Glendale Sons Of World War I 

When Kaiser Wilhelm was assassinated in Austria in 1914 I doubt that the people in Glendale who picked up the newspaper and read about that event thought for a moment that such a far off event would strike so close to home.  A few months later most of Europe was aflame in war.  While young men from Canada went off to fight for the Queen, folks here in Glendale continued to read about the war in the newspapers.  Finally President Wilson’s position of neutrality could not remain and the U.S. was pulled into what is today called World War I but at the time was called the Great, or Patriotic War.  When a call for volunteers to join the Services didn’t produce the numbers required, a draft was proposed.  Throughout the nation approximately 24 million men registered in either 1917 or 1918.  All men throughout in Glendale and throughout the Cow Creek valley born between 1872 and 1900 registered.  The first draft registration was on 5 Jun 1917 and covered individuals born between 1886-1896.  It isn’t certain whether all eligible men in Glendale and the surrounding communities gathered here to submit the card or whether they traveled to Roseburg.  I expect the draft board had someone come down to Glendale.  In most places volunteer staffs filled out the information on the cards and the registrant simply signed them.  Copies of the blank cards were posted at the registration sites and also printed in local newspapers in the days before.  On that day most businesses, and especially saloons, were closed.  Church bells throughout the communities pealed the requirement to complete a card that listed birth date, location and father’s birth location if they knew it.  This didn’t mean they would be sent off to war but simply that their name would be considered in the lotteries to follow.  The next year on 5 Jun 1918 and 12 Sep 1918 other registrations were conducted for other year groups.

Glendale lost five sons to WWI. I have found varying amounts of information about these five young men.    It’s not certain whether they were drafted but based upon the time they were lost they very well may have volunteered. 

One of the men was named Milton J. Harper, born in 1891, and one of seven children born to Joseph and Dora Harper.  In 1910 two of their children had passed away and the remaining five were living with them in Glendale.  Joe, or Joel, was the foreman at the planing mill his son, Milton, was working there as a laborer.  That decade was one of sadness for the Harpers as they lost one of their sons Harry in a logging accident in 1916 and then Milton went off to fight in France in 1918.  Joseph, Dora Harper and their son Harry are all buried in the family plot in the Glendale Memorial Cemetery.

Milton joined the US Marines and became a Private in the 6th Marines.  Milton would have probably taken a train across the Country to a new Marine Corps base that had just been formed in Quantico, VA, a short distance South of Washington D.C.  The senior officer responsible for setting up the base was named John Archer LeJune.  The unit was formed in August 1917 and after a short amount of training there, Milton was taken by train to New York City.  Milton’s unit along with the 5th Marines became part of the 2nd Division which was made up of both Army and Marine Corps units.  They sailed for the French Coast on troopships in September and October of 1917. Two other young men, Frank H. Redfield and William Vaughn joined the Army.  For some reason they were assigned to the 77th Div which was made up of people from New York City.  In fact the unit’s emblem has the Statue of Liberty on it.  Frank was born in 1889 and was one of five children born to William and Mary Redfield.  A few years before the War, Frank was also working as a laborer in the planing mill.  The other individual, William, was the son of Louis and Hattie Vaughn who had 6 children.  William was born in 1893 and at age 24 when he sailed for Europe, the youngest from Glendale to not return.

William Vaughn

The 77^th Division was organized in Aug 1917 at Camp Upton on Long Island.  Fresh recruits continued to arrive and be trained until 23 Dec 1917 the strength was 23,000.  Within the Division both Frank and William are part of 305^th Infantry Regiment so they very well may have seen each other on a regular basis.  In late March 1918 the men moved to the ports at Boston, Brooklyn, Hoboken, New York, and Portland to get on troopships which would take them to England.  During the first week of April they began the two-week trip across the Atlantic.  They arrived in Liverpool, England and after a brief stay in rest camps were put back on ships to go across the English Channel to Calais, France.

During the summer months of 1918 Frank and William’s unit served next to British forces near Lorraine and Champagne in France.  Until mid-August most of their time was spent in trenches with limited fighting but by late-August and early-September they were fighting as part of the French Fifth Army in the Aisne operation.

Private Milton Harper’s troopship had arrived several months before and had proceeded directly to France in the Fall of 1917.  During the Winter 1917 and Spring 1918, Milton’s unit fought along side French forces in an attempt to prevent the German Army from overrunning Paris by participating in operations in the Lorraine, Aisne, and Chateau-Thierry areas.   While the fighting in the trenches would have been fiercer in the spring and summer they would have had less rain which turned everything into a huge mud puddle.  It was not uncommon for troops to spend days eating and sleeping in trenches filled with 12-18 inches of water and soft mud.

