The Macon Volunteers 1825-2025: The Macon Volunteers in World War I, 1917-1919

By Major William Carraway

Historian, Georgia National Guard

 

Return to Camp Harris

Just days after returning from Mexico, Pvt. Robert C. Harlan of the Macon Volunteers, died of pneumonia. Harlan, the youngest Soldier in the company, had fallen ill at Camp Cotton and begged to go home with his fellow Soldiers rather than remain in the camp hospital. Upon their return, the Volunteers carried him in a litter to Williams’ Sanatorium where he died April 3.[1] He was laid to rest in his uniform with full military honors.[2]

 

On April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson asked a special joint session of Congress for a declaration of war against Germany. Congress approved the declaration April 6, 1917. On that day, the Macon Volunteers remained in camp at Central Park having spent the previous night on guard duty during a heavy rain. Other companies of the 2^nd Georgia had been dispatched across the state to guard against sabotage attacks by German agents. The Albany Guards were detatched to guard a waterworks plant north of Macon while the Columbus Guards had returned home to conduct police duty. The Volunteers would soon move to Camp Harris where the tents of the Macon Hussars, Walton Guards, Jackson Rifles and other companies were already pitched.[3] From there, the Volunteers would detail elements to guard railroad crossings and bridges around Macon.[4]

 

Roster of the Macon Volunteers, Macon Telegraph,
August 14, 1917, 9.

The 151st Machine Gun Battalion

On August 13, 1917, the War Department ordered the creation of a National Guard division to be composed of units from 26 states.[5] The three Macon-based companies of the Georgia National Guard’s 2^nd Infantry Regiment were selected to form the 151^st Machine Gun Battalion which would support the infantry regiments of the 84^th Infantry Brigade, 42^nd Infantry Division. Company B; the Macon Volunteers and Company C; the Floyd Rifles, would serve as Company B and C of the 151^st while Company F; the Macon Hussars, would constitute Company A, 151^st.[6]

 

The prospect of mobilizing to France with the 42^nd drew Soldiers from across the Georgia National Guard to fill the ranks of the Macon units. Ultimately, the ranks of the 151st were swelled to nearly 600 Soldiers from more than 150 towns across the state. [7] Major Cooper Winn, adjutant to Brig Gen. Walter Harris, was swiftly appointed to command the 151^st MGB.[8] Winn had enlisted in the Macon Volunteers March 12, 1899, and served through the ranks, rising to command the Volunteers from 1908-1910. His appointment was met with enthusiasm among the Macon units he was soon to mobilize overseas.

 

Departure and Training in France

The 151^st MGB left for Camp Mills, New York arriving September 1, 1917.^[9] Sailing from the United States October 31, the 151^st disembarked at Brest Harbor after a 17-day voyage. On November 17, 1917, the men crowded, forty at a time, into railroad cars. Issued three days rations, the men remained in the cars until the 22nd of November when they detrained at Vaucouleurs in central France. Without issue of rations, the battalion was split up and elements marched in a pouring rain, Company C going to Vaux la Petite while Company A, B, and Headquarters marched to Uruffe.

 

Uruffe, France, where the Macon Volunteers encamped enroute to Viller sur Suize. Photo by Maj. William Carraway.

Having arrived at their initial training stations, the companies of the 151st MGB conducted nearly a month of training before beginning a 110-kilometer foot march to their new station in the Rolamport sector. Marching in heavy snow on December 14, the entire battalion assembled at Manois where it remained through Christmas, 1917.

 

Private Homer Terry,
Macon Volunteers.

On January 4, 1918, the 151^st assembled at Viller sur Suize where it was augmented by a company of the Pennsylvania National Guard’s 149^th MGB which was assigned as Company D. While at Viller sur Suize, the Macon Volunteers suffered their first casualty. Private Homer Terry was killed when he was run over by an ammunition cart. The 22-year-old Soldier from Porterdale, Georgia had joined the Macon Volunteers from Company A, 2^nd Georgia Infantry Regiment the previous July.

