Farmer, soldier, postman

by Art Merrill

Arthur Lawrence Merrill went to war. To fully

appreciate his WWI Army service, lets understand
something about his world.
Born in 1894, the same year that a Frenchman
invented modern smokeless gunpowder, Arthur
Lawrence Merrill knew a time when there were no cars or
paved roads, no radio, no home electricity. He was a 23
year-old farmer when he enlisted in the US Army in 1917.
He had no tractor for farming; the horse and the train were
the major modes of overland transport and the last of the
wind powered sailing schooners still carried freight
overseas. Metropolitan electrical service was very new and
not widespread. Instant messaging consisted of the telegraph or letters hand carried by courier.
The timeliest news of the war in Europe came to the US by the transatlantic telegraph cable and
disseminated to newspapers, which ALM would have read. He heard the patriotic rhetoric and saw the
patriotic posters exhorting America to war. I dont know whether ALM was an isolationist at that time or
what his political leanings were other family members will have to provide that information. He had a
draft card, but whether he enlisted from patriotism or in anticipation of being drafted or both, or neither
- I dont know.

Horses and techno-war

Arthur Lawrence Merrill fought during a brutal cusp in military history when old battle tactics and
generals who fought earlier wars with muzzle loading rifles collided with new weapons technology,
including machine guns, poison gas, tanks and airplanes. More than 10 million soldiers died in WWI, and
ALM was among the 21 million wounded.
Artillery science had advanced significantly and during WWI artillery literally destroyed entire
landscapes as high explosive, shrapnel and gas shells in their millions sought out men. The megatonnage
of artillery shells that fell on Europe in WWI from canons pulled almost entirely by horses, still the
primary means of transport - might just as well have been atomic or nuclear weapons for the destruction
they wrought. Artillery completely obliterated entire French villages that have never since been rebuilt.
Today the French still memorialize them: a tourist can wander into an uninhabited forest grown up where
a village once stood and find a new sign that reads, La Rue Principal - Main Street; the French still elect
mayors to the nonexistent towns.
If any one thing characterized WWI, it was the artillery. Farmers today still routinely plow up
unexploded WWI artillery shells in what they call an iron harvest; the French and Belgian governments
have special units designated for disposing of them. At the Ypre Salient battlefield alone, an estimated
300 million unexploded shells buried themselves in the ground when they fell. In March of 2014 one of

these old shells exploded at the town of Ypre, killing two construction workers and injuring others. In this
way, long dead WWI artillerymen still arent finished killing 100 years later.
Mounted cavalry discovered in the most horrible manner imaginable that they were wheat under
the scythe against the new machine guns. Throughout the entire war generals repeatedly threw their
infantry into massed machine gun fire in the gamble that some would survive to take the enemys position;
it rarely succeeded, but they
did it again and again and
again. The phrase war of
attrition has become clich
and misused, but WWI
evolved into a central
battlefield strategy to simply
kill as many of the enemy as
possible.
War is the father of
invention, and in their desire
to kill the enemy with greater
and greater alacrity both sides
brought new tools to the
savagery.
The
Allies
introduced the armored tank;
Lt. Col. George S. Patton, who a few years earlier designed the last cavalry sabre adopted by the US Army,
commanded the 1st Provisional Tank Brigade in France. ALM faced two new German horrors, the flame
thrower and poison gas. The latter would figure prominently in his war and impact him the rest of his life.
History is rarely clean and often bitterly ironic. Still, it seems especially bizarre that Fritz Haber,
the German Jew who won the 1918 Nobel Prize for inventing modern fertilizer to make todays Big Ag
farming possible, is also the inventor of Germanys poison gas in WWI. He weaponized the first chlorine
gas and personally observed while the Germans released it on the French in 1915. He followed up with
phosgene and mustard gasses. Habers opinion was that the manner of killing an enemy is immaterial.
Between the World Wars the rise of National Socialism forced Haber to leave Germany; he didnt live to
see the Nazis use his Zyklon B gas an insecticide to mass murder uncounted fellow Jews in
concentration camps.
WWI casualty figures are difficult to pin down accurately because of their sheer volume and need
at the time to generalize or even assume. Some estimate Habers invention killed 100,000 during WWI
and wounded one million more. In one reckoning, by the end of the war the American Army suffered
72,807 wounded and 1,462 killed in gas attacks alone. One quarter of Army battle aid stations were
designated strictly for treating gassing victims.

