World War I and Carroll County

BY MARK ALAN SMITH
Mark Alan Smith is the Carroll County Historian and the Museum Coordinator for the Carroll County Historical Museum.

The initial storm clouds of war started swirling upon the sinking of the luxury liner “Lusitania” on May 7, 1915. The toll of this event was one-thousand lives, one-hundred-and two of whom were Americans. Communiques were issued by the German government to American citizens not to travel on liners destined for Europe due to their vulnerability to attack.

President Wilson then pursued the usual “diplomatic “measures and assured the American public that the nation would not go to war due to the Lusitania tragedy. Ironically enough, prior to this event, on April 15th, 1915, the American steamer “Cushing” was sunk by an airplane attack. On May thirteenth following the demise of the Lusitania the United States government issued a strongly worded document to admonish the German government pertinent to submarine warfare, but their reaction was evasive and for all practical purposes bought some time until later events.
It wasn’t until April second that President Wilson asked Congress to declare that acts of Germany constituted a state of war, and that a submarine sunk the “Aztec” without warning.

On April fourth the senate passed a declaration of war to be followed by an act by the House which cleared the way to a joint declaration, which we are celebrating today.

On May seventh, the War Department ordered rising of nine volunteer regiments to go to France, to be followed by the Selective Service Act’s signing on May eighteenth. It is at this time that General Pershing entered the scene with his expeditionary force of regulars, also destined for France. The State militia became involved on July ninth as well as control of food and related material.

This action was followed by a drafting of 678,000 into service on July eighteenth. The developing use of aircraft was greatly assisted by an appropriation of $640,000,000 for that cause.

By 1918 the end of the conflict was in sight with over 75,000 troops in France by March first. After many negative moves by Germany, and resultant positive moves by the American troops, Germany requests armistice on October sixth and is refused by President Wilson, who later demands surrender by Germany on October fourteenth. Following a refusal of German peace terms, Germany countered with a request to the President. The denouement of the drama is seen with an Allied peace conference at Versailles which fixes peace terms for Germany; Austria signs an armistice acknowledging unconditional surrender. The abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm occurs on November ninth, to be followed by a flight to Holland with his son to escape the wrath of impending revolution---and----finally---the Armistice is signed on November eleventh of that year—1918.

To remind those of the origin of that event, it was originally entitled Armistice Day which was declared by President Wilson on November eleventh of nineteen-nineteen in a proclamation, and I quote “To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victor both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations.”

The day was transformed into Veteran’s Day on June first, nineteen-fifty-four, amending an act which was signed into law by President Eisenhower on May twenty-first of that year initiated by World War Two veteran Raymond Weeks in nineteen-forty-five to encompass veterans of all wars especially Korea instead of those exclusively from World War One.

More specifically, the Carroll County toll during that conflict was great:

There was $3,373,260.00 raised for the effort; five-hundred-ninety-four soldiers were involved, and out of that number eighteen lost their lives, and twelve were injured, including, as an example: Emerson B. Knight, Delphi former city editor, Delphi Journal, shot through the right shoulder and received six other wounds; James McCouch, one eye gone, Sergeant John Davis, of Delphi, limbs injured due to a three ton truck passing over his body, Walker Gardiner, Delphi, gassed. These were just exemplary numbers, by the way, which were listed in an insert in the Historical Atlas of Carroll County, Indiana, edited by Thomas Mayhill and Margaret Mayhill, reprinted by the Bookmark in Knightstown, Indiana.

One of the most touching of these numbers was that of Harry Bohannon, from Rockfield, who volunteered to cross the Marne River in a small boat to capture one or more prisoners that they might retrieve information to be used in the Marne drive, then known to be imminent. : The middle of the river had been reached when a soldier of the enemy saw them coming. There was a flash of flame, the boat disappeared, and seven members of the Thirty-Eighth infantry of the Third Division met their Creator. Their bodies were never found. They are thought to have floated down the river or to have been destroyed by the shell which destroyed the boat. George P. Horst, Chaplain of the outfit, helped search the river later but to no avail. He later communicated with Bohannon’s mother that he had died in action. This same Chaplain, who was later field Secretary of The Presbyterian Men’s Assembly, related to Bohannon’s mother this story at Calvary Presbyterian Church at an assembly reported in the Saturday, January twenty-seventy 1923 Hoosier Democrat newspaper. Later in April of 1927 a tree was planted (which is still standing) outside the present-day town of Rockfield. Bohannon was born in 1890 at Rockfield, the son of David and Anna Bohannon of Rockfield. The Harry Bohannon Legion Post at Delphi was named in his honor.

Another Carroll County veteran who was commemorated was that of Clarence Alton Wiles, whose remains were transported home from his fatal injury at Fismette, France, between Rheims and Soissons, France, on August sixth, 1918, with burial at Maple Lawn Cemetery near Flora. Wiles was born December twenty-third on a farm near Pyrmont, Indiana, The son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wiles. He was a member of Co. G. 47th Infantry. The former American Legion post at Flora was named in his honor.

A third veteran of a later war—WWII—imparted his name to a citizenship award of Deer Creek High School in 1947, and that was Courtland Williams, who was a Private in Company L, of the 80th Division of the 317th Infantry. Williams was born February seventeenth of 1919, and lost his life on March thirteenth, 1945 at Grumerath, Germany. According to the Logansport Pharos Tribune of 1947 he was laid to rest in a military cemetery in Luxembourg, Belgium.

There were at least two residual effects of World War One; one being the League of Nations, which became a prototype for the later United Nations, both of which were advocated by Presidents Woodrow Wilson and later Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and the actions taken against Germany which involved stripping its Army and Navy of all but 200,000 men for the Army and the reduction of the Navy to six battleships, six light cruisers, and twelve torpedo boats, without submarines, and a personnel of not over 15,000 troops. All other vessels were required to be surrendered or destroyed. These actions and others taken caused a young German corporal who had spent time in a military hospital following blinding in conflict to avenge Germany and to restore its territory and military prowess to pre-World War force. His name was –Adolf Hitler.

I conclude with a short verse by Robert W. Service:

“There was music, mirth and sunshine, but some eyes shown with regret;
And while we stun with cheers our homing braves,
O God, in thy great mercy, let us nevermore forget
The graves they left behind, the bitter graves.”

Source: Carroll County Map, War History and Latest Atlas published by the Delphi Journal and the Hoosier Democrat of Flora