Franklin: The Death Angel Gathers Its Last Harvest

By Maj. William Carraway
Historian, Georgia Army National Guard

If you have participated in a staff ride at a Civil War battlefield, it is likely you learned of tactics employed, leadership tests and decisions made in the heat of conflict. A staff ride provides the opportunity to connect with leaders and great events of the past, to reveal the human dimension of war and to apply lessons of the past to present and future Army operations. One human dimension hitherto lacking in the staff ride experience, has been the roll of post-traumatic stress on the veterans of these great battles. We are left to assume that our generation is the only one to combat PTS, and yet, a study of Civil War letters reveals a connection between our experience and the experiences of the Civil War Soldier. It is critical that we make this connection, that our veterans know that they are not alone in their experiences. 

The Battle of Franklin Tennessee, fought on November 30, 1864, provides a study in the savagery of war and its lasting impact on those who return. Samuel Watkins, a private in the 1st Tennessee wrote of the Battle of Franklin:

“Kind reader, right here my pen, and courage, and ability fail me. I shrink from butchery. Would to God I could tear the page from these memoirs and from my own memory. It is the blackest page in the history of (the war). It was the bloodiest battle of modern times in any war…  I was there. I saw it. My flesh trembles, and creeps, and crawls when I think of it today. My heart almost ceases to beat at the horrid recollection. Would to God that I had never witnessed such a scene!”[1]

Writing in his memoir, Co. Aytch, nearly 20 years after the Battle of Franklin, Watkins reveals the difficulty in discussing the battle, an experience shared by Veterans of 21st century conflicts:

“I cannot describe it. It beggars description. I will not attempt to describe it. I could not. The death-angel was there to gather its last harvest. It was the grand coronation of death. Would that I could turn the page. But I feel, though I did so, that page would still be there, teeming with its scenes of horror and blood. I can only tell of what I saw.”[2]

 Situation

In the waning days of November 1864, the Confederate Army of Tennessee under Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood had pursued the smaller Federal army of Maj. Gen. John Schofield to the town of Franklin approximately 15 miles from Nashville, Tenn. Hood intended to isolate the Federal Army before it could reach the safety of Nashville and its Federal garrison.

Federal forces arrived in Franklin in the early hours of November 30 and began improving defensive works left over from a previous battle. The division of Brig. Gen. George Wagner was the last Federal force to reach Franklin. Wagner ordered his three brigades to take up position about a half mile forward of the main entrenchments. Colonel Emerson Opdycke of Ohio refused the order and marched his brigade to the rear of the Federal lines and went into camp. This decision would have far-reaching impact on the coming battle. 

Post-war map of the Franklin Battlefield.  Library of Congress

Survey of the Battlefield

As the Confederate Army drew into a battle formation on the crest of Winstead Hill its 20,000 Soldiers looked down on two miles of open ground and Schofield’s 25,000-man army. The defensive line was anchored near the brick home of Fountain Branch Carter. The Columbia Turnpike pierced the Federal center adjacent to the Carter House. Running perpendicular, in a crescent shape, from the Carter House and the turnpike, massive earthworks rose eight feet high topped with head logs. The lines on the Federal left were fronted by a grove of thorny trees. Fort Granger, located on the opposite bank of the Harpeth River, overlooked the fields southeast of the Franklin Line with guns that could range the field. Rather than wait to consolidate and reconnoiter the lines, with daylight fading, Hood ordered an assault at 4:00 p.m. Major Gen. John C Brown’s Division with 10 Georgia regiments would advance west of the Columbia Turnpike while Maj. Gen. Patrick Cleburne’s Division would advance east of the turnpike. Major Gen. William Bate’s Division would attack to the left of Brown’s Division. Lieutenant Gen. Alexander P. Stewart’s Corps would assault east of Cleburne’s Division with the divisions of William Loring, Edward Walthall and Samuel French. Lieutenant Gen. Stephen D. Lee’s Corps, on the march from Spring Hill, would arrive with three additional divisions including nine Georgia regiments after the initial assault. Confederate cavalry under Maj. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest would harass and attempt to turn the Federal flanks.

The home of Fountain Branch Carter was at the center of the Battle of Franklin

Photo by Maj. William Carraway

The Attack

With perhaps a half hour of daylight left, eighteen Confederate brigades with over 100 regiments began the two-mile march from Winstead Hill to destiny. Wagner’s 3,000 Soldiers watched as a vast gray tide surged towards them. Some of the veteran Soldiers began to run for the main line of defenses. The rest waited until the Confederates were within 100 yards, then unleashed a volley. Cleburne’s men returned the volley and surged forward over the works. In moments Wagner’s position was overrun. Worse than the loss of more than 700 captured, Wagner’s fleeing men prevented the Federals from firing. Cries of “follow them into the works!”[3] echoed across the field and a desperate footrace ensued. Unable to fire because of their fleeing comrades, Federal troops watched in horror as the full force of the frontal assault closed the distance and broke upon the earthworks. Confederate Soldiers surged unchecked onto the Carter House grounds clubbing and bayoneting in a ferocious melee. Those in the breach, both Federal and Confederate, were subject to a hailstorm of fire from all directions. One captured Federal recalled huddling in terror against a trench wall with his captor as bullets sailed above them. A captain of the 72nd Illinois recalled that the shriek of powder and lead was so loud that his orders could not be heard even as he shouted them to men within arm’s distance. Within moments, a 200-yard section of the Federal line had been swept away by a tsunami of Confederates. Two hundred yards south of the pandemonium at the Carter House, Opdycke’s six regiments were resting and eating rations. Hearing the sounds of battle, these veteran Soldiers from Illinois, Ohio and Wisconsin took up arms and charged south into the smoky hell of the Carter House lawn. Opdycke’s charging westerners met Cleburne and Brown’s juggernaut at a dead run in a scene reminiscent of medieval hand-to-hand combat. Eyewitnesses recalled the two armies crashing together like a great wave.

