ROGERS SAVAGE

A CONTINENTAL SOLDIER 

WHO SERVED NEAR THE END OF THE REVOLTION

3rd great grandfather of Jessie Larson

My 3rd great grandfather, Rogers Savage, first enlisted in the New York Militia as an eager 17-year-old in July 1781; however, he did not serve at this time.  Instead, his 19-year-old brother Joel was persuaded to take his place during which time Joel was captured by Indians, taken to Fort Niagara where he was twice forced to run the gauntlet, and was held captive for 15 months–first in a dungeon and later on an island above Montreal–until he was released by the British in a prisoner exchange on 28 November 1782. 

Five months before his release, in June 1782, now-18-year-old  Rogers enlisted in the Continental Army at Richmond, Massachusetts. His Revolutionary War Pension Application tells of his two-year military experience which, luckily for him, did not involve fighting, being captured, running the gauntlet, nor being held prisoner.

[Note: Rogers’ writing in his pension application is here separated into paragraphs for ease in reading.] 

“On or about the first of June 1782 I enlisted as a soldier at Richmond, Berkshire Co., Mass for the term of three years and immediately marched to Springfield, Mass where I was mustered by Captain Bannister (given name not recollected) an officer sent from the regular or Continental Army for that purpose, and after drilling sometime at that place we were ordered to march for West Point. 

“When we arrived there Capt John Kilby Smith, being muster master for the Massachusetts line, took me into his Company and the remainder of the new [recruits] were ordered to different companies and regiments. I served in the sixth Massachusetts Regiment commandeered by Col Smith until the next arrangement took place that year when we marched to Verplanks Point where we were when a part of the French Army marched through that place. 

“In the fall of the same year, we received orders to march back to New Windsor [state of New York] and erect huts for Winter Quarters. We lay in time until we finished the huts for officers and soldiers. Then we erected a large building for meetings and a conference house for the officers. 

“We remained at this place until the news of the treaty of peace1 arrived when there was great rejoicing, and those who had enlisted for during the war was discharged upon six months furlough. This produced a decampment in the line and Col. Tupper took the command of the regiment to which I was attached. Shortly after we received orders to march to West Point where Col. Sprout was appointed to the command of the regiment to which I belonged. 

“We soon after received orders to march to Philadelphia as some of the Southern troops attempted violence on Congress and proceeded to break open the Bank to obtain their pay. On our march we passed by a number of the members of Congress in Princeton who had fled there for safety who stood with heads uncovered and their hats in their hands until our brigade had passed them. When we arrived at Philadelphia the mob was dispersed, two of the leaders having been taken and sentenced to be shot but were subsequently reprieved. 

“In the fall (1783) we returned to West Point where my captain John K Smith left the army and Capt Jackson, Christian name not recollected, commanded the company to which I belonged until I was discharged which I think was about the first of May 1784. I received a written discharge but do not know what has become of it. I know of no person living by whom I can prove any part of my service except my brother Joel Savage whose affidavit is hereunto annexed. 

“I was born at Middletown Connecticut in the 14th day of May 1764. It appears from a record of my age in an old family bible now in possession of one of my sons, and also in the Presbyterian Church at Middletown in which I was baptized. 

“I resided at West Point about 2 years after my discharge when I remove to Lake Champlain with the French refuges where I remained a short time and removed to Canaan NY at which place and Argyle, Washington Co I remained until 1800 since which time I have resided at different places where any business as a mechanic has called me until the month of May last when I removed to Mexico Oswego Co where I now reside. I am acquainted with several persons in the neighborhood where I now reside who can testify as to my character for truth and veracity and their belief of my services in the revolution, among whom is Isaiah Kuln [or Keeler?] a clergyman with whom I have been well acquainted for the last thirty years, and William Goit whose affidavits are hereunto annexed. I hereby relinquish every claim whatever to a pension or annuity except the present, and declare that my name is not on the Pension Roll of the agency of any state.”

