Citizen-soldiers had been a significant part of Doylestown’s history since before the Civil War. It was, however, only in the 1870s that the various companies and detachment were organized under the Commonwealth’s control. On August 22, 1877, Doylestown’s “Naglee Rifles” were incorporated into the newly organized 16th Infantry Regiment of the National Guard of Pennsylvania (NGP) as Company G. The following year, as the NGP organization matured, the 16th Infantry was redesignated (on September 23rd) as the 6th Infantry, with its headquarters in Philadelphia. Doylestown’s company retained the designation G Company.
Mexican Border Campaign
As the nation navigated the shoals of neutrality in the European war, tensions also rose along the border with Mexico. On June 19, 1916, the National Guard of Pennsylvania was ordered to mobilize at Mt. Gretna, near Lebanon, PA. On June 24th the First Brigade, which included the 6th Infantry, departed for Mt. Gretna. After a few weeks in camp, the men of the 6th boarded trains for the border area on July 7th.
For the 6th, duty on the Mexican border dragged on for nearly eight months. During this period the regiment was based at Camp Stewart, outside El Paso, TX, and spent their days in drill, road marches and tactical exercises. They did not take part in any of the cross-border pursuit operations.
Finally, in early February of 1917, it was announced that the 6th Infantry would be relieved of duty and sent home. On February 19th, the Regiment arrived in Philadelphia to a tumultuous welcome and G Company proceeded onward to Doylestown and their welcoming families.
It was not, however, the lot of the men of Company G to enjoy the coming spring in peace. They arrived home in the midst of the growing crisis over German re-imposition of unrestricted submarine warfare in the Atlantic; and the release of the “Zimmerman Telegram”, in which the Germans offered Mexico substantial territory in the United States if they would join the war as an ally of Germany. The citizen-soldiers needed no crystal ball to see that their uniforms would not be packed away for long.
On April 2nd, President Wilson addressed the Congress and asked for a declaration of war against Germany. Congress passed the declaration, which Wilson signed on April 6, 1917.
The Nation Prepares for War
The Declaration of War placed the United States in a legal state of war with Germany; but mobilizing an army to fight that war posed a host of problems. The nation had no significant stockpiles of military supplies and neither the 133,000 Regulars nor the 67,000 Guardsmen had sufficient weapons and equipment.
Of immediate concern was the shortage of places to put an army of over a million men - the few active military posts were designed to house only the regular forces, and the annual training sites for the National Guard were suitable only for short occupancy during the summer months. True mobilization could not begin until camps suitable for year-round occupation could be constructed. This effort began almost immediately after the Declaration of War, and involved Engineer units (both of the Regular Army and National Guard) and local civilian contractors at the sites.
In July, 1917, construction began on Camp Hancock, outside Augusta, Georgia, which would become the concentration and training site for Pennsylvania’s Guardsmen. Camp Hancock provided nearly 19 square miles of training space and an all-weather, tented camp area which would ultimately be big enough to house 50,000 men. On August 20,1917, advance parties of all the Guard regiments departed their home stations for Augusta and Camp Hancock.
Company G mobilizes for War
On Wednesday, September 12th 1917, G Company’s 148 men were formed up by Captain George Ross and First Sergeant Walter Trainer and marched from the Shewell Avenue Armory to the Reading Railroad station behind the town band and with an escort of village and county notables. There they boarded the train which would carry them to join the rest of the 6th Infantry and over 26,000 other Pennsylvania Guardsmen at Camp Hancock. Upon arrival at Camp Hancock, G Company was assigned its billet area and began to establish a camp routine that had been well learned along the Mexican border. New recruits were given the rudiments of training and the unit began to adapt itself to military life.
But life at Camp Hancock rapidly moved beyond the routine of drill, marches and training. The War Department determined, after studying the conduct of the war in Europe, that the previous standard organizational structure for regiments, brigades and divisions needed a major change. As the trains carrying the Pennsylvania Guardsmen were rolling southward, the leaders of the Guard were given instructions to reorganize and re-designate their units. The infantry regiments, previously authorized 2,020 men would grow to over 3,700, and the number of regiments decrease from nine to four. For the Pennsylvanians, this meant that units - some with very long histories and links to cities and towns across the Commonwealth would be consolidated and lose some or all of their unique identities.