Opdycke emptied his revolver then used the weapon as a club in close quarters. Major Arthur McArthur at the head of the 24th Wisconsin had reached the Carter House when he was shot by a Confederate officer. MacArthur rose and ran the officer through with his sword. MacArthur survived his wound to become the father of General of the Army Douglas MacArthur.

A Scene from The Bowels of Hell

Out buildings on the Carter House property bear mute witness to the savage

fighting that occurred at Franklin, Tenn. Photo by Maj. William Carraway

Slowly, the counterattack pushed the enemy back, but the Confederates still held the outer trenches. Men clung to opposite sides of earthworks raising muskets and firing blindly and desperately over the opposite side. In the sixty yards between the inner and outer trenches a scene out of the bowels of hell played out as Federal officers and infantrymen serving the cannons of the 20th Ohio Battery raked the grounds between the trenches with canister, reaping men like a great iron scythe. Those who tried to surrender could not be heard over the din of musket and cannon fire. A severely wounded Federal Soldier was observed through the smoke furiously swinging at a throng of Confederate Soldiers with a pickaxe.[4] A Soldier of the 41st Tennessee had to stand on bodies of his comrades to fire over the trench. Handing him loaded muskets was his brigade commander, Brig. Gen. Otho Strahl, an Ohioan by birth. Struck in the neck, Strahl managed to crawl 20 feet across the bodies of his brigade before being fatally struck in the head. Strahl was one of six southern generals killed at Franklin. Hiram Granbury had fallen in front of his Texas Brigade while his division commander, Maj. Gen. Patrick Cleburne, had been shot through the heart while on foot. Brig Gen. John Adams reached the works east of the Columbia Turnpike. Grasping the colors of the 65th Ohio, he was shot through both legs, mortally wounded. To the west of the Carter House, Brig. Gen. States Rights Gist led his South Carolinians and Georgians forward when he too was fatally struck. Brigadier Gen. John C. Carter fell in front of his brigade while moving in support of Gist. Within 60 minutes of the attack’s commencement, the sun had set, and the Confederates had suffered more casualties than the U.S. suffered in the 24 hours of D-Day. But the fighting was not over. Stephen Lee’s Corps arrived on the battlefield and began funneling troops into the fray. Marching forward in darkness, the troops used torches to align their ranks. By 7:00 p.m. Their assault was broken with heavy loss and Hood decided to end the attack for the evening. Firing continued through the frozen night air, breaking the constant wail of the wounded. Ghastly scenes greeted those brave enough to move about the field. John K. Shellenberger of the 64th Ohio wrote that the dead “were piled high as an artillery embrasure.”[5]

This ground just south of the Carter House was the scene of savage hand-to-hand fighting. Photo by Maj. William Carraway

Aftermath

By 2:00 a.m., the Federal Army withdrew across the Harpeth River. The Confederates were in no shape to pursue. Fourteen Confederate generals had been killed or wounded and nearly sixty regimental commanders were casualties. Federal casualties were relatively light: 2,300 compared to 6,300 for the Confederates. Nevertheless, Hood ordered his army to pursue Schofield to Nashville, where in an ill-conceived siege, his army would be annihilated by Maj. Gen. George Thomas.

Legacy

The July 3, 1863 assault at Gettysburg, popularly remembered as “Pickett’s Charge” is

Memorial to fallen Georgia Soldiers in the 

McGavock Cemetery in Franklin. Photo by

Maj. William Carraway

 perhaps the most famous attack of the American Civil War, but it paled in comparison to the assault at Franklin. Franklin witnessed nearly twice as many men charging twice the distance with no reconnaissance and one-battery of artillery support against three-lines of earthworks. Yet, unlike Gettysburg, the Franklin battlefield is largely forgotten. Until recently, the ground on which Maj. Gen. Cleburne fell was occupied by a pizza restaurant. Gettysburg’s silent marble monuments invite visitors to celebrate the honor and valor of war. Franklin, meanwhile, seems to exist in a forgotten corner of our national memory not as a commemoration, but as a grim reminder us of the agony and misery of conflict. A Mississippi private wrote of the battle:

“Franklin was the only battleground I ever saw where the faces of the majority of the dead expressed supreme fear and terror… Their very attitude as they lay prone upon the ground, with extended earth clutching fingers, and with their faces partially buried in the soil told the tale of the mental agony they had endured before death released them.”[6]

The Civil War generation wrote about and experienced these memories just as our veterans experience them now. But we must not allow the horror of war to be something left to the memory of our veterans. The experience of Franklin must be available for future generations just as surely as the experience of Gettysburg. We cannot allow ourselves to forget the savagery of war, lest, as Robert E. Lee admonished, “we should grow too fond of it.”[7]

---

[1] Watkins, Sam. “The Project Gutenberg EBook of ‘Co. Aytch’, by Sam R. Watkins.” Gutenberg, August 17, 2004. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/13202/13202.txt.