Rogers Savage

---------

“Joel Savage of the town of Mexico in said county being duly sworn, deposeth and saith that in the year 1781 he joined the regiment under the command of Col. Willet as a four-months man during which four months he was taken captive by the Indians and Tories and was absent in Canada or from home 16 months, 15 of which he was in close confinement or prison in Canada.

 “That on his return home he understood that his brother Rogers Savage had enlisted for three years in the Sixth Regiment of the Massachusetts line, commanded by Col. Smith and Company of Capt. John Kelby [sic] Smith, according to the best of his recollection. Believed his brother Rogers enlisted in the summer of 1782—the summer this deponent was absent in Canada.

 “That in the Spring of 1783 he visited his brother Rogers at the Cantonment of huts back of New Windsor in the state of New York for the purpose of obtaining his discharge, but which he was not able to procure.

 “That in the November following he found his said brother with his regiment at West Point and obtained a furlough for him for three or four weeks.

“His brother returned to the Army on the expiration of his furlough and was discharged, as this deponent believed, the following Spring and remained at West Point two or three years after.

(signed) Joel Savage

20th day of Sept 1833”

 

 —----

1 After the British defeat at Yorktown, peace talks in Paris began in April 1782 between Great Britain and Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and John Adams. The preliminary articles of peace were signed on 30 November 1782. This is likely the “treaty of peace” referenced by Rogers Savage and when Joel Savage was released. The Treaty of Paris which formally ended the war was not signed until September 3, 1783. The Continental Congress ratified it January 14, 1784.

A PORTRAIT OF 

ELIZABETH JEMIMA (PHILPOTT) RENCHER

 How important is it that extended family members you may have never met know that you are very interested in preserving your extended family history and researching your genealogy?  How important? Extremely!

My maternal grandmother Jessie Mary (Wiltbank) Burgess died in July 1938 at age 51 when my mother Virginia was only 12.  Therefore, I never met this grandmother for whom I was named.  Jessie Mary’s mother Mary Ellen (Rencher) Wiltbank died at age 57, in October 1907, when Jessie was 20, and 19 years before the birth of Virginia, so my mother never met her grandmother, either. Mary Ellen’s mother Elizabeth Jemima (Philpott) Rencher died at age 80, January 1909, 15 months after the death of her daughter Mary Ellen.

My mother Virginia (Burgess) Whetten recently passed away in my home at the age of 96.  After her funeral here in Mesa, she was buried next to my father in the small town of Eagar AZ, the town of her birth.  Some of her extended relatives were at this burial service. One of these elderly men, surnamed Rencher whom I’ve only met once before, said he had something for me.  He had recently discovered among his deceased father’s possessions the original portrait of Elizabeth Jemima (Philpott) Rencher.  He explained that he wanted the photograph to go to someone who would treasure it.  He thought of me (rather than either of his two sons or his sister and her children) because of a book I compiled in 2016 containing life stories of 46 of my mother’s ancestors—a book which included many of his Rencher ancestors.  He said since I had compiled the book which had included the story I wrote about Elizabeth Jemima, he felt I would appreciate and care for the portrait.  Wow! [You have to realize that professional genealogist David Rencher, CG, AG, FUGA, FIGRS, past president of FGS and the Director of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, is also a descendant of Elizabeth Jemima (Philpott) Rencher, and he could have chosen David to receive this treasure.  Instead, he gave it to me.  Wow, again.]

The picture is slightly damaged which could easily happen as it is not currently framed and the charcoal image is easy to smear.  Of course, I do not know the type of camera nor the process used to create this portrait, but I find it quite interesting that is was finished with charcoal.

Maureen Taylor in Family Tree Magazine states these charcoal portraits are both a drawing and a photograph. They belong to the hand-coloring tradition and date from the 1860s into the 20^th century. Portraits could be enhanced with India ink, charcoal and crayons, and they were large so they could be displayed on a wall.  Evidently hand-coloring first started in the daguerreotype era of the 1840s. Although mine is black and white, she says the photographs sometimes have a bit of pink on the cheeks and a touch of gold to make them more lifelike, plus the clothing might be colored. Maureen wrote that the images could be enhanced to fix graying hair and wrinkles¹, which I think is possible in this portrait of Elizabeth Jemima.