For G Company, it meant that on Saturday, October 13th, Captain Ross would march his men up the company street of Company G of Pittsburgh’s 18th Infantry and the two companies would be combined into G Company of the new 111th Infantry Regiment. Both the Sixth and Eighteenth regiments would, in all but an historical sense, cease to exist.
Captain Charles Johnston of the 18th assumed command of the combined G Company, and Captain Ross - now excess to the unit’s requirements - transferred to the 103rd Ammunition train, another 28th Division unit. Fourteen other members of the Doylestown contingent also found themselves reassigned, most to positions elsewhere in the new 111th Regiment during October.
The reorganization, however, did not interfere with the training. As a member of one of the 111th’s sister regiments put it:
“The record of activities at Camp Hancock was one round of strenuous preparation followed by another—bayonet drills, bomb-throwing, squads "east and west," parades, reviews, specialist classes, hikes by day and by night, construction of trenches, and, in fact, every bit of army activity that would prepare the man in khaki for strenuous days "over there." French and British instructors, sent by the Allies from the battle-zone of Flanders and France, assisted the division personnel in the direction of bayonet, bombing and other practices.”
The training was hampered by a shortage of nearly everything:
“Adequate blankets were not available until January. Training equipment was woeful. There was but one bayonet for each three men; machine guns made of wood, and there was but one 37-mm gun in the whole division.”
In December, First Lieutenant Arthur L. Schlosser, a recently-commissioned New York National Guardsman, joined the Company. Shortly thereafter, he assumed command of G Company, and was promoted to Captain in April, 1918. He earned the loyalty of his men, and would command the unit until his death during the Meuse Argonne Offensive in September 1918.
Heading to Europe
As the spring of 1918 began to warm the red clay hills of Camp Hancock, G Company prepared, along with the rest of the 28th Division, to leave for France and “the Front”. On April 29th the Company boarded a train and began the trip north. A two day journey brought them to Camp Upton, Long Island, NY, for a few last days of preparation. Then, on May 5th, the Company, along with the rest of the 111th Infantry, boarded His Majesty's Transport (HMT) Olympic (the immense sister ship of the Titanic) for the journey across the Atlantic. Later that day, the Olympic sailed from New York harbor.
The crossing was uneventful until the early hours of May 12th, one day out of Southampton, England. At about 3:55 am, one of the Olympic’s lookouts spotted a German submarine. The great ship turned and rammed the German vessel at full speed, cutting off one end of the sub. While escorts picked up the German survivors, Olympic proceeded to her destination.
France - More Training
The men of the 111th left the Olympic at the port of Southampton in southern England on May 13th, and immediately boarded trains for the 150-mile trip to Dover. The following day, ferries transported the regiment across the Strait of Dover to Calais, France.
Company G had arrived in France at a critical moment for the Allied cause. With new all-arms tactics and an increase in manpower from the Eastern Front, the Germans had unleashed a brutal and effective new assault on the Allied lines on March 21st. Not just a single battle, the German effort involved repeated offensives up and down the front, all designed to, in some way, split the front and gain a decisive advantage before American forces could arrive on the continent in great force. As the 111th crossed the English Channel the second of these offensives had been stopped at the cost of 120,000 allied casualties over 22 days.
At Calais, the men turned in their US issued M1917 Enfield rifles and were issued British-manufactured Lee Enfield Mark III rifles. Since the regiment was about to go into a period of training and combat hardening with the British instructors and alongside British units, it made sense to issue weapons that used standard British ammunition and could be repaired and replaced by British repairmen and quartermasters. Nonetheless, it was difficult for men who had trained with one weapon to simply exchange it for an unfamiliar (and somewhat strange looking) new one just as they were finally preparing to get into action.