[2] Watkins

[3] Sword, Wiley. The Confederacy’s Last Hurrah. Spring Hill, Franklin and Nashville. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1993, 193

[4] Sword, 210

[5] Sword, 249

[6] Sword, 267

[7] Alexander, E. Porter. Memoirs of a Confederate. New York, Charles Scribner & Sons, 1907, 302.

A Thanksgiving Apart: A Century of Overseas Service for Georgia’s Citizen Soldiers and Airmen

By Maj. William Carraway
Historian, Georgia Army National Guard

Soldiers of Company F, 2nd Infantry Regiment Georgia Guard eat Sniders 
Pork and Beans from the can within site of the Mexican Border while
 mobilized in 1916. Georgia Guard Archives

As families in Georgia sit down for Thanksgiving dinner this year, nearly 700 Georgia Guardsmen will observe Thanksgiving away from their families. Among those currently deployed are aviators of the Georgia Army National Guard’s Marietta-based 1^st Battalion 171^st Aviation Regiment and Airmen of the Georgia Air National Guard’s Warner Robins and Savannah-based 116^th Air Control Wing and 165^th Airlift Wing. These Soldiers and Airmen are the latest to experience the sacrifice and separation of a century of overseas service for the Georgia National Guard.


World War I

In the summer of 1916, the Georgia National Guard was called to active service along with other National Guard states to provide security along the Mexican Border. Among the 3,600 of Georgia’s Citizen Soldiers mobilized was Sgt. Robert Gober Burton of the Monroe-based Company H, 2^nd Georgia Infantry Regiment. The Guardsmen enjoyed a Thanksgiving feast, but as Burton wrote on December 1, 1916, Thanksgiving Day was memorable not for dinner, but for duty.

Georgia Army National Guard Soldiers of the Macon-based 2^nd Georgia Infantry Regiment on duty on the border on Thanksgiving Day 1916. The Soldiers are George Feeker, Robert Gober Burton, E. J. Moore and Jim Mathews. Georgia Guard Archives

“We certainly had a Thanksgiving dinner today. We missed ours Thursday but made up for it Friday. We missed it because we were on outpost duty. We had all the things that go with a Thanksgiving dinner: chicken, dressing, cranberries and everything…

Your devoted son,

Gober

The Georgia Guard returned from border duty in the spring of 1917. By then, the United States had declared war on Germany. Presently, Burton and the newly formed 151^st Machine Gun Battalion would be dispatched for overseas service in October 1917. By Thanksgiving Day, Burton and the 151^st MGB were in Uruffe France. Writing the day before Thanksgiving, Burton requested comforts from home.

Somewhere in France

November 28, 1917

My dearest mama,

I wrote you to send me something for Christmas. Well don’t forget to send me a big fruitcake. The amount that you can send is limited but just send another box.

By all means, send me some chewing tobacco. Some toilet articles, soap, shaving soap, talcum powder, and don’t send over one towel at a time.

Don’t you worry about me for a minute for I am getting along just as fine as possible

Your devoted son,

Gober

For the next 12 months, Burton the 151^st endured unspeakable conditions along the western front until the Armistice of November 11, 1918 ended the war. Writing home to his mother the day after Thanksgiving 1918, Sgt. Burton gave voice to the incredulity of a generation that the war was finally over.

Septfontaine Luxemburg

Nov 29, 1918

My dearest mother,

It has certainly been a busy year for me. It has also been rather full of thrills and adventure.

Well mother dear, it seems that it won’t be long till we are back in the dear old U.S.A and home. Can it be possible that the war is over? I can hardly believe it. But the Germans have given up their fleet, the fleet that was to dominate the seas. They are turning over their big guns and all the material asked for so it must be so. God has certainly been good to me. I have been blessed.

Well mother dearest, I can’t think of anything else to write tonight.

As ever, your devoted son,

Gober

Sgt. R.G. Burton

Co. A. 151 M.G.Bn.

World War II

Burton returned home in 1919 along with his fellow Soldiers of the Georgia National Guard. A generation would pass before the Georgia Guard was again called to mobilize for overseas service. In September 1940, nearly 5,200 Georgia Guard Soldiers were brought to active duty due to events in Europe. Soldiers of the 118^th Field Artillery and 121^st Infantry Regiment would spend Thanksgiving 1940 at Fort Jackson, S.C. conducting initial training. Thanksgiving of 1941 would find Soldiers of the Georgia Guard participating in the Carolina Maneuvers while aviators of the 128^th Observation Squadron trained at Lawson Field at Fort Benning.