Paper pieces
You know the rueful axiom, There are no atheists in foxholes, but like all absolutes, if you look
deeply enough you will find it isnt a blanket truth. The horror and savagery that ALM experienced Over
There apparently changed him fundamentally. He went over there an Episcopalian and came back an
atheist, his daughter Barbara Merrill (my mother) said on several occasions when speaking about him.

Perhaps another family member can contribute more on this point, as it seems important to
understanding his character.
Piecing together an individual military history is especially difficult when dealing with handwritten
military records and paper trails spread over a century from official archives to relatives shoe boxes and
manila folders. There are inevitable contradictions and discrepancies that need resolution for clarity.
Though records show ALM having served entirely within Company A of the 39th Infantry Regiment,
I have been unable to discover precisely which Battalions Company A the 4th Division assigned him to
(see Appendix to understand the order of the 4th Divisions composition), so I have arbitrarily placed him
in the 1st Infantry Battalion, Rifle Company A. Even if I am wrong about the precise details of his personal
experience for example, perhaps he was in a different battalion on the right of an advance instead of on
the left he fought those major battles indicated on his Victory Medal and the overall experiences do
apply to him.
Theres
a
discrepancy between an
entry on his enlistment
record and his discharge
card and from what we
know from family verbal
history of his experience in
WWI. On the reverse of his
record, Form 525 A.G.O.
Oct. 9-18, the Enlistment
Record side, on the line
Marksmanship, gunner
qualification or rating,
the entry is formally
stamped, Not Qualified.
This would imply that, if
he
were
not
marksmanship qualified
he may not have been
assigned to a rifle
company. After all, how
can you assign to a combat
rifle company a man who
is not qualified to shoot a
rifle? However, I think that
implication is incorrect for
one or more of the
following reasons:

Form 525 A.G.O. Oct.9-18, Honorable Discharge

First, except in six

places where formal
stamps appear (one being
the almost completely

illegible commanding officers stamped signature and title), the entire document is filled out in
handwriting by pen and ink. My own long military experience prompts me to believe this indicates that
many hundreds or even thousands of these documents were prepared ahead of time with these prestamped entries to accelerate the administrative processing of discharges. After his combat experiences,
perhaps Sergeant Merrill just wanted to be done with the Army and go home, and felt uninclined to argue
that Not Qualified point on his discharge.
Second, the note at the bottom of the page requires a Qualified entry to Give date of
qualification or rating and number, date and source of order announcing same. Perhaps such a record
did not or no longer existed for
Sergeant Merrill or for many
thousands of other 4th Division
soldiers, hence the Not Qualified
stamps. In a history of Sergeant
Merrills
39th
Regiment
performance at the Aisne-Marne
offensive, the writer, a Captain
who was there, said that most of
the 4th Division soldiers never
received any firearms training
before leaving for France. Other
histories repeat that in regards to
other Army units and the Army in
general that went to Europe.
Receiving instruction only a few
weeks before their first battle, its
plausible to believe that there
would be no written record of his
qualification. I think this most
likely.
Third, because he may not
have received firearms instruction
until essentially the last minute
before battle, it is possible
Sergeant Merrill did not shoot a
minimum target score to qualify as
Marksman. The immediate need
for armed and healthy fighting men
Form 525 A.G.O 9-18 reverse

was such that shooting a poor score would not keep a man and his rifle out of the front line trenches. His
survival is a pretty good indication he picked up the shooting skills he needed on the job. Anecdotally, I
know that after the war Grandpa was a deer hunter; having been rurally raised its a pretty good bet that
he possessed shooting skills before he joined the Army.