After a short train-ride and two easy marches, G Company arrived in what was to be their training center at Haut Loquin, about 30 miles behind the British front line in Northern France. Their instructors were the surviving officers and men of the 16th Battalion of the Royal Scots, the senior infantry regiment in the British Army. The 16th had conducted a heroic defense along the River Lys against the German Georgette offensive in April and took extremely heavy casualties. For the next 19 days, the Scots did their best to pass on their hard-earned battle wisdom to the men of the 111th.
The training with the Royal Scots would have extended several weeks longer, but the next German offensive brought a change to the strategic plans for the 28th Division and G Company. On May 27th the Bluecher-Yorck offensive opened with a storm of artillery fire against the French left wing along the Chemin des Dames. The Germans advanced rapidly, and soon reached the Marne River, within striking distance of Paris. The threat was dire, and General Pershing immediately committed three American divisions to stem the tide and began planning to send significant American forces into the battle – including the 28th Division.
For G Company and the rest of the 111th, this decision meant a move of about 150 miles by train and road march, the interruption of training and the need to re-equip with weapons suitable for service and support in what had now become the French-American sector of the front. The Lee-Enfield rifles were turned in and U.S. M1917s reissued on June 8th, and the Regiment began moving the next day to Gouissanville, about 16 miles north of Paris.
In Goussanville, the men of the French 156th Infantry gave the Americans a short course in how the French had adapted to the new German approach to battle. They also introduced the Doughboys to the Chauchat automatic rifle, a weapon of nearly legendary poor quality that they would carry until nearly the end of the war.
Into Harms Way - The Battle of Chateau-Thierry (Aisene-Marne Offensive)
The training with the French was to be, like that with the Scots, shortened by developments at the front. Only five days after their arrival in Goussanville, G Company once again moved out, this time into the forward area. By truck and, of course, road march, the Company moved into the area just south and west of Chateau Thierry. From late June until mid-July they moved into and out of reserve positions along the Marne River several times. Leaders were escorted into front-line trenches to observe and gain experience.
"We could not help think of the previous Fourth of July and of how the folks back home would celebrate and here we were in a ruined farm house just behind the Lines. Had we been in the Line we would have felt much better. Not a very bright Fourth loomed up before us for the next day. For the first time nearly everyone thought seriously of what we were up against, for we realized how nice it would be to be at home the next day and also realized that we had some pretty stiff work ahead of us before we could ever think of returning to our homes. With these thoughts in our minds, and feeling half sad and half happy, we turned into our straw bunks, little dreaming what the next few hours would bring to us."
George W. Cooper 2nd Battalion Sergeant Major
On July 15th, G Company and the rest of 2nd Battalion were attached to the 3rd Division’s 30th Infantry and assumed positions south of Crezancy, east of Chateau Thierry. On the 17th, as the Germans latest advance began to peter out, the battalion attacked into Crezancy to restore the line along the Marne River. In this period, the Doylestown men suffered their first casualties.
- Private Jacob F. Bryan (who had been reassigned to F Company) was wounded on the 15th.
- Privates George C. Galena and Alfred C. Young Jr. (who had been reassigned to B Company, 103rd Engineers) were wounded on the 17th.
- Private Howard Case was wounded on the 18th.
- Private Ervin S. Stout (who had been reassigned to Headquarters Company) was wounded on the 19th.
After the action at Crezancy, the entire 111th was relieved from attachment to the 3rd Division and on July 21st marched to join the rest of the 28th Division on the north bank of the Marne River, just east of Chateau Thierry. From that point, they moved north, following the retiring German forces. They relieved elements of the 26th Division and attacked to the west on July 24th towards Courmont. After advancing eastward about four miles, resistance was encountered near La Croix Rouge Ferme (The Red Cross Farm).
- In this action, Private First Class Leo J. Kern of Doylestown was severely wounded by artillery fire.
After being relieved by units of the 42nd Division, the G Company men marched northeast towards the Vesle River and the town of Fismes.