Corporal Jimmie Smallwood from Ola, Ga., and Pfc. Gordon Mitchell, 
of the Georgia Army National Guard’s Battery A, 945th Field 
Artillery Battalion, 4^th Armored Division, set up their tent on 
the snowy ground of Luxembourg. National Archives

As families gathered around the table for Thanksgiving in 1942, Georgia Guard Artillery units were participating in the Louisiana Maneuvers while other units trained at Camp Blanding. Meanwhile, in the Pacific Theater, the anti-aircraft guns of the Georgia Army National Guard’s 101^st Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion repelled Japanese bombing runs on Papua New Guinea. The 101^st continued to defend airspace over Papua New Guinea in 1943 while units bound for the European Theater of Operations continued training. 


By Thanksgiving Day, 1944, seven battalions of Georgia Army National Guard Soldiers were fighting in Europe. The 179^th Field Artillery Battalion was supporting operations near Bidestroff and Loudrefing, France while Soldiers of the 118^th Field Artillery Regiment were stationed near Langweiler, Germany. The guns of the 230^th Field Artillery Regiment were in action near Langendorf and Lohn while the 945^th Field Artillery supported attacks by the 26^th Infantry and 4^th Armored Divisions in the vicinity of Dieuve, France during the Loraine Offensive. Meanwhile, Georgia Guard aviators of the former 128^th Observation Squadron flew missions out of Sterparone, Italy with the 483^rd Bombardment Group.


Korean War

With the outbreak of hostilities on the Korean Peninsula, the Georgia Army National Guard’s 108^th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Brigade was activated. The Soldiers spent Thanksgiving of 1950 at Fort Bliss Texas before being dispatched to locations from Chicago to Philadelphia where they provided anti-aircraft cover to American industrial centers.

An F-84 Thunderjet of the Georgia Air National Guard’s 158^th Fighter Squadron is lifted onto the deck of the Escort Carrier Sitkoh Bay preparatory to sailing to Japan to assist in the United Nations’ air war against communist forces in Korea. Georgia Guard Archives

Georgia Air National Guard aviators were mobilized in 1950 including the Marietta-based 128^th Fighter Squadron. In 1951, the Savannah-based 158^th Fighter Squadron was dispatched to Japan aboard the U.S.S. Sitkoh Bay. The 158^th flew combat missions in the skies over Korea before returning to the United States in 1952.

Georgia Army National Guard Soldiers of the Bainbridge-based Tank Company, 121st Infantry Regiment, 48^th Infantry Division prepare a meal of turkey and fresh vegetables at their mess tent at Camp Stewart in 1955. Georgia Guard Archives

Desert Shield/Desert Storm

Nearly 40 years would pass before Georgia’s Citizen Soldiers were again called to overseas service. Following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, more than 500 Georgia Guardsmen of the 190^th Military Police Company, 1148^th Transportation Company and 165^th Heavy Maintenance Company were mobilized to Saudi Arabia where they experienced Thanksgiving in a foreign country. By the end of 1990, nearly 5,300 Georgia Guardsmen had been mobilized.

Georgia National Guard Airmen, from the 165th Airlift Wing, conduct an airdrop of American, Italian, French, and Dutch 
paratroopers over Pisa, Italy, on Thanksgiving Day in 2016. Georgia National Guard photo by 116th Airlift Wing

Iraq and Afghanistan

Since September 11, 2001, more than 21,000 Georgia Guard Soldiers and Airmen have

Ga. ARNG Soldiers of the 1-171 Aviation Regiment observe

Thanksgiving 2019 in Kosovo. Photo by Sgt. 1st Class Lee

Lane

deployed overseas. On Thanksgiving Day 2019, Georgia Army National Guard Soldiers of the 1st Battalion 171st Aviation Regiment received Thanksgiving lunch served by Col. Dwayne Wilson, chief of staff of the Ga. ARNG and former commander of the 1-171st. Joining in the Thanksgiving meal were Lt. Gen. Christopher G. Cavoli, commander of U.S. Army Europe as well as Col. Jason Fryman and Command Sgt. Major Jeff Earhart, command team of the Marietta-based 78th Aviation Troop Command. 

The next Ga. ARNG unit to deploy, the Marietta-based 248th Medical Company departed November 30 in support of Operation Inherent Resolve.

Georgians, French Honor Aviation and Civil Rights Pioneer 2nd Lt. Eugene Bullard

By Maj. William Carraway
Historian, Georgia Army National Guard

Corporal Eugene Jacques Bullard during WWI and the bronze likeness of 2nd Lt. Bullard which now stands at the Museum of Aviation at
Robins Air Force Base, Ga. WWI Image courtesy of the United States Air Force. Georgia National Guard collage by Maj. William Carraway

The Museum of Aviation at Robins Air Force Base, Ga. hosted a ceremony honoring the life and service of Eugene Bullard, the first African American fighter pilot and veteran of two world wars. Colonel Dawson Plummer, commander of the 194th Armored Brigade based at Fort Benning, Ga. and a graduate of the Tuskegee Institute spoke of Bullard’s legacy and enduring impact.

