put over in Spartanburg.
The Camp was gone, the boys were back home from overseas, and the task of building Spartanburg again absorbed the energies of the citizens. Camp Wadsworth was already, in the words of J. C. Hemphill, editor of the Spartanburg Journal, "only a patriotic and holy memory."
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THE CITY OF SPARTANBURG IN 1931
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CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX These Latter Days
Post-War Enterprises : Highways
The citizens of a county brought so intimately into contact with the World War as Spartanburg could never go back to patterns of living and thinking that satisfied them before 1917. The county took up unfinished tasks which the World War had interrupted - road building, hospital building, educational advancement, agricultural progress, and com- mercial expansion. The most pressing business was road improve- ment. Bitter controversies arose as to the proper location of the hard surface road toward Howard Gap. Chesnee and Cowpens citizens, in 1919, threatened to petition the legislature to transfer them to Cherokee County if their roads were not bettered. In Jan- uary 1920, the residents of the Greer area came within a few votes of seceding and being annexed to Greenville County.
The report of the State Highway Department for 1920 showed that the entire State then had 26.01 miles of hard surface roads, and Spartanburg had 6.9 of this total. In 1940, as in 1920, Spar- tanburg has more miles of road than any other county, with a road system of more than 2,300 miles, more than 300 miles of it hard- surfaced. There are 80 bridges in the county, the smallest 9 feet long and the largest 420 feet, spanning Pacolet River at Clifton No. Two. Three covered bridges remain in 1940 to link the present with the past. Besides its own roads, the county contains nearly 300 miles of State-maintained highways, including more than fifty bridges.
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