Wounding
Another discrepancy on his Army Enlistment Record is equally curious. On the line, Wounds
received in service the entry reads, None. Yet on another record (Form 724-9 A.G.O. Nov 22 1919,
below) in Cousin Jennifers possession, on a line reading Wounded in action (degree and date) the
typewritten entry reads, Severely about Aug 1. This form, called a Discharge Card, originates from a
1919 act of Congress requiring that the Army furnish it to the adjutant general of the state (in this case,
New York) and based upon Sergeant Merrills service record, which we already see reports he suffered no
wounds.
A St. Lawrence
County, NY newspaper
clipping dated October
16,
1918
(also
provided by Jennifer)
records that Sergeant
Merrills
mother,
Agnes
Merrill,
received
a
War
Department telegram
saying that he had
been
severely
wounded during a
drive from Aug 1 to
Aug 7. The clipping
identifies him has a
Private, but according
to his service record
he was, indeed, a Sergeant at that time. Neither the clipping nor any other document I have seen states
specifically the nature of his wounds; however, I understand from oral family history from his daughters
Alice (my aunt) and Barbara (my mother) Merrill and, I seem to recall, his wife Katherine, (my
grandmother), that he suffered a German mustard gas attack that killed much or most of his company. I
never heard him speak of it, or of any of his war experiences at all. ALM received medical care from the
Veterans Administration throughout the remainder of his life. I clearly recall as a child waiting in the car
with my brother Mike in a VA hospital parking lot while Mom visited Grandpa inside the building.
I suspect that here again Sergeant Merrill was disinclined at the time of his discharge to argue the
erroneous None on his Enlistment Record regarding his wounds.

Getting over there

Arthur Lawrence Merrill enlisted in the Regular Army 31 August 1917 at Camp Syracuse, a Mobilization
Camp near that city; the Army sent him to Camp Greene, NC for basic training and assigned him to the
4th Infantry Division. I dont know how he travelled to Syracuse from his Parishville farm, about 150 miles
away, but his subsequent travels ordered by the US Army were most likely via train.
Private First Class Arthur Lawrence Merrill, Service Number 556438, earned promotion to
Corporal on 14 March 1918 while at Camp Greene, NC. Corporal is the first Non-Commissioned Officer
(NCO) rank, and it placed him in rank one step below Sergeant. A corporal is expected to be a leader, and

in an Infantry company he would assume the duties of his sergeant if that sergeant became a casualty.
The 4th Division assigned him to its 7th Infantry Brigade, 39th Infantry Regiment, either the 1st, 2nd or 3rd
Battalion, Company A. As a Sergeant, he was likely a Section Leader, possibly a Squad Leader.
Corporal Merrill left Camp
Greene with the 4th Division on 21 April
1918 for a stop at Camp Mills in
Mineola, NY to await transport
overseas. On 10 May he sailed - in
convoy for U-boat protection - from
New York on the SS Megantic, a White
Star Line passenger steamship hired as
a troop ship, and landed at Brest on the
northwest coast of France on 23 May.
At least, this is most likely. The 4th
Division history records that on this
day its 7th Brigade arrived minus
elements of the 39th Inf, Corporal
Merrills regiment. The enigmatic entry
fails to provide any further information
on the matter.
ALM in uniform with his mother, Agnes Merrill

That same day, 23 May, at about 0230 (2:30am) the German submarine UB-57 torpedoed the
RMS Moldavia (4th Division records incorrectly ID her as the SS Moldavia), in convoy with Megantic, sinking
her in the English Channel and killing 56 4th Division men of the 58th Infantry Regiment before they could
reach Brest. Resting in 150 feet of water, today the Moldavia is a popular wreck dive for recreational scuba
divers.