Another article² describes solar cameras, the first patented in 1857, where a negative was placed at the back of the enlarger and a mirror reflected the sunlight into it.  Concentrated by a condenser before passing through the negative and lens, the image was projected onto a screen holding photographic paper.  By 1859 a solar camera was invented that could be operated unattended.  The 1864 version was supported on a stand with rack-and-pinion movement so that it could be pointed towards the sun.  The progress of enlargement was observed through a yellow window on the side of the camera.  Some say this is the camera which became the most popular in America.

Albright and Lee, in the article mentioned above, state the most common enlargements were albumen and salted paper photographs and that there were two methods for making solar enlargements.  In the 1^st method, albumen or salted paper was exposed in the camera from 30 minutes to several hours until the image was visible.  Then it was washed, toned, fixed, and rewashed.  In the 2^nd method, the image was partially printed with only 3 or 4 seconds of sunlight exposure. The final procedure was the painting or coloring the photograph to increase contrast and reduce streaks or blemishes which were not as noticeable when the photo was not enlarged.³    

Whatever the method used, I am thrilled to be owner and caretaker of this portrait of my 2^nd great grandmother, Elizabeth Jemima (Philpott) Rencher.

 

¹               Maureen A. Taylor, “A History of Charcoal Portraits”, Family Tree Magazine, https://familytreemagazine.com/photos/a-history-of-charcoal-portraits/

²               Gary E. Albright and Michael K. Lee, “A Short Review of Crayon Enlargements: History, Technique, and Treatment,” American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works, http://resources.culturalheritage.org/pmgtopics/1989-volume-three/03_05_Albright.pdf

³               Ibid.

 

 

 

 

PETER ATKIN & WILLIAM HAYNES





CIVIL WAR, WISCONSIN 38th & FORT MAHONE

   

The Civil War started in April 1861, the year before Peter Atkin left England at age 15. Peter was my great grandmother Sophia Atkin Whetten's younger brother.  In August 1864,  Peter enlisted in the Union Army at age 17.  Peter lied about his age as his enlistment paper states he was 18. Since the minimum age for enlistment was 18, boys did lie about their ages. The Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, 38th Regiment, Company G, recruited Peter and his cousin William Haynes in Cross Plains. Cousin William, age 32, was married with three young children.  
[ Photo: Peter Atkin on left side, William Haynes with beard]

The Wisconsin 38th, organized only four months earlier, was stationed in Virginia to assist with the 292-day Siege of Petersburg from April 1864 to July 1865. During the Siege of Petersburg, Union General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant conducted trench warfare to wear down General Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and to cut off needed supplies and supply lines.  The Army of Northern Virginia managed to defend Richmond, the Confederate capital, and the important railroad and supply center of Petersburg, 23 miles south, for over nine months.

With the Union victory at the Battle of Five Forks, on April 1, 1865, the Confederate right flank and rear were exposed. Robert E. Lee’s instructions had been to “defend Five Forks at all hazards” due to its strategic importance. Now Grant and the Union Army  of the Potomac held Five Forks and the road to the vital South Side Railroad. Confederate casualties, prisoners, and desertions caused the thinly held Confederate lines at Petersburg to be stretched beyond the ability of the Confederates to man them adequately.

A year earlier, the Confederate Army had established Fort Mahone to defend Petersburg.  Fort Mahone, called by the Union troops Fort Damnation, was thought to be their strongest fort. William Haynes and Peter Atkin were among the 14,000 men ordered to take Fort Mahone.  They charged at the first appearance of light on April 2, 1865, going against 1500 Confederate defenders.  