The Battle of Fismes
The Germans, having been pushed back from their furthest advances by the Aisne-Marne Offensive, decided to make a stand along the Vesle river. For the men of the 28th Division, the action in and around the town of Fismes would demonstrate that, though they had been pushed back, the Germans were still capable of tenacious defense and deadly counterattacks.
The French high command, under whose control the counter-offensive was conducted, knew that their efforts had achieved nearly as much as could be expected. However, the French Sixth Army’s commander, Major General Degoutte, wanted to push forward to secure both the line of the Vesle river and a bridgehead across the river in the north-bank town of Fismette, to be prepared for the next offensive.
The American 32nd Division had made the initial assault into Fismes, but had found it impossible to clear the entire town. They were relieved by troops of the 28th Division’s 56th Brigade on the night of August 6/7. The 112th Infantry took over the front line, with the 111th in support. The attack resumed the next morning, and the Pennsylvanians managed to clear Fismes and got across the Vesle river into Fismette that evening under cover of darkness.
On the morning of August 8th, the Germans violently counterattacked the positions north of the river, but were repulsed.
On August 9th, G Company and the rest of 2nd Battalion took over the sector just west of Fismes from the 112th Infantry. The following morning, they advanced against the aptly-named Chateau du Diable and other German positions to the left of Fismes/Fismette. This was basic infantry fighting, with small groups moving from cover to cover, finding and eliminating German machine gun positions. In this action, the following Doylestown men were wounded:
- Sergeant Samuel E. Spare of Doylestown, assigned to the Regiment’s Headquarters Company, was both gassed and wounded.
- Private Louis A. Bregan was hit by a machine gun bullet and ultimately lost his right arm.
- Private Arthur Landes was also a victim of one of the German machine guns.
The attack continued across the Vesle river the next day, August 11th. In the course of this brutal slogging, Private Maurice Lazar of Philadelphia, a member of G Company since early 1917 was killed by a shell burst. In addition, the following men were wounded in this action:
- Sergeant George M. Atkinson of Doylestown.
- Private First Class Harold Bishop of Philadelphia.
- Private Clarence Bodine of Newtown.
- Private Clarence Holdsworth of Doylestown.
- Private First Class Henry Newell of Doylestown.
- Private First Class John Reraback of Quakertown.
- Corporal Raymond Rutherford of Doylestown.
- Private First Class Sydney N. Stuckert of Doylestown.
- Private Robert G. Weckerly of Doylestown.
In an attack intended to further improve the positions west of Fismes on August 12th, Bugler Russell B. Gulick and Private Jacob R. Trauger, both of Doylestown, were gassed.
During the night of August 13th, the men of G Company were relieved and marched to the rear. After a short “rest” a few miles south of Fismes, they marched north again to an area near Dravegny – still south of the Vesle river, but now subject to shelling by the Germans. The position near Dravegny was technically a third line or support position, and each night the men marched up into the first and second line positions to assist in deepening trenches and improving the positions.
The shelling and work in the forward positions took a toll on the Doylestown men.
- Private Fred Johnson of Doylestown was wounded by an exploding bomb on August 22nd.
- Private First Class John Williams of New Britain received shrapnel wounds on the same date.
- Private James R. Wood of Lumberville also was wounded by shrapnel on the 22nd.
- Corporal Frederick Scheetz of Doylestown was wounded by shrapnel on the 23rd.
- Private First Class Joseph Shaffer of Warrington was slightly wounded by shrapnel on the 24th.
- Corporal Nick Bradley, a Cherokee, NC native who had enlisted in Company G in August, 1917, was wounded in the leg on the 25th.
- Private John A. Mooney of Philadelphia was wounded by shrapnel on August 27th.
- On August 28th, Private First Class (later Corporal) Jacob R. Shive of Ferndale, a member of G Company who had transferred to the 103rd Field Signal Battalion in December 1917, was hit by shrapnel and gassed.
To be continued
As we assemble and edit more information from our research, we will append to this story.