Abbreviated training
The 4th Division trained with the British Army at Picardy from 31 May to 5 June. On 6 June 1918
Corporal Merrill received recognition for his leadership ability with a promotion to Sergeant. He then
boarded a train with his brigade on the Hesdin-Montreuil railroad on 9 June to travel to Meaux; two days
later his 7th Brigade is attached to the French 4th Division to train with them near Rosoy-en-Multien.
Anyone knowledgeable about military history can tell you that a week of training with one foreign
army and a few weeks of training with a second one speaking a different language is not enough time to
develop proficiency and coordination. Some men in the 4th Division had never even fired a rifle before
disembarking at Brest; this is the period when Corporal/Sergeant Merrill received firearms training with
the M1917 or M1903 rifle. US Army history considers the 4th Division as being only partially trained before
their first battle. However, the Russians had collapsed on the Eastern front and the Germans now had
more divisions to bring
to France, so new
enemy offensives were
imminent and there
was no more time to
train. Sergeant Merrill
had been in the Army for less than a year when he saw his first combat.
US M1903 rifle

Codependent slaughter
By the time Corporal Merrill arrived in France the fighting had stalemated with only minor
exchanges of position made at horrific costs; casualties often numbered in the tens of thousands for a
single battle. Trenches zig-zagged nearly unbroken across France from the Swiss to the Belgian-Dutch
borders. While on the front line in these trenches Sergeant Merrill lived in a world of mud and pneumonia,
near-constant artillery bombardment, disease and death (note on his discharge that he received typhoid
prophylaxis before going overseas). The better trenches had duckboard on the bottom, helping
somewhat to keep feet out of shallow water that collected there. Trench foot a gangrenous condition
caused by prolonged exposure to the wet conditions in the trenches was a very serious problem, so
Sergeant Merrill was rotated out of the trenches with the others every 10 days or so to dry out and to get
respite from the continuous artillery shelling and sniping.
One of the reasons WWI took so
many lives was that, because both sides
repeated the same tactics over and over
again, each side knew what to expect and
how to counter it. If we define
codependent as Repeating the same
thing over and over again and expecting a
different result, then WWI battle tactics are
perhaps the most bizarre expression of
codependence in history.
Constant water immersion caused trench foot.

An offensive would begin with several weeks of artillery bombardment of the enemys front line
trenches, intensifying in the last couple of days. You might think this would be enough to totally destroy
sanity, if not the trenches and men themselves, but each side had already learned to move back to
connected reserve trenches to escape the pounding. Then on the morning of attack the barrage would
lift, signaling to the defenders that the infantry assault was underway, and they would rush back to their
forward trenches.
The first wave of attackers would scramble over the top of their trenches wearing gas masks
and rush across 600 or 1000 yards of a decimated No-Mans Land littered with barbed wire, craters,
corpses and blasted debris. Weighed down with backpacks, rifles, ammo, weapons, canteens, wire cutters
and shovels, after a few hundred yards the rush was reduced to a terrified slogging through mud, halfsuffocated by the gas mask. It was impossible to cross before the enemy defenders artillery shells began
pounding them with high explosive, shrapnel and, if the wind favored the enemy, gas shells. They could
only advance part way under cover of their own machine guns before getting into their line of fire, forcing
the machine guns to cease fire. By this time the enemy had set up their own machine guns and riflemen
in pre-planned defensive placements and began raking the attackers with fields of interlocking fire.
Few of the first wave were expected to survive, and those soldiers routinely met that expectation.
As the survivors neared the enemy trenches and began cutting wire, the second wave of attackers began
their rush across No-Mans Land into the artillery, machine guns and gas. Whatever was left of the first
wave tried to suppress enemy fire with their rifles as best they could while the second wave attempted
to infiltrate the passages through the barbed wire cleared by the first wave and a third wave came over
the top. If successful, the second and third waves would manage to get into the enemy trenches for vicious

hand-to-hand combat. But by now the

defenders had rushed their own fresh
reinforcements into the forward trenches to
repulse the attackers.
Fighting in the confines of the
trenches was indescribably brutal, carried
out with pistol and shotgun, flame thrower
and grenade, bayonet and the fierce trench
knife, shovels and bare hands. And, of
course, poison gas.

Attacking over the top into artillery and machine gun fire.

Whats in a Victory Medal clasp?