The Confederate sharpshooters had clear targets and the fort’s defenses were formidable. Defenses included a double row of wooden abatis [formed by felled trees with sharpened branches facing the enemy], 

fraise [pointed stakes driven into the ramparts in a horizontal or inclined position], 

and chevaux de frise [a portable frame or log covered with many projecting long iron or wooden spikes or spears], 

 plus a waist-deep ditch filled with muddy water. Union soldiers with hatchets and axes cut through these obstacles during the night to clear a path for the charge at dawn.

Fighting back and forth, both sides held parts of the fort into the night. Meanwhile, Confederate President Jefferson Davis, most of his cabinet, and all the gold in the Confederate treasury left Richmond by train heading southwest for Danville, Virginia, before midnight, the night of April 2-3. Most of the remaining Confederate Army also fled.

While charging Fort Mahone, Peter was hit in his left side by a piece of a shell, but the wound was not serious. Cousin William Haynes, though, received a musket ball to his right wrist that required amputation.

Taken to Carver Army General Hospital in Washington, D.C, roughly 140 miles away, the lower third of William’s right arm was hacked off one week after he was shot.  This surgery, on April 9th, would have been performed with no anesthesia to dull the pain nor antibiotics to kill infection.  Suffering an additional three weeks, William died May 1, 1865, and was buried that same day on the confiscated grounds of Robert E. Lee’s home. 

The Custis-Lee Mansion, originally called Arlington House, overlooked Washington D.C. and had been inherited by Robert E. Lee from his father-in-law. Union soldiers took over the plantation when he accepted a command in the Confederate army, set up a tent city for the troops, and began burying their dead in his garden. The military burial ground later became known as Arlington National Cemetery.  

President Abraham Lincoln and General Ulysses S. Grant visited Fort Mahone the day after its capture on April 3, 1865, even before the Union and Confederate dead had been removed. Lincoln was seen with a tear in his eye as he recognized among the dead, troops he had seen on guard just days earlier. 

Most of the Union Army pursued the Army of Northern Virginia until they surrounded it, forcing Robert E. Lee to surrender that army on April 9, 1865, after the Battle of Appomattox Court House in Virginia.

The following week, April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth.

Confederate forces across the South surrendered as news of Robert E. Lee’s surrender reached them.  On April 26, 1865, Joseph E. Johnston surrendered not only the Army of Tennessee, but also the remaining Southern forces, to Major General William T. Sherman in North Carolina, effectively bringing the war to an end.  Jefferson Davis was captured May 10, 1865.

Peter Atkin returned to Cross Plains, Wisconsin, after his discharge June 2, 1865.  Three years later, he married Mary Ann Noon Haynes, his cousin William’s widow. He then purchased a farm next to his brother Henry’s in Cross Plains. Peter and Mary Ann had an additional four children.

[Mary Ann and Peter Atkin]

                                                         ELMER'S STORY

                ELMER V. JESPERSON KIA IN FRANCE 1918

The faded Tucson, Arizona newspaper clipping read:

"Elmer Verdell Jesperson

Tucson will be given occasion to honor its first hero dead, killed while in action to France, Sunday, when the remains of Private Elmer V. Jesperson will be laid to rest. This will be the first funeral in Tucson of a soldier who met death while fighting in France. The body will arrive by train, be met by a guard of honor of Morgan McDermott Post, American Legion, and led by the colors of the Legion; the body will be taken to the home of the parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. P. Jesperson on the Ft. Lowell Road. Private Jesperson was killed in action at Chateau-Thierry on June 13, 1918. He was a member of the 53rd company, Fifth Marines. The body of Jesperson was one of the 5000 American heroes that were brought to this country for burial by the U.S. army transport Wheaton. A proclamation issued by John E. White, mayor of Tucson, requested the citizens of Tucson to express their appreciation of this soldier’s honorable services by showing proper respect and displaying our country’s colors at half mast for three days."