“We all owe a great deal of gratitude to Lieutenant Bullard for being a true pioneer, not only in the aviation community but for how he persevered over discrimination and proved that anybody can do anything if they put their mind to it.”

Five members of the original Tuskegee Airmen joined 22 of Bullard’s family members, senior military leaders and French dignitaries in the tribute organized by the Georgia World War I Commission. Consul General Vincent Hommeril, Consul General of France in Atlanta, offered insight into the international reach of Bullard’s story.

Consul General Vincent Hommeril, Consul General of France in
Atlanta offers words of tribute during a ceremony honoring 2nd Lt.
Eugene Bullard, the first African American fighter pilot and veteran
of two world wars Oct. 9, 2019 at the Museum of Aviation at
Robins Air Force Base, Ga. Georgia National Guard
photo by Maj. William Carraway

“Bullard’s life and exploits are symbolic of the strong ties that link France and the United States, nations that have long worked together to promote democracy and freedom,” said Hommeril. “May this statue honor his accomplishments and remain as a living symbol of French and American friendship for years to come.”

The ceremony concluded with the unveiling of a bronze statue of Bullard on the grounds of the museum. Colonel Ato Crumbly, the first African American commander of the Georgia Air National Guard’s 116^th Air Control Wing thanked the Ga. World War I Commission and others who contributed to the day’s events and predicted that the Bullard statue would inspire future generations.

“When people walk by (the statue), read the name then Google it and learn about his legacy, it is going to continue and propagate, and the word will spread.”

Retired United States Air Force Brig. Gen. Leon Johnson, National President of Tuskegee Airmen Inc. and Colonel Ato Crumbly, the first African American
commander of the Georgia Air National Guard’s 116th Air Control Wing participate in a ceremony honoring aviation pioneer 2nd Lt. Eugene Bullard
Oct. 9, 2019 at the Museum of Aviation at Robins Air Force Base, Ga. Georgia National Guard photo by Maj. William Carraway

Bullard, the son of a former slave, was born in Columbus, Ga. October 9, 1895. Leaving a troubled home in 1906 at the age of 11, Bullard wandered for six years seeking opportunity but finding discrimination and racism in a segregated Jim Crow society. In 1912, Bullard stole aboard a ship bound for the United Kingdom. Making his way to London, Bullard found work as an entertainer and boxer. In 1913, he visited Paris for a boxing match and elected to stay having found the French culture to his liking.

Bullard with his aircraft in France. Image Courtesy of U.S.
Air Force.

In August 1914, Germany declared war on France. Bullard enlisted in the French Army in October 1914, nearly three years before American troops entered combat. Bullard was seriously wounded in March 1916 while serving with the French 170^th Infantry Regiment, 48^th Infantry Division. Recovering from his wounds, Bullard volunteered for aviation service and completed his flight training in May 1917. Bullard flew more than 20 combat missions before the end of the war.

William Bullard, contemplates the bronze statue of 2nd Lt.
Eugene Bullard, first African American fighter pilot and veteran
of two world wars who was honored during a ceremony Oct. 9, 2019
at the Museum of Aviation at Robins Air Force Base, Ga.
 Georgia National Guard photo by Maj. William Carraway

After the armistice, Bullard remained in France where he worked as a musician and nightclub manager. When Germany invaded France in 1940, Bullard again enlisted as an infantryman. He was again wounded in action and returned to the United States the following month after escaping German-held France. Despite his fame overseas, Bullard faded into obscurity in his home country. In 1961, shortly before his death, Bullard, a decorated veteran of two world wars, whom Charles De Gaulle had dubbed a Knight of the Legion of Honor, was working as an elevator operator in New York City. He died October 12, 1961 at the age of 66.

In the decades following his death, the story of Bullard’s life and service has received greater attention. In 1989, Bullard was inducted into the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame. Five years later he was recognized with a a second lieutenant’s commission in the U.S. Air Force. Now, more than 100 years after his historic first flight, his statue stands as an inspiring beacon for future generations.

Speaking at a reception following the statue unveiling, Maj. Gen. Tom Carden, Adjutant General of the Georgia Department of Defense, spoke to the family of Eugene Bullard, the Tuskegee Airmen and all those who contributed to the dedication of the statue.

“They say it’s never too late to do the right thing and if I have ever seen an example of those words in action, I have seen it here today at this great museum,” said Carden. “I want to personally thank you for your service, your sacrifice and for making sure our state never forgets Eugene Bullard and what he has done for our country.”

Original Tuskegee Airmen present for the ceremony honoring 2nd Lt. Eugene Bullard,
African American aviation pioneer of World War I. Photo by Maj. William Carraway

Fallen Soldiers of the 121st Infantry Regiment Honored and Remembered in France

By Maj. William Carraway
Historian, Georgia Army National Guard

Private 1st Class William Grey of Company C, 121st Infantry Regiment was honored during a ceremony at the Brittany American Cemetery in Montjoie St. Martin, France September 29, 2019. Grey was killed in action September 17, 1944 near Brest, France at the age of 23. Joining representatives of French patriotic associations in honoring Grey are Capt. Dan Nichols of the Georgia Army National Guard; David Bedford, Superintendent of the Brittany American Cemetery and Jean Francois Pellouais. Photo by Nathalie Robillard.

