Monroe County in World War I

 Thanks to Kathleen Wilham for providing this article from the Monroe City News’ 1835-1935 Monroe County 100^th Anniversary Historical Edition!

 Monroe County Gave Nearly 600 Sons and Daughters to World War Service

 “Monroe County sent 587 boys to the World War, according to the roster compiled for the bronze memorial tablet that hangs on the wall of the lobby of the courthouse in Paris.  This memorial tablet was a gift from J. Fletcher Farrell of New York.  The Monroe County soldiers were distributed mainly in the 89^th, 35^th and 3^rd Divisions of the regular United States army.  The majority of them were in the famous 89^th Division which distinguished itself in the Argonne offensive which thrillingly climaxed the close of the World War.

 The Third Division was in the famous second battle of the Marne which occurred July 25, 1918, our boys helping to defend Chateau Thierry, which was assaulted by the German troops with fierce barrage.  This battle took place when the Germans were within 40 kilometers, or about 25 miles east of Paris, and was the turning point in the war.  A few thousand American held a line six and one half miles long along the Marne, east of Chateau Thierry against 24,000 Germans.  The immediate purpose of this drive was to break the offensive by the Germans at the Marne line and stop their advance upon Paris.

 The German artillery with 89 batteries overwhelmed the sector with high explosives and shrapnel.  The American boys replied with about one gun to the Germans’ six.  Yet the barrage fire of the Americans was so accurate they caused great havoc among the densely packed German masses.  Americans filled the Marne river with the wreckage of boats and German bodies.  The American troops put in charge of machine guns at strategic points along the six and half mile sector took heavy toll of German soldiers as they attempted to cross the Marne river, but practically all the machine gunners died at their posts.  Our Monroe County boys were in the thick of the eventful fight.  The Third Division participated in six battles. 

 The other major battle that the Monroe County boys participated in the Meuse-Argonne offensive campaign.  The Chateau Thierry battle was a defensive movement in which the Americans were desperately holding back the advance of the Germans.  The Meuse-Argonne campaign was an offensive, in which the allied forces pushed the German army back, foot by foot as it were, from French territory which they had held since the beginning of the war in 1914.  The first French town to be recaptured from the Germans by the Americans was St. Mihiel which lies in a southeastern direction from Verdun and also southeast from Paris.  This occurred between September 10-13, 1918, our boys cutting or walking over the first barbed wire entanglements.  Few Germans were found in the front line trenches.  Every division had its objective carefully mapped out and each section of troops knew just what town, woods or strategic position, they were expected to drive the Germans out of. 

 The U.S. troops following the capture of St. Mihiel, advanced in a northeastern direction toward the Meuse River and the Argonne Forest.  Then began that desperate fighting which lasted almost continuously from September 26 to the Armistice, November 11, 1918.  Every device that German ingenuity could suggest had been applied to make their position impregnable.  The wooded heights of the Argonne were a network of wire and had been elaborately fortified for eighteen or twenty miles.  The American, or attacking forces fought blindly but the defensive Germans could fight with their eyes open.  This Argonne sector was the very heart of the German fighting machine for the great German railroad lines converged there and thus enabled the German Army to shift forces quickly over the whole Western battle front.  This territory also contained the Briey Iron Basin from which Germany obtained her supplies of iron and steel. 

 This famous Meuse-Argonne battle was divided into three periods, many Monroe County soldiers being in the heaviest fighting sectors.  The first period was between September 26 and October 3, when heavy assaults were made against the Germans.  From October 4 to November 1 they fought in close contact with the opposing army, frequently having hand to hand combats with German troops.  In the final period of this struggle, between November 1 and 11, which brought about the end of the war, the allied division made rapid advance driving the Germans back mile by mile until 150 square miles of occupied French territory were regained and large amounts of war material captured.  Monroe County World War veterans declare that the Germans were glad to be taken prisoners.  This great victory of the allied armies crushed the spirit and broke the morale of the German Army.  Monroe Co. numbered twenty-one commissioned officers in her list of soldiers.  Six of her young women enrolled for service as nurses. 

 According to the records available only eighteen of the 587 lost their lives in action, although several have died since as the result of wounds and effects of having been gassed.  Among these are J. Tandy Ragland, Roy Dooley and Harland Ray.  County soldier whose bodies were brought back from France included Basil H. Barney, William Forbis, Edgar E. McCann and Russell Curtright.  Miss Christine Colborn, a nurse, also died in service.”

 The following table includes the above article’s roster of Monroe County commissioned officers, soldiers and Y.M.C.A workers, as well as WWI veterans listed in the other sources noted below.  For additional information on veterans, check out the Missouri State Archives World War I Service Record Database: http://www.sos.state.mo.us/archives/