Elmer, the eighth of my great grandmother’s eleven children, was born in St. Johns, Arizona Territory 18 months before the family moved to Mexico. The two brothers just older than Elmer died as toddlers. Wilford Antone, died at 21 months and was buried on his mother’s birthday. Willard Arthur, who died two weeks before his third birthday, loved to play with marbles his older brother Jim would win playing games. As no flowers were in bloom to decorate Willard’s grave, his mother and sister Ida arranged marbles in bright designs on the little bare mound. Elmer, ten months old when Willard died, was much loved.

Moving with his family to Mexico in 1897, Elmer grew up in the Sierra Madre mountains with a Danish father and paternal grandparents and Norwegian maternal grandparents. The valley of Colonia Chuichupa in the top of the Sierra Madres, reminded his Jesperson grandparents of the home left behind in Hjorring, Denmark.

Mexico became engulfed in a Revolutionary War in 1911. Their guns and ammunition confiscated, in July 1912 the American colonists were told their safety could no longer be guaranteed and were given only about a day to prepare to leave their homes. Taking little more than a change of clothes, they turned their animals loose, closed the doors to their homes, and the women and children boarded a train to El Paso, Texas where emergency lodging had been arranged in a large lumber yard. Elmer, sixteen years old, traveled on the train with the women and children.

The Jespersons worked for a farmer in Thatcher the first year, then heard of a tenant-farmer opportunity near Tucson. Living in two tents they cleared land and planted, but a large flood washed away the land they’d been working and the new plow. Discouraged, James Peter took sons Elmer, Delbert and Billy to look for land in Utah. In Cedar City, a farmer with a broken arm offered half the yield of his farm for their help. Within three months they had sufficient money to send for Elmer’s mother, sisters and grandmother to come from Tucson.

When the United States became involved in the war with Germany in 1917, Elmer enlisted in the Marines. He confided to a sister before he left that he regretted that he had never been able to contribute much to the family finances, and now that he was assured of a monthly paycheck, he would send half of it home to his mother. “I’m sure that I’ll come back safely,” he told her, “but if I don’t, my insurance will help to care for Pa and Ma in their old age.”

After Elmer’s departure his brother Jim, who had remained in the Tucson area, invited his parents to come back to Arizona. They did, trading their team and wagon for nineteen acres on the Fort Lowell highway.

When word came of Elmer’s death, his mother was grief stricken and could not be consoled. Then one night she dreamed that he came and stood by her bed. “Oh, Elmer,” she cried, “tell me how it was when you were fighting in France.” “It was gruesome, just gruesome,” he answered. “Where were you shot? Did you have to suffer long? I’ve been so worried.” “I Know, Mother, that is why I was permitted to come. You must not grieve for me. I am fine and I was shot right here.” He placed his hand over his heart; then added, “I hardly knew what hit me.” Years later a soldier who had been in the same battle wrote to her and confirmed Elmer’s death as depicted in the dream.

                             JOHN THOMAS WHETTEN 

Son of Sophia Atkin and John Whetton [sic], John Thomas Whetten, who was born 7 March 1862 in Cross Plains, Dane county, Wisconsin, crossed the plains at age two in the John R Murdock Company with his 20-year-old widowed mother and Grandfather William Atkin.  John T. Whetten was my great grandfather and the "Whetten" spelling of our surname started with him.

Sociable and outgoing, John T played the fiddle and called square dances throughout his life. He would carry his fiddle under the seat of his buckboard when he traveled to nearby mountain towns. Years later during my childhood family reunions always included square dances.  

[daughter Bell, John T holding his fiddle, and Belzora]

At age 16, in 1878, he married Agnes Belzora Savage, by whom he had 11 children, 9 living to adulthood.  In 1885  he married Emma Johannah Nielsen, by whom he had 9 children, 4 living to adulthood.  In 1900 he married divorced Loraina Nelson Foutz who had 6 Foutz children, one of whom married daughter Bell. John T and Loraina had no children together.  In 1903 he married newly widowed Ludie Ellis Hassell with 2 young sons and 5 Hassell stepchildren. John T and Ludie had 5 children together.  