Meaux and Rosoy-en-Multien, where the 4th Division had its final training, are about 20 miles
north and east of Paris; 20 miles further on were the trenches of the front lines. On 1 July the US Army
placed Sergeant Merrills 7th Brigade at the disposal (perhaps a fitting word, given the bloody tactics of
the war) of the French II Corps with the intent to occupy a position between Autheuil and Varinfoy to face
a possible German attack. Sergeant Merrill is here 5-7 July and again 15 July. Next day the 39th Regiment
is attached to the French 33rd Division, and on the night of 17 July, reinforced with two machine gun
companies, the 39th relieves the French 11th Infantry Regiment on the left of the French line from Troesnes
to Faverolles.
Torrents of rain
fell that night while
Sergeant
Merrill
struggled with the 39th
to get Company A into
position to attack. The
roads were a morass of
slippery mud churned
up by transports, towed
Trench knife

artillery and thousands upon thousands of soldiers. Blinded by rain and darkness and loaded down with
heavy packs and equipment, the men had to hold on to each other to stay together. It was after 2300
hours, 11pm, when Sergeant Merrills A Company reached its position, a muddy trench on the front line
filling with rain. They settled in to sleep as best they could. Before midnight they received orders to attack
the German line in the morning. What do you suppose it was like to try to sleep completely wet and
exhausted in cold mud while thinking about your chances of surviving charging into machine guns in a few
hours?

Sergeant Merrill earned the first Battle Clasp on his Victory Medal the very next day. On 18 July
the 39th Infantry attacked east into the German line through Buisson de Cresnes with French regiments
on their right and left. The Allied commanders had apparently set up the attack so that the French would
bear the brunt of the fighting to ease the Americans initiation into combat, but as so often happens in
war, it didnt go quite as planned.
Seventy French artillery batteries began shelling the German lines at 0430 (4:30am). This was 1 st
Battalions and Sergeant Merrills first experience with artillery from a front line trench, and they were
nearly deafened by the continuous barrage hammering the Germans only a few hundred yards away.
Their second artillery experience came as soon as the French advanced from their trenches: German
artillery and mortars sent a continuous counter barrage against the Americans for the next two hours.
The Savieres River flowed diagonally four hundred yards in front of Sergeant Merrills position.
The 39 was assigned to clear a Saxon regiment and a company of machine guns from a wooded ridge on
the far side, and at 0800 (8am) Sergeant
Merrills A Company and B Company of 1st
Battalion led the American attack, swarming
out of their trenches and across a gently
sloping wheat meadow down toward the
river in the bright morning light. The attack
seemed to draw no attention and it was
oddly silent. Men paused to smoke while
officers realigned the advancing line. Then
they moved through a tree line and
scrambled down a bluff at the rivers edge.
Because they had been unable to
reconnoiter the river before the attack, the
1st Battalion was stunned to find the rains
had swollen the Savieres to twice its
expected size; it was full of logs and debris
and both banks had become swamps.
th

But they couldnt let that stop them,

so wading, swimming and scrambling
Sergeant Merrill and A and B companies
floundered across the river. Their attack
organization decayed with the enemy just
200 yards away an enemy now fully alerted
by their commotion. The Germans had not
expected that anyone would be so foolish as
to try to cross the river in broad daylight, and
they had their backs to it to face an expected
assault across firmer ground. As they
dragged heavy machine guns into position to
fire on the Americans, a corporal and two
Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) teams in the first patrol across from Sergeant Merrills A Company
advanced toward them, firing, and killed or drove the Germans off. The rest of the battalion hurried
across, the beneficiaries of an unintentional surprise attack by the BAR men.