 

On February 18, 1918, the 151^st MGB moved by train to Giriviller, where its companies were assigned to infantry regiments of the 84^th Brigade, 42^nd Division. Companies A and B would support the Alabama National Guard’s 167^th Infantry Regiment with Company C and D in support of the Iowa National Guard’s 168^th Infantry Regiment.^[10]

 

As commander of the 151^st MGB, Maj. Cooper Winn additionally served as the brigade machine gun officer. Winn’s duties encompassed rotating companies of the 151^st to provide fire support to the brigade’s infantry regiments beginning with their assignment to the sectors of Luneville and Baccarat in the Vosges Region at the southernmost extent of the Western Front.^[11]

 

Private Frank Adkins,
Macon Volunteers.

On The Front Lines

The 168^th Infantry Regiment entered the trenches near Badonviller on March 8, with
Company C, 151^st MGB in support. That day, the Macon Volunteers lost Pvt. Frank Adkins, 31, who died of pneumonia.

 

Company A entered the trenches a few days later, moving to support the 167^th near Ancerviller. Over the next several weeks, the Soldiers rotated into and out of the trenches in support of the infantry regiments who trained with the veteran French 128^th Division.^[12] During its time spent in the Vosges, the 151^st MGB was exposed to enemy action culminating with a coordinated gas and artillery assault on the French and American lines on the morning of May 27. In this attack, the 168^th Infantry Regiment suffered more than 300 casualties.^[13] Positioned as they were in firing positions to the rear of the forward line, the 151^st MGB suffered just four casualties.^[14]

 

The Macon Volunteers entered the trenches near Ancerviller, France in March 1918. Photo by Maj. William Carraway.

The Champagne Marne Defensive

By July, German forces had established two salients along the Western Front following a series of offensive operations. The 42^nd Division was ordered north as part of a planned deliberate defensive action in the Champagne Sector. The 151^st arrived in Suippes, France July 4 and was placed in the third line of defense. Two lines of infantry trenches extended before them with the forward line lightly manned to provide early warning of German attack. The second line was held in strength and was intended to serve as the main line of resistance. Intelligence gathered during a raid on July 14 informed French General Ferdinand Foch of the German plans to commence the assault with a barrage of artillery on the morning of July 15.^[15]

 

View of the French and American position near Suippes from the direction of the German advance. The Macon Volunteers were positioned
in the second line of woods to the middle left. Photo by Maj. William Carraway.

French and American artillery units disrupted the planned assault by initiating fire on German positions before midnight. The German artillery responded by targeting the French forward line of defense. German shells ranging beyond the forward line fell upon the positions occupied by Soldiers of the 151^st MGB. A machine gun position of the Macon Volunteers Company B sustained a direct hit from a German shell which killed or wounded every man in the gun crew. Among those killed were Cpl. Chambers Bunting, Sgt. Earl Wadsworth, Pvt. Guerrey Temples, and Pfc. Daniel Hudson. Additional rounds landed in the battalion logistics area causing damage to the ammunition carts and killing every mule in the supply train of Company C.^[16]

 

Macon Volunteers killed in action near Suippes, France:  Cpl. Chambers Bunting, Sgt. Earl Wadsworth, Pvt. Guerrey Temples and Pfc. Daniel Hudson.

The German attack was blunted but not before seven separate assaults were launched upon the French and American lines.^[17] The 151^st remained positions on the intermediate and support lines in anticipation of follow-on assaults until July 20. The battalion suffered 69 casualties to gas and artillery during the defensive while being largely unable to engage the enemy from their scattered positions on the reserve line.^[18]

 

Action at the Croix Rouge Farm

Following the successful Champagne-Marne Defensive, the 42^nd Division was ordered to proceed to Chalons on July 19 to initiate offensive operations. [19] The losses in horseflesh to the 151^st MGB was so severe that the Soldiers were compelled to unload many of the ammunition carts and carry ammunition in addition to the weight of their crew-served weapons. Proceeding on foot and by truck, the 151^st reached Epeids in a driving rain and under heavy enemy fire that killed one Soldier in Company D and wounded four others.^[20]