L-R, front row: Clarinda, Minda, Florence, 

Middle section: Belzora, Charles, John T holding Warren and Hazel, Thomas, Emma

Back row: Bell, John A, Bert, and Joseph

[Photograph taken about 1897]  

Moving to Mexico in 1889 with Belzora, Emma, 3 children and an infant, the young family left the grave of 2-year-old Edna and moved to Garcia in the Sierra Madre Mountains of Chihuahua. 

Nine years later, in June/July, 1898, Emma's sons Joseph, age 9, and Thomas, age 8, would die 2 weeks apart. In August 1898 Emma gave birth to Henry. Two years later she gave birth to Don Carlos in Aug 1900, and in December buried Minda, age 9.  Her Adelaide, born in Dec 1902, would only live 2 months. Two years later Emma herself would die along with a newborn baby in  Nov 1904. 

Belzora had an additional 3 children born after the above photograph was taken.  Besides Edna who died in 1887, she lost 10-month-old Lawrence in 1894.

 

John T served as bishop in Garcia until all Americans and other foreigners were forced to leave Mexico in July 1912 during Mexico's Revolution. The people fled to El Paso, Texas.  Wife Ludie gave birth to her daughter Ellis, John T's last child, in August 1912 while camped out in a lumber yard in El Paso that the city so graciously provided for the refugees.

 

Returning to Mexico within a couple of years, they first lived in Dublan where John T served as a counselor in the stake presidency.   A U.S. passport application in 1918 states he farmed land, cut timber and lumber, and raised cattle.

John T and Belzora left Mexico to serve with the first group of temple workers in the Arizona Temple when it opened in Mesa, Arizona.

Returning to Mexico, John Thomas Whetten died 15 February 1932, age 69, in Colonia Juarez, Chihuahua.

His original headstone is one of my favorites.  Sadly it was replaced when the cemetery was cleaned up. The second headstone was stolen for the metal it contained. A third headstone, designed and placed by his great grandchildren, now marks his grave

ELMER JESPERSON - A MARINE IN WWI 

KILLED AT THE BATTLE OF BELLEAU WOOD

Ninety-nine years ago this month [September 4, 1921], the body of my great uncle Elmer V. Jesperson, was re-interred at the Binghampton Cemetery in Tucson, Arizona.  He had been killed in battle three years earlier in France.  Flags were ordered at half-mast for three days by the mayor of Tucson to pay respect for this young man.

The Marine Corps Muster Roll for the 43rd Company 5th Regiment, June 1918, for “Jesperson, 271933, Elmer V.” asserts, “11-12 Participated in 2 attacks against enemy.  13 killed in action in Bois de Belleau. G.O. 100 does not apply. Character excellent.  Buried on Field of action exact location or date unknown.”  I translated this to mean that on June 11th and 12th Elmer participated in two attacks against the Germans in the battle of Belleau Wood. On June 13th he was killed in action and at some point was buried on the battle ground in the woods.  I have been unable to decipher the meaning of “G.O. 100 does not apply”. [If you know, please contact me.]

Elmer, my grandmother’s brother, was killed in France in WWI and we had been told he was killed at Chateau-Thierry on the banks of the River Marne.  Close, but not quite correct.  We have access to a lot of information regarding most of the earlier wars and, thankfully for me, this includes WWI.  In researching the battle in which he was killed, I discovered a lot about my great uncle, even though his name was never mentioned.

I learned that the 5th Marines is the most highly decorated regiment in the Marine Corps—and it is due to this particular 3-week battle. The fighting these Marines did in the Battle of Belleau Wood has become a key component of their lore and brought about the nickname Devil Dog.

The  French Army retreated that latter part of May before the Germans who were marching steadily forward. After capturing Chateau-Thierry and Vaux on their march to conquer Paris, the German Army moved into Belleau Wood, which stood on high, rocky terrain that hid innumerable gullies.  Urged to turn back by retreating French forces, Marine Capt. Lloyd Williams uttered the now-famous retort, “Retreat? Hell, we just got here.”