Milton’s unit participated in battles at St Mihiel and Mont Blanc but the largest battle for all of these young men from Glendale was their final battle at Meuse-Argonne.  Meuse is named after the river that runs north and south through Verdun, which had been the site of terrible fighting between British and German forces before America’s involvement.  The river is to the right of the Argonne Forest which also runs north and south.  For these battles the Commander of the 2^nd Division was the USMC Brigadier General, LeJune who had arrived from Quantico.  Today one of the main USMC camps on the U.S. Eastern seaboard is named Camp LeJune.  The 2^nd Division was part of the American First Army commanded by General “Black Jack” Pershing.

On 30 Sep Milton’s unit was part of the French Fourth Army immediately to the left of the American First Army, all pointed north toward the Germans.   They went into the rear area behind the French XXI Corps as a reserve.  During the day and the night of Oct 2/3 Milton’s unit attacked, cleared, and occupied the Essen Trench which was ¼ km north of and parallel to the original front.  It was during this fighting on Thursday, 3 Oct that Private Milton J. Harper was mortally wounded.  His remains are buried in Plot F, Row 20, Grave 25 of the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery in Romagne, France.

Meanwhile in the Argonne Forest Frank and William’s unit, 305^th Infantry Regiment, was experiencing fighting like they’d never seen before.  As part of the American First Army, they had attacked the week before Milton was killed on Thursday, 26 Sep.  The attack started at 2:30 in the morning when 2,700 guns began an intense bombardment of the German positions that lasted until 5:30 when the troops left their protective trenches and began moving forward.  The dense fog during the morning, the networks of barbwire, myriads of shell craters, deep ravines and thick woods created great difficulty for Milton, Frank and William’s units.  While the attack had been a surprise to the Germans, they quickly regained their composure and the fighting was of the most desperate character.  Each foot of ground was stubbornly contested with the Germans taking advantage of every available spot to pour exploding shells down upon the advancing Americans.  Making it even more difficult was the constant rain and German artillery bombardment.  Additionally, the use of tear, chlorine, and mustard gas had started early in the war before Milton, Frank and William had arrived but by their arrival one in four artillery shells fired at them contained gas.  It would hang like a cloud over the low spaces and if one happened upon it without protection, it would damage lungs, blind you, or cause blisters to any exposed skin. 

As a result of the surprise the battle line moved forward a few miles to the right of the Forest but where Frank and William were located it only advanced about a mile in the Forest.  All across the front lines, including where Frank and William were, the ground had been torn to pieces with shellfire.  In order to move troops, food and ammunition forward and the wounded to the rear, the roads had to be practically rebuilt while in use.  The Germans quickly began enforcing with many of their units going into the Argonne Forest across from where Frank and William were located and the battle stabilized somewhat by Sunday the 29th.

After less than a week in these positions the attack was ordered to resume on Friday, the 4^th.  Once again the attack was launched at daybreak.  The German resistance was fierce as they were rapidly pouring their best troops into battle.  In front of Frank and William’s position there was only a couple hundred yards of no-man’s land before troops of the German Third Army were dug in.  On Sunday, 6 Oct 1918, William Vaughn was killed.  He is buried in Plot A, Row 02, Grave 27 of the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery in Romagne, France.  The fighting continued until the 12^th.  One can only wonder about Frank Redfield’s thoughts when he learned about William’s death.  While the US and allied forces had suffered tremendous causalities, the German’s had been pushed backward.  As a result of the progress across the front the German High Command urged its Government to forward immediately an offer of peace to the Allied Governments and this was done on 6 Oct.  The next offensive began Monday the 14^th with great vigor and was met with violent resistance.  The Germans had spent years building a heavily fortified line called the Hindenburg Line and they had been pushed back to that line by the fighting of Frank, William and his fellow soldiers.  The offensive continued until the 16^th with several strongholds of the Hindenburg Line being captured by American Forces.  On Tuesday, 15 Oct 1918, Frank H. Redfield was killed in action.  Just hours after his death, the 77^th was relieved by the 78^th Division.  Unfortunately, that relief came too late for Frank.  His remains were shipped home where he was buried in the Glendale Memorial Cemetery.  Information about his funeral and burial is not available but one can only assume that he was buried with full military honors and nearly everyone in town turning out for the funeral.

After the battle for the Argonne Forest the amount of fighting decreased substantially.  While the 77^th was kept in position, on 11 Nov 1918 the armistice was signed which stopped World War I.  For many years 11 Nov was known as Armistice Day.  Armistice Day was primarily a day set aside to honor veterans of World War I, but in 1954, after World War II had required the greatest mobilization of soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen in the Nation's history; after American forces had fought aggression in Korea, the 83^rd Congress, at the urging of the veterans service organizations, amended the Act of 1938 by striking out the word "Armistice" and inserting in lieu thereof the word "Veterans" With the approval of this legislation (Public Law 380) on June 1, 1954, November 11th became a day to honor American veterans of all wars.  Each year when we celebrate this holiday in early November we can think back to past the sacrifices made by our Glendale sons.