The fighting intensified in the wood as the Germans recovered from their surprise and even
managed to reinforce during the night. On 18 July the lack of adequately training with the French became
apparent when attempts to communicate and coordinate with the French failed. During the battle next
morning the Americans had already overwhelmed a German position that, as far as the French knew, was
still in enemy hands, and they sent an artillery barrage into the position, causing American casualties. The
39th eventually made their objective of securing the ridge, and in savage hand-to-hand combat captured
Noroy-sur-Ourcq (the town of Noroy on the Ourcq River). The ferocity of the fighting is such that the
exhausted 39th was finally moved back to rejoin the 7th Brigade in a reserve position the night of 19 July.
A reserve position is not necessarily out of the fighting; it very often means the unit is simply not
in the first assault or defensive line, but held back and then rushed forward to reinforce other units where
needed. The complexity of Allied operations and cooperative interdependence is exemplified in the rapid
transfers of responsibility that followed the next few days: On 21 July French units relieved the 4th Division
at the front; on 22 July the 7th Brigade reverts back to 4th Division control and the division is placed in
reserve with the French 6th Army at La Ferte-Milon for rehabilitation (rest & resupply); two days later on
24 July the 7th Brigade is placed at the disposal of French II Corps.
At this point I was unable to discover the operations of the 7th Brigade now attached to the French,
but it appears to me that after rehabilitation they held a defensive position somewhere on the line with
French units until 28 July when the 4th Division is thrown back into the Aisne-Marne offensive. The division
history next mentions the 7th Brigade on 3 August with an entry, 7th Inf Brig reverts to the Div on the
passage of the lines, meaning the 4th Division resumed command and control of the 7th Brigade as the
division passes through
the front line on its
assault.
If
the
St.
Lawrence
County
newspaper clipping and
Form 724-9 are correct
about the approximate
date
of
Sergeant
Merrills wounding, it
happened during this
phase of the AisneMarne offensive.
On succeeding
nights the Germans
withdrew again and
again, first from the
Ourcq River and then
from the Vesle River,
Newspaper reports Private Merrills wounding

fighting hard for every yard of ground relinquished to the Allies. Between 4-6 August in bitter fighting the
4th Division pushed the Germans back to the Vesle River, and on 6 August elements of the 4th crossed the
river to hold and block the Route Nationale. On 7 August other elements crossed the river to entrench

along the railroad track. Recall that Sergeant Merrill was apparently wounded sometime between 1-7
August. I did not discover whether he crossed the river on this offensive that now becomes an occupation
of the Vesle Sector.
Sometime during this week he suffered the mustard gas attack. Mustard gas does not always
incapacitate immediately it depends on the amount of exposure, so Sergeant Merrill might have fought
for a day or more afterward. Mustard gas will raise painful yellow skin blisters and burn eyes (many victims
were permanently blinded and horribly disfigured), but respiratory injury was the killer, whether it
happened within moments as rising blisters choked the airway or the gas corroded lung tissue, or took a
month or more to kill via infection entering through ravaged airways or mucous membranes. Doctors
could flush eyes with saline and treat skin injuries with an ointment of bleaching powder and petroleum
jelly, but all they could do for respiratory injury was administer a menthol solution inhalant through a
gauze. It helped ease the awful dry coughing but did nothing for a bronchial infection.
Whatever the extent and nature of Sergeant Merrills severe wounding, he recovered enough to
participate in the St. Mihiel battle five to six weeks later, beginning 12 September, to earn that clasp. And
then in at least three more major battles to earn those clasps, too.

Turning point
The impact of the Americans in the Aisne-Marne offensive turned out to be decisive in the war in
that it finally drove the Germans backward, and the enemy remained on the defensive until the end of
the war. Its important to note that at the time of the Aisne-Marne offensive the Americans operated only
with and under the French and British armies, hence the references to Sergeant Merrills 7th Brigade being
sometimes at French disposal. The outstanding performance of the American soldiers in this offensive
gave General Pershing, in command of all American forces, the support he needed in his argument to fight
his forces as an American army independent of the command of the French and British.
Heres another note regarding Sergeant Merrills A Company assault across the flooded Savieres
River. I found the US Armys Infantry School at Fort Benning, GA used an analysis of the 1 st Battalions
performance and experience in this battle in its curriculum in 1931-1932. The writer is Capt. Walter B.
Smith, who apparently was in the battle himself. His very first conclusion in this analysis used to teach
infantry tactics is, [I]n an attack over broken and unfavorable terrain, success is utterly dependent on the
leadership of the squad, section and platoon leaders. Again, Sergeant Merrill, given his rank, was likely a
Section or Squad Leader.
I intended to try piecing together all of ALMs WWI Army service, but without more anecdotal
information on his personal experiences, I would only accomplish a retelling of the 4 th Divisions battles.
That information is already out there, if youre interested. Perhaps youll come away here with an insight
into his character and an appreciation for the enormity of what that single tiny bit of brass clasp on
Grandpas Victory Medal represents. Imagine the experiences represented by the other four clasps.
Sergeant Merrills Aisne-Marne battle, the pivotal battle that in retrospect turned out to be the
beginning of Imperial Germanys end, was spearheaded by five soldiers a corporal and two, 2-man BAR
teams rushing forward across a flooded river into an entire enemy regiment to break up a machine gun
position. Their action launched the outcome of the battle and shows that great things often fall upon the
lowly individual infantryman to accomplish.

