June 24-July 18, 1918: “We will surely do our damndest over here,” The Champagne Defensive

by Maj. William Carraway

Historian, Georgia Army National Guard

From March 21 to June 15, 1918 the German Army had launched four offensives along the Western Front in a final effort to break the stalemate of trench warfare, drive the British Expeditionary Force from the continent and compel the French to sue for peace. The Germans met with early success during Operations Michael and Georgette, but the tactical victories and terrain captured did not translate to strategic victory. By June 15, the Germans had opened two salients in the Western Front. The Marne salient extended from Soissons in the west to Rheims in the east and plunged south to within 40 miles of Paris to the banks of the Marne River and the town of Chateau Thierry. The effects of the spring offensives and creation of the salients meant that the German Army now had a longer line to defend with fewer men. Recognizing this, and expecting another German offensive, General Ferdinand Foch, Supreme Allied Commander, began drawing additional forces to the Marne Salient and awaited the opportunity to launch a counteroffensive.

The Marne Salient, July 1918. Image credit firstworldwar.com

May 26-June 23, 1918: “The war will be ended by the first of 1919.”

by Captain William Carraway

Historian, Georgia Army National Guard

As dawn broke on May 26, 1918, more than two months had passed since the 151st Machine Gun Battalion had suffered a casualty. The Soldiers in front line positions looked forward to relief. Company A and B remained in position in the front lines with the 167th Infantry Regiment at Neuviller while Company C and D remained on duty with the 168th at Ville Negre. The men of Company D were rotating out of front line positions that evening and would be replaced in the line by the machine gun company of the 168th Infantry Regiment after a front-line tour of more than two weeks. Just days before Companies C and D had repelled German probing attacks and dodged strafing fire from a low flying German plane.[i]

Map of the Baccarat Sector. Americans All: The Rainbow at War., F. J. Heer Printing Company, 1936, 228A

May 1918: “Trust In God. Hold Your Head High and Fly the Service Flag.”

by Captain William Carraway

Historian, Georgia Army National Guard

By May, the grim reality of trench warfare had set in for the men of the 151st Machine Gun Battalion. In the two and a half months the 151st spent occupying the relatively quiet Baccarat sector they were exposed to regular direct and indirect fire as well as gas attacks and probing actions. Life in the trenches was unsanitary, boring and terrifying.

Letters from home provided the only relief from the dull routine and tense waiting while reminding the Soldiers that a world existed outside the scarred landscape of France. Corporal Robert Gober Burton’s aunt Mary Eulalia Gober wrote frequently to him and the other Soldiers in the 151st from Monroe, Ga. One of the Monroe Soldiers, Sgt. Tom Hensler, wrote back:

In the Trenches

Gas-proof shelters for dressing stations, near Badonviller, Baccarat Sector,
April 29, 1918. Photo from The Medical Department of the United States Army
in the World War, 1925.

April 28, 1918

Mrs. W. H. Nunnally

Monroe, Ga,

My very dear Mrs. Nunnally

Received your card yesterday and was glad to know that there was still one in my old home town that hadn’t forgotten me altogether.

The Georgia Volunteers in the Spanish American War

by Captain William Carraway

Historian, Georgia Army National Guard

On April 25, 1898, the United Stated declared war on Spain following the destruction of the U.S.S. Maine in Havana Harbor. The Treaty of Paris ended the war December 10, 1898. The conflict sandwiched between those dates would be referred to by Col. Theodore Roosevelt as a “splendid little war.” Indeed, the Spanish American War is in large part remembered for the flourish of Roosevelt’s Rough Riders who fought side-by side with the African American Soldiers of the 9th Cavalry Regiment at Kettle Hill and San Juan Hill. The war marked the emergence of the United States as an international power. Victory granted the United States the Spanish colonies of the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam and heralded the political rise of Theodore Roosevelt and the progressive movement. But despite the glory of Roosevelt’s “crowded hour,” the Spanish American War would have a deleterious effect on many of the Citizen Soldiers from Georgia who volunteered for service.

Brig. Gen. Phill G. Byrd. Georgia's Adjutant
General, 1900. Georgia Guard
History Archives

On October 17, 1900, the report of the Adjutant General of the State of Georgia for 1899 to 1900 was delivered to Georgia Governor Allen D. Candler. Brigadier General Phill G. Byrd, Adjutant General of the Georgia State Troops, in his foreword to the Governor noted: “…on January 1st, 1899, because of the demoralization growing out of the Spanish-American War, and other causes, the State Troops had become so badly disorganized as to exist in name only.” It is worth exploring what events caused the great demoralization the adjutant general lamented. What organizational ennui befell the Georgia State Troops as a result of their involvement in the Spanish American War?