In August 1944, the 121^st Infantry Regiment of the Georgia National Guard swept into Brittany, France. By September, the 121st, as part of the 8th Infantry Division, had captured the fortified port city of Brest France and eliminated German resistance on the Crozon Peninsula. Seventy-five years later, during a ceremony at the Brittany American Cemetery in Montjoie St. Martin, French citizens and veterans remembered the fallen Soldiers of the 121st and other American Soldiers who fell during the Normandy and Brittany campaigns.

“We have a duty to remember,” said Jean Francois Pellouais, master of ceremonies who has arranged tributes to the fallen since 2011. “I take part and organize these tributes to promote the duty of memory so that these young men do not return to the shadow of history.”

Citizens and representatives of eleven veteran and civic associations gathered in the Chapel of the Brittany American Cemetery on a rainy Sunday morning for the commemoration ceremony. Inside the chapel, flanked by color bearers of French patriotic associations, were the images of fallen service members. Among those honored were Pfc. Elbert B. Griffin, Pvt. John T. Taggart, and Pfc. William P. Grey of the 121st Infantry Regiment who fell in Brittany.

The Georgia Army National Guard Soldiers of the 121st Infantry honored during the ceremony were, (left to right) Pfc. William P. Grey, Pfc. Elbert B. Griffin and Pvt. John T. Taggart, and Pfc. William P. Grey. Photo by Nathalie Robillard.

Pellouais opened the ceremony with introductory comments before reading a poem that had been provided for the occasion by Yuri Beckers of Holland. The poem, titled "We Must Remember," was written in tribute to the 9th Infantry Division Soldiers and all those who reside at the Brittany American Cemetery.

Five-year-old Violette and Capt. Dan Nichols of the Georgia Army National
 Guard prepare to place a rose in honor of fallen American service members
during a ceremony at the Brittany American Cemetery in Montjoie St. Martin,
France September 29, 2019. Photo by Nathalie Robillard.

Among those participating in the wreath laying ceremony was Capt. Dan Nichols of the Georgia Army National Guard. Nichols was attending school in the United Kingdom when he learned of the commemoration.

“To be a part of the ceremony was an honor, said Nichols. “This is my second time witnessing the gratitude of the French people for the American sacrifice in World War II, and it is genuine.”

A solemn procession of citizens came forward following the wreath-laying to place roses in remembrance of the nearly 5,000 fallen and missing American Soldiers who are memorialized in the 28-acre Brittany American Cemetery. Among those was 5-year old Violette who joined Nichols in the laying of a rose. Following a moment of silence, the somber notes of Taps filled the chapel as the French associations’ colors dipped in salute.

The chapel at the Brittany American Cemetery in Montjoie St. Martin, France
where fallen American service members of World War II were honored by French
 citizens during a ceremony September 29, 2019. Photo by Nathalie Robillard.

The ceremony continued on the cemetery grounds as the French citizens placed roses on the graves of fallen service members. In addition to rendering honors to the fallen Soldiers of the 121st Infantry, ceremony observed the placement of a rose and minute of silence at the graves of MC1 Richard Neil Johnson, Pvt. Charles P. Rock, Pfc. Roland Vanderkerkove and Pvt. Harvey E. Hyllested. The final visit was to the grave of an unknown American Soldier, where honors were rendered on behalf of all of the fallen.

The ceremony concluded with words of thanks from Mr. Jean-Francois Pellouais to Mr. David W. Bedford, superintendent of the Brittany American Cemetery in which Pellouais offered final words of gratitude and “a last gesture of Franco-American friendship towards these young soldiers who are resting for the eternity for one word: ‘Freedom.’"

Nichols summed up his experience at the memorial with an expression of gratitude to those who had arranged the ceremony and invited him to attend.

Images of the American Service members, who fell during World War II, that were
honored by French citizens at the Brittany American Cemetery in Montjoie
St. Martin, France during a ceremony Sept 29, 2019. Photo by Nathalie Robillard. 

“There are no requirements, or quid pro quo for the French veterans and citizens who perform these memorials,” observed Nichols. “They ask for nothing, and quite often no Americans are present. Yet they do them anyway. Their children and grandchildren do them. It is out a sense of honor that they remember the sacrifice of our Soldiers, and it was an honor for me to share this moment with them.”

Pellouais had a special message for the members of the Georgia National Guard.

“I wish to say that the French, young or old, humble and respectful, are bearers of your story,” said Pellouais. “We evoke the sacrifice of the soldiers of the National Guard of Georgia whose blood has mingled, like thousands of other GI's, with the soil of our land to give liberty to our parents, to France but especially to the whole world. Long live the Franco-American friendship that has united our two countries since Lafayette.”