 

On July 25, the infantry regiments of the 84^th Brigade formed a line of battle running east to west in a thick wood approximately 10 kilometers from German-held defenses on the Ourcq River. The Soldiers of the 151^st MGB were parceled out with a platoon assigned to each infantry battalion for the upcoming assault. ^[21] The attack was scheduled to begin at 4:50 p.m. July 26. [22]

 

Before the 42^nd Division could contend with the main line of German defenses, it had to pass a stone farmhouse called the Croix Rouge Farm. The farm was defended by two German divisions. The open terrain immediately surrounding the farmhouse was covered by machine guns that bristled from the stone house and surrounding stone fence work.^[23]

 

The Croix Rouge Farm in 1918 and 2018.

Walter Binford, a corporal in The Macon Volunteers, Company B, 151^st MGB, was in one of the machine gun crews assigned to support the 167^th Infantry Regiment. In his post-war diary, Binford recalled the struggle of keeping up with the swift assault while encumbered with heavy weaponry. Binford and his crew were unable to establish a firing position until they reached the farmhouse:

 

We got to the wall of the Farm yard, (sic) which was occupied by the enemy and could not get in, so we sat down with our backs to the wall, catching our breaths, when one of our shells hit the wall and blew a hole in it. We dashed through the hole and came face to face with the enemy.^[24]

 

Sergeant Paul B. Minter, Macon Volunteers.

Meanwhile, on another part of the field, Sgt. Paul Bryants Minter, a section leader in The Macon Volunteers Company B, was able to put his guns into action. In the face of heavy machine gun fire and deafening artillery impacts, Minter identified targets for his gunners until felled by enemy fire. For his actions in the victory at the Croix Rouge Farm, Minter was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. He was the only Georgia National Guard Soldier to receive the award out of 36 nominated.^[25]

 

The casualties in the 151^st MGB at Croix Rouge farm were light compared to those suffered by the infantry regiments in large part because the men were unable to keep up with the assault due to their combat load. Whereas the 151^st lost six Soldiers killed and wounded, the 167^th Infantry was devastated by German machine gun fire and was reduced to battalion strength in the engagement.^[26]

 

Taking Hill 212

Despite the loss of the Croix Rouge Farm, the Germans fortified their defensive positions north and east of the Ourcq River.^[27] Hill 212, near the village of Sergy offered the Germans a commanding field of fire over the open terrain across which the 42^nd Division would have to approach.[28]

 

View of the terrain looking southwest from Hill 212.  The Macon Volunteers approached from the vicinity of the trees upper middle right on the horizon.
Photo by Maj. William Carraway

At dawn July 28, Soldiers of the 42^nd Division crossed the Ourcq and engaged the enemy. A Soldier of Company A, 151^st MGB, recalled that it took seven charges to capture Sergy at the cost of 16 killed and 70 wounded in the 151^st MGB.^[29] The Macon Volunteers lost Cpl. Willie Murray, Pvt. James Mason, Pvt. Emmett Martin, and Pvt. James Guerry, killed in action.

 

Private James Guerry, Cpl. Willie Murray, Pvt. Emmett Martin, and Pvt. James Mason of the Macon Volunteers were killed in action during operations
near Sergy, France. 

New Tactics at St. Mihiel

Through the end of July, after witnessing the mounting casualties in his battalion, Winn argued that the 151^st should be placed in a massed support by fire position rather than committed with assaulting infantry elements. For Winn, the assault on Hill 212 and the effort to take Sergy represented a lost opportunity to employ “concentrated machine gun fire”^[30] In the coming campaign, Winn would have the opportunity to put his theory to practice.