At four in the afternoon of June 5th, the troops were given the order to attack Belleau Wood at 5 p.m. The Germans must be driven out.  Only the officers realized it was almost impossible.  General Albertus W. Catlin wrote, “I had perfect confidence in the men; that never faltered.  That they might break never once entered my head.  They might be wiped out, I knew, but they would never break.”

Once they reached the woods, the Marines charged the German machine gun nests, screaming their blood-curdling yell. There were machine gun nests everywhere—on every small hill and plateau, in every ravine and pocket, behind piles of cut timber, and even in the trees. The guns were well placed to cover all zones.  No spot was safe from their spray of bullets. But the Marines never faltered.  They attacked those nests with rifles, automatics, grenades, and bayonets.  The most effective method was to run to the rear of each gun in turn and over-power the crew.  But each flanking position was covered by another gun which had to be taken immediately.  It was a furious dash from nest to nest, with no time to stop for breath. In the thick of the melee the wild yells of the Marines were mingled with the constant crackle of rifle fire like bunches of firecrackers exploding.

“It has been a living hell,” Lt. Clifton Cates wrote to his mother. “We were shelled all night with shrapnel and gas shells… It was mustard gas and a lot of the men were burned.”

Lt. Col. Frederick May Wise wrote, “… I came upon one of those German machine-guns camouflaged behind a brush pile. Dead Marines lay in front of it. Dead Germans lay about it. A strange silence held in the woods. The youngster in command told me of the terrific fighting they’d had.  Foot by foot they had pushed their way through the underbrush in the face of a continuous machine-gun and rifle fire.  Snipers had shot them from brush piles on the ground; from perches high in the trees.  Germans they had left sprawled on the ground for dead as they went on, had risen and shot them in the back…. ‘Whenever we took a machine-gun nest, another one opened up on their flank. That happened many times. The second one would never fire a shot until we had taken the first. Then they opened up on us.’ ”

Casualties were terrible.  Lt. Col. Wise continued, “At the battle’s end I lined the men up and looked them over. It was enough to break your heart.  I had left Courcelles May 31st with 965 men and 26 officers—the best battalion I ever saw any where. … Ten months I had trained them. I had seen them grow into Marines. Now before me stood 350 men and 6 officers; 615 men and 19 officers were gone.”

After the battle, the French general renamed the wood “Bois de la Brigade de Marine” in honor of the Marines’ tenacity. The French government awarded the 5th and 6th U.S. Brigades the Croix de Guerre.

U.S. Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels wrote, “In all the history of the Marine Corps there is no such battle as that one in Belleau Wood. Fighting day and night without relief, without sleep, often without water, and for days without hot rations, the Marines met and defeated the best divisions that Germany could throw into the line.

“The heroism and doggedness of that battle are unparalleled. Time after time officers seeing their lines cut to pieces, seeing their men so dog-tired that they even fell asleep under shellfire, hearing their wounded calling for the water they were unable to supply, seeing men fight on after they had been wounded and until they dropped unconscious; time after time officers seeing these things, believing that the very limit of human endurance had been reached, would send back messages to their post command that their men were exhausted.

“But in answer to this would come the word that the line must hold, and, if possible, those lines must attack. And the lines obeyed. Without water, without food, without rest, they went forward—and forward every time to Victory.”

Sources used:

Ancestry.com. U.S. Marine Corps Muster Rolls, 1798-1958 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007.

Brigadier General Albertus W. Catlin, USMC. With the Help of God and a Few Marines: The Battles of Chateau-Thierry and Belleau Wood. 1919.

Collin Hoeferlin (Communications Specialist), “The Battle of Belleau Wood,”  MarineParents.com, Inc.

Michael E. Ruane, “The Battle of Belleau Wood was bloody, deadly and forgotten. But it forged a new Marine Corps.” Washington Post. May 31, 2018.

Wikipedia articles “5th Marine Regiment”,  “The Battle of Belleau Wood”