The Fortified City: The 121st Infantry Regiment Returns to Brest, France

By Maj. William Carraway

Historian, Georgia Army National Guard

A US tank destroyer M36 fires its 90mm gun point-blank at a Nazi pillbox emplacement to clear a path through a side street in Brest, France. Brest France, 1944. Sept. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/90707669/.

The Lead Scout

Pfc. Gilbert Wallje at Jefferson Barracks
 in 1943. Courtesy of Timothy Harter

Private 1st Class Gilbert Wallje was a long way from home on the morning of September 8, 1944.

Just six days shy of his 24th birthday, the five-foot, five-inch Wallje was one of two lead scouts maneuvering ahead of Company L, 121st Infantry as the regiment moved towards Pontanezen Barracks, formidable works just outside the fortress port city of Brest, France. Wallje was one of the newest Soldiers of the 121st Infantry having arrived as a replacement Soldier in mid-July. Since then he had been in near constant action. Born and raised in St. Louis, Mo., Wallje, a former salesclerk trained with the 89th Division at Jefferson Barracks before shipping overseas. Days after arriving in France, Wallje was assigned to 1st Platoon, Company L, 121st Infantry. He participated in Operation Cobra and was part of the Lost Battalion at Dinard. Though only weeks into his combat service, “Bud” Wallje was already a seasoned veteran, but nothing could prepare him for the events of that September day.

Prelude

Map of the approaches to Brest with the hand-
written notes of Pfc. James Lowman, Company F,
121st Infantry Regiment.

The 121st was no stranger to the fortified naval port of Brest. The regiment arrived in Brest Harbor for World War I service in October 1918. Its commanding officer, Col. James Thomas, who gave the regiment its nickname, Gray Bonnet, died there October 16, 1918.[i] Brest had withstood assaults for centuries. English and Dutch fleets had failed to take the port from the sea[ii] and formidable land defenses now confronted the Allied Soldiers of the VIII Corps who were assigned to take the town.

Soldiers of the 6th Armored Division had reached Brest more than one month before but had lacked the combat power to invest the city. Accordingly, the 8th Division had been dispatched west after the successful assault on Dinard. The 8th arrived in the vicinity of Kervallan August 20, 1944[iii]. After a series of probing actions, the 121st was placed in the center of a three-division line with the 29th to its right and the 2nd to its left.[iv] From its position in the center, the 8th Division and the 121st participated in assaults of August 25 and 26. Wallje described the actions of those days.

After about two days of patrolling it was decided that everyone (would) move up. Company L sent one platoon to reconnoiter a hill to our direct front. The First Platoon was ordered to go, along with one section of M Company heavy machine guns. We went up but very few came back. The next morning a patrol was sent up again, but Jerry had pulled back, so everyone moved up.[v]

Over the ensuing days, the 121st Infantry engaged German positions. Company A overran two German pill boxes September 1.[vi] Meanwhile, the other companies of the 121st advanced into a steady curtain of artillery fire. More than 600 81 mm mortar rounds were fired into the town of Kergroas before elements of Company I were able to take the town. [vii] German resistance was cunning and made effective use of deception. Sergeant John Minick and Lt. Henry Schwartz were alarmed to see a Sherman tank of the 6th Armored Division train its gun on Soldiers of Company I. The men moved swiftly to the tank and captured the five German Soldiers who had crewed it. One of the Germans was captured wearing an American uniform.[viii]

Father Son Tragedy

The American assault was greatly assisted by the efforts of the Army Air Corps which flew sortie after sortie against Brest and its surrounding fortifications. The presence of aircraft drew the attention of antiaircraft machine gun fire away from the attacking infantry allowing them to consolidate their positions. On one occasion, the antiaircraft fire scored a direct hit on an attacking American P-47 Thunderbolt. The aircraft burst into flames and crashed in a fireball just in front of the lines of the 121st Infantry. The pilot of the aircraft was Maj. Harry Stroh. He was the son of Maj. Gen. Donald Stroh, commander of the 8th Division.[ix]

Assaulting Pontanezen

Following a short reprieve, the Soldiers of the 121st were ordered to be prepared to participate in an all-out assault on September 8. Maneuvering in the center of the VIII Corps, the 8th Division and the 121st would assault Lambezellec heights by way of the Pontanezen Barracks. Rather than initiating a direct frontal assault on Lambezellec, the infantry would seize the barracks to the east then move upon Lambezellec from the flank.

Camp Pontanè̀zen. Brest, France. ca. 1919. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2010648280/.

On the morning of September 8, the 121st advanced on Pontanezen. The 3rd Battalion was in the lead with Company K and L abreast. Company K was raked by machine gun fire prompting the 1st Battalion to move up in support with flame throwers. These were employed with great effect against German pillboxes. Fifty German Soldiers were captured rather than be subjected to the clearing effect of the flame thrower.