 

The attack in which the 151st MGB would participate was the first great offensive of the 1st U.S. Army. The attack would fall upon the Saint Mihiel Salient, a protrusion of the Western Front which was created by successful German advances during the Battle of Flirey in the fall of 1914. In the four years since the creation of the salient, German troops had fortified their positions, emplacing trenches and barbed wire. French assaults in the Saint Mihiel salient had, for four years, failed to dislodge the Germans from their positions. From the first days they entered the trenches in the Lorraine Sector in March 1918, the Soldiers of the 151st MGB had heard stories of the salient from French Soldiers who had served there. [31]

 

On August 6, Colonel Douglas MacArthur was placed in command of the 84^th Brigade. In September, after receiving more than 200 replacements, the 151^st moved to the vicinity of Saint Mihiel where MacArthur ordered the battalion employed as an organic support by fire element rather augmenting assault elements.

 

Just before midnight on September 11, the Soldiers of the 151^st assumed fire positions selected by Winn.^[32]  In the ensuing attack, the 84^th Brigade would assault north on the eastern half of the 42^nd Division Sector. Simultaneous attacks would be launched by U.S. and French divisions from four army corps in order to isolate German troops in the salient.

 

A four-hour artillery barrage commenced at 1:00 a.m. on the morning of September 12 followed by the infantry advance. Concentrated machine gun fire provided by the 151^st in conjunction with air support and armor effectively suppressed enemy fire enabling the infantry to close the distance to German lines.

 

The assault caught many of the German defenders unprepared.^[33] As the infantry assault surged ahead. Winn displaced part of his battalion forward to establish a secondary fire position while the remnant of the battalion maintained fire support.

 

In support of the 84th Brigade, 42nd Division, the Macon Volunteers reached this point in the St. Mihiel sector September 12, 1918. 
Photo by Maj. William Carraway.

By the afternoon of September 13, the 42^nd Division reached the limit of its assault with all objectives gained. The 84^th Brigade was ordered to transition to defensive operations, bringing a close to the Saint Mihiel Offensive.^[34] As Winn predicted, the 151^st MGB suffered far fewer casualties than in operations along the Ourcq River while providing more effective fire support to the attacking infantry formations. Private Otis Cook, Pvt. Thomas Whitaker, and Pvt. Madie Ware of the Macon Volunteers were killed during the St. Mihiel campaign.

Privates Madie Ware, Otis Cook, and Thomas Whitaker of the Macon Volunteers were killed in action during the St. Mihiel Campaign. 

 

Breaking the Hindenburg Line

On October 4, after just six days of rest, the 151^st marched to the Bois de Montfaucon where the 42^nd Division relieved the 1^st Division.^[35] The 42^nd occupied heights opposite the Kriemhilde Zone of the Hindenburg Line and prepared to assault the German positions.

 

Winn designated a support by fire position east of Hill 263. From this position, the 151^st could provide overhead plunging fire in advance of the infantry assault on German forces occupying hills 288 and 243, the Bois de Romagne and the Cote de Chatillon, a height that dominated the surrounding terrain.

 

As at Saint Mihiel, the guns of the 151^st suppressed the German trench positions with an overhead barrage as the 84^th Brigade initiated advanced at 8:15 a.m. October 14. Under cover of the concentrated fire, the 167^th Infantry Regiment swiftly crossed the valley to the base of the Cote de Chatillon their advance was stalled by obstacles emplaced before the German lines. The 168^th advanced further, seizing the crest of Hill 288. The following day, the 168^th surged up Hill 242 driving off the defending Germans. Despite these successes, the enemy remained entrenched on the Cote De Chatillon.

 

The Musarde Farm at the base of the Cote de Chatillon viewed from the support-by-fire position of the Macon Volunteers. Photo by Maj. William Carraway.

With the support of concentrated machine gun fire provided by the 151^st, the 168^th Infantry Regiment breached the German defenses on the Cote de Chatillon on the morning of October 16. The 167^th Infantry cleared the defenses in its front and the combined assault carried the American infantry to the crest of the Cote de Chatillon.^[36]

 

Sergeant Charles Long.