Oddly, except for a reference to the VFW being in charge of

services, there is no indication in Grandpas newspaper obituary that he
fought and survived some of the most horrendous battles in modern
times, battles so important in changing the course of world history that we
called it the Great War and The War to End All Wars until the advent of
WWII. Again, I never heard him or any other family member describe his
personal experiences in the war, other than mention his wounding by
mustard gas. Ive known and know veterans who dont talk about their
experiences, and veterans who feel guilt at surviving, and veterans who
insist they only did their jobs and that honor really belongs to those who
never came home.
I understand that Grandpa was too badly injured by mustard gas
to continue farming as he got older; his obituary identifies him as a retired
rural postman. I suppose hed be OK with that.

Thanks to Jennifer Merrill-Fuller for providing copies of Grandpas

Discharge Card, the in-uniform photo, and the wounding and obit
newspaper clippings. The other photos are my own or public domain. The
lead photo of Grandpa, his Corporal promotion and Honorable Discharge
documents and Victory Medal are in my possession.

APPENDIX
US Army division structure during WWI
I. Division Headquarters
II. 2 Infantry Brigades, each consisting of:
A. Brigade Headquarters
B. 2 Infantry Regiments, each consisting of:
1. Regimental Headquarters
2. Regimental Headquarters Company
3. Supply Company
4. Machine Gun Company
5. 3 Infantry Battalions, each consisting of:
a. Battalion Headquarters
b. 4 Rifle Companies
C. Machine Gun Battalion, consisting of:
1. Battalion Headquarters
2. 4 Machine Gun Companies

The 4th Division was comprised of 2 infantry brigades, each

with 2 regiments, with 3 Infantry Battalions per regiment, and
4 companies per battalion. A company had 6 officers and
250 men. Rifle companies had 2 or more platoons; each
platoon had 2 or more squads; each squad had 2 or more
sections of 8 to 24 men. The 39th Regiment had a strength of
112 officers 3720 men. All told, the 4th Division had 17,666
riflemen, 260 machine guns, and 72 guns (48 75mm and 24
155mm), along with various units for engineering,
communication, and supply.

Victory is mine
Congress was supposed to have authorized
creation of the Victory Medal, but the bill
never passed. Instead, the US Army and US
Navy authorized the medal in 1919 without
Congressional approval. Those who served
between 6 April 1917 and 11 November 1918
were eligible for the medal, as were those who
served in European Russia and Siberia 12
November 1918 to 1 April 1920 (you didnt
know the US Army fought against the Russian
Bolsheviks? Did you know that Westinghouse
made rifles for the Russians?). Clasps added to
the Victory Medal represent participation in
specific battles, offensives and campaigns. The
Defensive Sector clasp represents combat
actions lacking specific names.

The back of the medal lists the Allied countries;

before you scroll down to view the image, try
naming as many of those 13 countries as you
can.
Because veterans of WWII came to have their
own WWII Victory Medal, the first is now called
the WWI Victory Medal. Almost certainly,
Grandpa received his Victory Medal in the mail.
Reproductions are available online beginning
at about $25, if you are so inclined.

In contrast, veterans of the Korean and

Vietnam conflicts have Service Medals, rather
than victory medals. A few years after I retired
from the Navy they sent me notice that I was
eligible and could apply to receive the new
Cold War Victory Medal. Maybe I will.

WWI Victory Medal reverse side

Private Merrills promotion to Corporal