Scouts Out

While Company K and 1st Battalion was unleashing a fiery hell upon fortified German positions, Wallje was advancing well ahead of Company L with another scout feeling the way forward on the approach to the Pontanezen Barracks. Suddenly there was a crack of machine gun fire from Wallje’s right. The St. Louis Soldier was struck six times by 8 mm machine gun rounds, one of which perforated his intestines. Collapsing, Wallje hugged the earth as rounds passed over him. Tank destroyers blasted armor piercing rounds into the walls of the Pontanezen Barracks. In response, Germans unleashed machine gun and artillery fire. For perhaps half an hour, Wallje and his fellow scout lay in the middle of a cacophonous exchange of fire before the advancing Soldiers of the 121st reached them. The Gray Bonnet Regiment pressed the attack securing the barracks.

Wallje was borne from the battlefield on a stretcher. After receiving treatment at the battalion aid station, Wallje was transferred to a field hospital and eventually evacuated to England where, after four months of treatment he was discharged. He received promotion to corporal and ended the war assigned to the 1075th Army Air Forces Base Unit in Miami, Fla.[x]

Fort Bouguen

Having taken the heights of Lambezellec, the 121st turned south to face the impregnable fortress of Fort Bouguen. The centuries old castle walls rose to heights of up to 35 feet and were surrounded by a moat. Following a breach by heavy artillery on September 10, the infantry surged forward gaining the walls and the moat but were driven back. Subsequent attacks of September 11 were also fruitless and prompted a change of tactics from seizure to containment. Accordingly, the 121st was moved out of the front lines for a brief period of rest before maneuvering south of Brest to maneuver up the Crozon Peninsula.

These Are My Credentials

Lieutenant General Hermann Ramcke after being captured by
US Army forces on 19 September 1944. Blumenson

The Crozon peninsula spread like a glove with four fingers due south of Brest. Army intelligence estimated between 1,500 and 3,000 Germans on the peninsula. On September 15 the 121st initiated the attack and sustained heavy artillery and mortar fire. Despite the heavy fire, the attack surged forward breaching enemy defenses. By the evening of September 17, 1-121 had entered the town of Crozon. German resistance on the peninsula collapsed shortly thereafter.

With the outcome obvious even to the most diehard hold out, Lt. Gen. Hermann-Bernhard Ramcke, commander of the garrison at Brest requested terms of surrender after having refused such terms less than a week previous. Brigadier General Charles Canham, deputy commander of the 8th Division was the senior officer present to accept the German general’s surrender. Canham as a colonel had served as the commanding officer of the 116th Infantry Regiment during the Normandy landing on Omaha beach. Shot through the wrist, Canham refused evacuation and instead remained on the beach encouraging his Soldiers forward. For his actions, Canham would receive the Distinguished Service Cross and the star of a brigadier general. Ramcke was unaware of this and was instead perturbed at the prospect of surrendering to an officer of lesser rank. Indignantly, Ramcke asked for Canham’s credentials. Canham gestured to his Soldiers saying, “these are my credentials.”[xi]

On September 23, Maj. Gen. Donald Stroh presided over an awards ceremony for the 121st Infantry Regiment. Soldiers of the Gray Bonnet Regiment received 11 Silver Stars and 62 Bronze Stars.[xii] The Crozon effort had extracted a terrible price. From Sept 5 to 19 the 8th Division suffered 72 killed and 415 wounded.[xiii] Three Georgia Guard Soldiers of the 121st were among those killed in action during the taking of Brest. Staff Sgt. Clarence Breeland of the Brunswick-based Company E was killed September 11, 1944. Private 1st Class. William Grey of Macon was killed September 7, 1944 while serving with Company C. Private 1st Class Elbert Griffin of the Albany Rifles of Company H, was killed September 12, 1944.

Staff Sgt. Clarence Breeland, Pfc. William Grey and Pfc. Elbert Griffin, 121st Infantry Regiment were killed in action during the campaign for Brest, France.

While the Allies had succeeded in taking Brest it was a Pyrrhic victory. The Germans had successfully destroyed the port facilities thus preventing the Allies the logistical port they desired.[xiv] After the costly siege of Brest, the allies would no longer attempt to take German held port cities preferring instead to isolating these pockets of resistance, many of which would be held until the end of the war.

For the 121st Infantry the war in France was over. From Crozon the Gray Bonnets would be sent to Luxembourg in anticipation of the drive to Germany.

Next Chapter: Huertgen, Hell with Icicles.

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[i] 121st Infantry Regiment. The Gray Bonnet; Combat History of the 121st Infantry Regiment. Baton

Rouge, LA: Army & Navy Publishing Co., 1946, 37

[ii] Ibid, 37.

[iii] Ibid, 86.

[iv] Ibid, 41: This edition belonged to Pfc. James W Lowman of Company F, 121st and contains his handwritten notes throughout.

[v] Wallje, Gilbert. Undated letter courtesy of Timothy Harter.

[vi] 121st, 38.

[vii] Ibid,39.

[viii] Ibid.

[ix] Ibid, 40.

[x] Wallje, Gilbert. Honorable Discharge. Courtesy of Timothy Harter.

[xi] Patterson, Michael Robert. Charles D. W. Canham, Major General, United States Army, http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/cdwcanhan.htm.

[xii] 121st, 46.

[xiii] Blumenson, Martin. Breakout and Pursuit. Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, U.S. Army, 1984, 652.

[xiv] Blumenson, 655.