The attack cost the 167^th and 168^th Infantry Regiments nearly 1,400 casualties while the
151^st suffered 13.^[37] This figure was far lower than anticipated Major General Charles Summerall, V Corps commander, credited this to the effective fire of the 151^st MGB. Winn was promoted to lieutenant colonel and, at Summerall’s direction, briefed the machine gun battalion commanders in the V Corps on the 151^st MGB’s actions in the assault.^[38]

 

Armistice and Occupation

The Cote de Chatillon was the last decisive engagement of the 151^st. Redeployed to the heights overlooking Sedan, the 151^st MGB lost Sgt. Charles Long of the Maon Volunteers who was mortally wounded November 7, 1918, in Thelonne, France. The battalion had been removed from the front-line by the time the armistice ended combat operations. Following the armistice, the 151^st entered Germany for occupation duty.

 

In this image composite from 1918 and 2018, a Soldier of the 151st Machine Gun Battalion walks through the streets of Bad Bodendorf Germany.

In April 1919, the 151^st MGB returned to the United States. One month later, the Soldiers of the 151^st had been discharged from federal service.^[39] In more than 400 days on the European continent, the 151^st suffered more than 450 casualties including 57 killed or mortally wounded. Less than 250 of the original Georgia Soldiers returned with the battalion in 1919.^[40]

---

[1] “Robt. Harlan Dies,” Macon Telegraph, April 3, 1917, 3.

 

[2] “Camp Gossip,” Macon Telegraph, April 5, 1917, 7.

 

[3] George Sparks, “Camp Gossip,” Macon Telegraph, April 6, 1917, 6.

 

[4] George Sparks, “Camp Gossip,” Macon Telegraph, April 21, 1917, 3.

[5] “Organize Division of National Guard to Move to France,” Macon Telegraph, August 15, 1917, 1.

 

[6] “Roster of Macon Battalion Ordered to go to France,” Macon Telegraph, August 15, 1917, 1.

 

[7] Harold Stanley Johnson, Roster of the Rainbow Division (Forty-Second), (New York: Eaton & Gettinger, 1917), 505-515.

 

[8] Steve Jennings, “News and Gossip of Georga Troops,” Macon News, August 17, 1917, 6.

 

[9] R. G. Burton to Mrs. P. F. Burton, September 1, 1917, Georgia National Guard Archives.

 

[10] George McIntosh Sparks, ed., Macon's War Work: A History of Macon's Part in the Great World War, (Macon, GA: J.W. Burke Company, [n.d.]), 90.

 

[11] American Battle Monuments Commission, American Armies and Battlefields in Europe: A History, Guide, and Reference Book, (Washington, DC: U.S. G.P.O., 1938), 419-422.

 

[12] American Battle Monuments Commission, 42D Division Summary of Operations in the World War, (Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1944), 5.

 

^[13] Rexmond C. Cochrane, U.S. Army Chemical Corps Historical Studies Gas Warfare in World War I: The 42^nd Division before Landres Et St. Georges October 1918, Vol. 17, (Washington DC: U.S. Army Chemical Corps Historical Office, 1960), 13-14.

 

^[14] N. P. Parkinson and Joel R. Parkinson, Commanding Fire: An Officers Life in the 151^st Machine Gun Battalion, 42^nd Rainbow Division during World War I, (Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2013), 53-55 and 248.

 

^[15] American Battle Monuments Commission, 42D Division Summary of Operations in the World War, (Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1944), 12.

 

^[16] Arthur Peavy and Miller White, The 151^st Machine Gun Battalion 42d (Rainbow) Division: A Battalion History and Citations of the Rainbow August 13, 1917 to April 26, 1919, (Macon, GA: J. W. Burke Company, 1919), 8.

 

^[17] American Battle Monuments Commission, 42D Division Summary of Operations in the World War, (Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1944), 12.

 

^[18] Arthur Peavy and Miller White, The 151^st Machine Gun Battalion 42d (Rainbow) Division: A Battalion History and Citations of the Rainbow August 13, 1917 to April 26, 1919, (Macon, GA: J. W. Burke Company, 1919), 9.