Background

As 1898 dawned, the modern concept of the National Guard was in its infancy. In Georgia, the military establishment was known as the Georgia Volunteers and would be known thus until a December 21, 1899 act changed the name to the Georgia State Troops. The Volunteers had an authorized strength of more than 12,000 men, but an organized strength of less than 5,000. The Volunteers were organized into six regiments and four battalions of infantry; one regiment, one battalion (not squadron) and one troop of cavalry; three batteries of artillery, a machine gun battery and four companies of Naval Reserve Artillery. African American Citizen Soldiers constituted  three of the infantry battalions, one troop of cavalry and one battery of artillery in the then segregated Volunteer structure.

April 1918, Back to Baccarat: “They are putting our names down in history it looks like.”

by Captain William Carraway

Historian, Georgia Army National Guard

When the units of the 42nd Division pulled out of the trenches March 23, 1918 they were initially dispatched for further training in the Rolamport area. (MWW, 91) These orders were countermanded due to the spring German offensive and the 151st MGB instead marched to Badmenil March 28, 1918. They did not have long to wait. On March 30th, the 151st received orders to move with its supported units to new positions in the Baccarat Sector. Major Cooper Winn established battalion headquarters at Neufmaison with the 84th Brigade HQ while Company A and B marched with the 167th Infantry Regiment and took up support by fire positions at Vacqueville. From there, they rotated into front line positions near Neuviller or Grand Bois. Companies C and D, moving with the 168th Infantry moved to Pexonne and entered front line positions in Badonvillier and Village Negre.

Upon arriving in Vacqueville, Cpl. Robert Burton humorously advised his family about life in the trenches in spring.

March, 1918, First Contact: “The Boche haven’t got me yet!!”

by Captain William Carraway

Historian, Georgia Army National Guard

On March 7, Private Robert Addleton stepped through the door of his home at 6 Holt Avenue in Macon for the first time in more than six months. He was the first member of the 151st Machine Gun Battalion to return from the war. After enlisting April 17, 1917, Addleton had traveled to France with the battalion and ultimately to within 10 miles of the Western Front. Mere days before the 151st entered the front-line trenches, it was discovered that Addleton had been underage at the time of his enlistment. He was sent home with an honorable discharge. While his comrades were overseas receiving their baptism of fire, Addleton went back to work at the Willingham Cotton Mills in Macon. 

Somewhere in France (The trenches near Ancervillier)

March 14, 1918

My dearest daddy,

Your letter received today. I was surely glad to hear from you. I am getting along well and fine. Tom Hensler is getting along just as nicely as can be. So is (Private Weymon Guthrie, Company B; Pvt. Leonard Chandler, Company B) and old Moore (Emory Moore, Company C.) You couldn’t kill him. Tom is just as full of life as ever, keeps you laughing all the time. (Sergeant Ed Williamson, Company A) is with us now. He rejoined us about a month ago I suppose. I was as glad to see him as if he had been my own brother.

Corporal Robert G. Burton’s March 14th letter offers a reassuring version of the war in which he and his fellow soldiers are happy and in high spirits. Perhaps knowing that any correspondence sent home would be widely distributed among family members and shared with the local paper, Burton provides no hint of his location or the fact that Soldiers of his unit had been in the trenches for nearly a week. in the Luneville and Baccarat sectors.

Sectors in the Vosges Front, 1918. Map by Capt. William Carraway from
American Battle Monuments Commission data.

"Don’t worry for a minute about me." Training for the Trenches: January-March 1918

by Captain William Carraway

Historian, Georgia Army National Guard

Private Joseph Tucker obituary
Atlanta Constitution, Jan. 25, 1918

The 151st Machine Gun Battalion trained at Viller sur Suize for five weeks enduring more severe cold. Weather and hardship took a toll. Private Joseph E. Tucker of Company C died of pneumonia shortly after the battalion reached Viller sur Suize. A resident of Brinson, Ga., Tucker told recruiters he was 18.5 years old when he enlisted in Company E, 2nd Georgia Volunteer Infantry June 25, 1917. When he died January 10, 1918, Tucker was just nine days short of his 16th birthday.