 

^[19] Henry J. Reilly, Brig. Gen., O.R.C., Americans All: The Rainbow at War, (Columbus, OH: F. J. Heer Printing Company, 1936), 315.

 

^[20] N.P. Parkinson and Joel R. Parkinson, Commanding Fire: An Officers Life in the 151^st Machine Gun Battalion, 42^nd Rainbow Division during World War I, (Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2013), 87-88.

 

^[21] Nimrod T. Frazer, Send the Alabamians: World War I Fighters in the Rainbow Division, (Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 2014), 111.

 

^[22] American Battle Monuments Commission. 42D Division Summary of Operations in the World War, (Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1944), 20.

 

^[23] Nimrod T. Frazer, Send the Alabamians: World War I Fighters in the Rainbow Division, (Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 2014), 111-112.

 

[24] Walter Binford. “Unpublished Diary,” (Georgia National Guard Archives, [n.d.]).

 

[25] George McIntosh Sparks, ed., Macon's War Work: A History of Macon's Part in the Great World War, (Macon, GA: J.W. Burke Company, [n.d.]), 82.

 

[26] Nimrod T. Frazer, Send the Alabamians: World War I Fighters in the Rainbow Division, (Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 2014), 126.

 

^[27] Henry J. Reilly, Brig. Gen., O.R.C., Americans All: The Rainbow at War, (Columbus, OH: F. J. Heer Printing Company, 1936), 325.

 

[28] William Carraway, "Visit to Croix Rouge Farm, Hill 212 and Sergy, France," (Sergy, France, July 28, 2018).

 

^[29] R. G. Burton to Mrs. P. F. Burton, June 27, 1919, Georgia National Guard Archives.

 

^[30] Henry J. Reilly, Brig. Gen., O.R.C., Americans All: The Rainbow at War (Columbus, OH: F. J. Heer Printing Company, 1936), 433-434.

 

^[31] Henry J. Reilly, Brig. Gen., O.R.C., Americans All: The Rainbow at War (Columbus, OH: F. J. Heer Printing Company, 1936), 513 and 544.

 

^[32] Arthur Peavy and Miller White, The 151^st Machine Gun Battalion 42d (Rainbow) Division: A Battalion History and Citations of the Rainbow August 13, 1917 to April 26, 1919, (Macon, GA: J. W. Burke Company, 1919), 14.

 

^[33]Henry J. Reilly, Brig. Gen., O.R.C., Americans All: The Rainbow at War, (Columbus, OH: F. J. Heer Printing Company, 1936), 575.

 

^[34]Henry J. Reilly, Brig. Gen., O.R.C., Americans All: The Rainbow at War, (Columbus, OH: F. J. Heer Printing Company, 1936), 575.

 

^[35] Arthur Peavy and Miller White, The 151^st Machine Gun Battalion 42d (Rainbow) Division: A Battalion History and Citations of the Rainbow August 13, 1917 to April 26, 1919, (Macon, GA: J. W. Burke Company, 1919), 15.

 

^[36] American Battle Monuments Commission, 42D Division Summary of Operations in the World War, (Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1944), 65.

 

^[37] Nimrod T. Frazer, Send the Alabamians: World War I Fighters in the Rainbow Division (Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 2014), 187.

 

^[38] Arthur Peavy and Miller White, The 151^st Machine Gun Battalion 42d (Rainbow) Division: A Battalion History and Citations of the Rainbow August 13, 1917 to April 26, 1919, (Macon, GA: J. W. Burke Company, 1919), 16.

 

^[39] Arthur Peavy and Miller White, The 151^st Machine Gun Battalion 42d (Rainbow) Division: A Battalion History and Citations of the Rainbow August 13, 1917 to April 26, 1919, (Macon, GA: J. W. Burke Company, 1919), 24.

 

^[40] Arthur Peavy and Miller White, The 151^st Machine Gun Battalion 42d (Rainbow) Division: A Battalion History and Citations of the Rainbow August 13, 1917 to April 26, 1919 (Macon, GA: J. W. Burke Company, 1919), 25.