While at Viler sur Suize, the Soldiers familiarized themselves with gas mask drills and practiced emplacing and firing their Hotchkiss machine guns. The Mle 1914 Hotchkiss Machine Gun was capable of firing 600 eight-millimeter rounds per minute. A squad of nine men was required to maintain and serve a Hotchkiss in combat. The squad was led by a corporal and consisted of eight privates. The gunner carried the 53-pound weapon in action while an assistant loader bore the 41-pound tripod. A third man was responsible for carrying the 18-pound traversing rod along with an ammunition box containing 30-round strips of ammunition. Three men served as ammunition carriers and two more were detailed to handle mules who hauled the gun cart and ammunition cart. These carts would be driven as close as possible to firing positions before the guns were carried forward by hand. In practice, road and terrain conditions often necessitated long maneuvers carrying the weapons and ammo distributed amongst the squad members.

In this 1918 Signal Corps photo, Major Cooper Winn, commander of the 151st
Machine Gun Battalion reviews machine gun squad drill with officers of the French Army.

Burdened with more than 100 pounds of weapon system in addition to ammunition crates, the Soldiers were not assigned individual weapons systems. Their lives on the battlefield would depend on how fast they employed their machine guns and how accurately they could place fire.

The companies of the 151st Machine Gun Battalion consisted of three platoons, each commanded by a lieutenant along with a headquarters section. The platoons had two sections composed of two squads. A sergeant led each section while corporals were responsible for the squads. On January 23, Robert Burton was promoted to corporal and placed in charge of one of those squads. The occasion prompted his first letter home since January 6, 1918.

Somewhere in France (Viller sur Suize)

January 23, 1918

My dearest mama,

As I haven’t received a letter from you in sometime will drop you a line.

I am getting along just as nicely as possible.

I had a letter from Mildred some two or three days ago. She said that she heard from you quite often. Good work. Keep it up. She also said that she sent me an Xmas present but so far it hasn’t been received yet.

Tomorrow I am taking out $5,000 more of insurance. I am doing it mostly to do my bit in saving the government money. Not that I think that I am going to be hurt in the war. I am also going to notify the man in charge of the war risk insurance to send the policy to you That means the first $5,000 I took out but after a while you will get the policy on the second $5,000.

How is everything and how are everybody at home? Write me with the news.

Don’t worry for a minute about me. With heaps of love,

Your Devoted Son,

Gober

Private Homer Terry's grave marker, Meuse Argonne
Cemetery. Photo courtesy of Jack Solomon

By mid-February the battalion was ordered to prepare to move to the front. The Soldiers entrained February 18, 1918 for transport initially to Giriviller, about 20 miles southeast of Nancy. Five days later, Pvt. Homer Terry of Company B was run over by a machine gun cart and killed. Terry was from Porterdale, Ga. He had enlisted in The Jackson Rifles, Company A, 2nd Georgia Volunteer Infantry June 16, 1916 and had traveled with Burton to Camp Cotton on the Mexican border that year. He was 23 years old.

At Giriviller, the companies of the 151st were attached to the infantry regiments of the 84th Brigade, 42nd Division. Company A and B were attached to the 167th Infantry Regiment comprised mostly of National Guard Soldiers from Alabama while Company C was attached to the 168th Infantry Regiment composed of Iowa National Guard Soldiers. The newly assigned Company D was attached to a reserve element of the 168th.

Major Cooper Winn, commander of the 151st Machine Gun Battalion was assigned as machine gun officer for the 84th Brigade in addition to his battalion command duties. The 27-year-old native of Macon enlisted as a private in the Macon Volunteers March 2, 1899 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the same unit three years later. He served with the Macon Volunteers until 1912 when he was appointed adjutant of the 2nd Georgia Infantry Regiment, parent unit of the Macon Volunteers. Promotion to major followed in November 1912. Major Winn traveled with the Georgia Brigade to El Paso, Texas in 1916 and was stationed at Camp Cotton at the same time as Cpl. Burton. Winn assumed command of the 151st Machine Gun Battalion in August 1917 after the Georgians returned from Texas.

The Macon Volunteers in 1903. Lieutenant Cooper Winn stands center.
Georgia National Guard Archives

For now, Winn’s focus was on rotating his companies through front line positions in the Luneville and Baccarat Sectors, relatively quiet sections of the front but still part of an active combat zone. These sectors occupied gently rolling terrain north of the mountainous Vosges Region near the Swiss border. Here, the 151st and their supported infantry regiments would begin working with the French 128th Division prior to conducting a battle-handoff of sector responsibility.

On March 8, the first elements of the 151st Machine Gun Battalion entered the trenches near Badonvillier beginning the first of 167 days in front-line combat positions.

Next Chapter: First Contact