The Congressional Medal of Honor was awarded to 119 members of the U.S. Army, Navy, and Marine Corps during World War I, 33 of them posthumously. Portrait photographs of these heroes are remarkably scarce, but I was fortunate to recently acquire one. The subject of tonight’s post is Captain Samuel Woodfill of Indiana, one of America’s most celebrated soldiers of the Great War.
Captain Samuel Woodfill, U.S. Army Often described by General John J. Pershing as “the outstanding soldier of the American Expeditionary Forces,” Captain Samuel Woodfill earned the Medal of Honor for extraordinary heroism during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive on October 12, 1918. Leading his company through heavy fog and enemy fire near Cunel, France, Woodfill singlehandedly attacked multiple German machine gun nests, killing or capturing their crews despite being gassed and exhausted. A career soldier from Indiana, Woodfill had already served in the Philippines and on the Mexican border before World War I, and his calm, precise marksmanship in France became legendary among his peers. After the war, he was personally honored by Pershing and later chosen to represent the U.S. Army’s enlisted men at the dedication of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in 1921.
Arlington National Cemetery Video: Major Samuel Woodfill
Reverse Side of Woodfill’s Portrait
His Medal of Honor citation reads:
“While he was leading his company against the enemy, First Lieutenant Woodfill’s line came under heavy machine gun fire, which threatened to hold up the advance. Followed by two soldiers at 25 yards, this officer went out ahead of his first line toward a machine gun nest and worked his way around its flank, leaving the two soldiers in front. When he got within ten yards of the gun it ceased firing, and four of the enemy appeared, three of whom were shot by First Lieutenant Woodfill. The fourth, an officer, rushed at First Lieutenant Woodfill, who attempted to club the officer with his rifle. After a hand-to-hand struggle, First Lieutenant Woodfill killed the officer with his pistol. His company there upon continued to advance, until shortly afterwards another machine gun nest was encountered. Calling on his men to follow, First Lieutenant Woodfill rushed ahead of his line in the face of heavy fire from the nest, and when several of the enemy appeared above the nest he shot them, capturing three other members of the crew and silencing the gun. A few minutes later this officer for the third time demonstrated conspicuous daring by charging another machine gun position, killing five men in one machine gun pit with his rifle. He then drew his revolver and started to jump into the pit, when two other gunners only a few yards away turned their gun on him. Failing to kill them with his revolver, he grabbed a pick lying nearby and killed both of them. Inspired by the exceptional courage displayed by this officer, his men pressed on to their objective under severe shell and machine gun fire.”
(All photographs and narrative were provided by Locke)
The first man from Southbridge, Massachusetts to enlist during World War 1 was Charles Edwin Hellner. He was born on April 11th, 1897 and was at the age of 20 when he enlisted for the US Army on May 7th, 1917. He was placed into B company of the 1st Engineer Regiment (part of the 1st Infantry Division) with about 30 other Southbridge men. After exactly three months of training he departed for France.
Sgt. Hellner’s WWI Uniform
Following their arrival, the soldiers of B company then spent more time training. This time it was in the tactics of trench warfare with the French as their experienced instructors. In later parts of the training, American units would serve alongside French ones in relatively idle sections of the frontline so that the doughboys could get some experience. While serving with elements of the 16th infantry on the morning of November 3rd, 1917, Hellner would be present for the first raid on American troops by the German army. The first three American deaths of the war occurred there.
Hellner’s Diary, Cigarette Case, Pocket Watch and War Medals
Training and engineer work continued for Hellner’s unit until the 1st Division was called into action again. On May 28th, 1918 the 28th infantry regiment had attacked and successfully captured the French town of Cantigny. The 1st Engineers moved into the sector and began work fortifying the area and digging trenches. Hellner memorialized his service there with a large pennant that bears “Cantigny 1918” and his portrait which speaks to the fame of the battle at the time. While in these trenches at and around Cantigny, B company experienced shelling and fought off diversionary attacks from the German’s Montdidier-Noyon offensive that was aimed at nearby French positions.
Hellner’s Discharge Paperwork
On July 18th the 1st Engineers began its involvement in the Second Battle of the Marne. A German attack had recently pushed back allied lines before it faltered and it was realized that this was an opportunity for a counterattack. Hellner had recently been given command of his own squad and would now be leading them into battle. B company spent three days attacking the Germans near the town of Soissons. During the first day of attack on July 18th, a member of Hellner’s squad named William Broughton was hit in the stomach by a piece of shrapnel. Unfortunately, he eventually died from his wounds. Broughton had also come from Southbridge and Hellner wrote a letter home that informed his family that he had passed. July 19th saw B company’s advance slowed by machine gun fire that wounded several men and an officer. On July 20th, Hellner led his squad over the top at 4 AM with the rest of B company in the first wave. With heavy losses they were able to fight until they reached a railroad where they remained the rest of the day. While taking cover behind an embankment near this railroad, Hellner experienced his first wound of the war. He later wrote a letter about the incident: “I was lying on a railroad embankment when a high explosive German shell burst near me, digging up the dirt and stones all around, and a heavy stone fell upon my foot, breaking one of the bones.” This artillery shell had actually caused much more damage than he’d thought. It dislocated his shoulder, broke a bone in his foot, and gave him a severe rupture. He never reported these wounds and continued to fight at Soissons for two more days. By the end of the battle he was the only man from his squad to report to an officer, the rest had either been killed or wounded. B company in total sustained 74 casualties at Soissons from July 18th to the 22nd.
After the chaos of their first large scale offensive, they now had a few moments of relief. For the next few months they went back to being engineers and did manual labor including building roads during the St. Mihiel campaign in early September. It is during this time I believe Hellner attended gas school. One of his journals has a section with the same heading that includes details about each type of gas and various mortars including the Livens projector.
Silk Portrait Photo and Cantigny 1918 Pennant
For the last and largest battle of the war the 1st Engineers was once again called up to act as infantry. The Meuse-Argonne offensive began on September 26th but B company didn’t attack until October 9th. Hill 269 in the Argonne Forest needed to be captured and B company was part of the force chosen for the job. The fight for the hill was intense with the attackers engaging in hand to hand combat. After capturing the hill the engineers immediately braced for a counterattack. One didn’t come until the following day when the Germans stormed the hill with the support of heavy artillery. The enemy never reached the top of the hill and were successfully repelled. At some point during this engagement Hellner was gassed and evacuated to a hospital.
Unfortunately I don’t know when he left the hospital but I do know that by November 11th he had returned to B company and was marching towards the frontline near the town of Sedan with the rest of the regiment. Suddenly, a courier on horseback rushed down the column of men telling them to stop marching because the war had ended. In Hellner’s own words: “When we realized it was all over, we whistled, screamed, cheered and raised the devil, and I was so hoarse I couldn’t speak next day above a whisper.” That night the frontline was almost as bright as day with bonfires, flares, and rockets from the celebrating soldiers.
“Bound for Home” – Last Diary Entry
In December the 1st division was sent into Germany to be a part of the army of occupation. The 1st Engineers remained on this post until July 21st, 1919 when they were detailed to finally return home. He returned to the United States in August and was supposed to receive a discharge but a medical officer advised him to re-enlist so that his wounds from Soissons could finally be tended to by army doctors. This was when the true extent of his injury was truly discovered. It was necessary to fracture his dislocated arm to get it back into its socket. After this though, he could finally return to Southbridge. Funnily enough, even after his wounds from Soissons were corrected, he wasn’t given credit for a wound in action. So his only wound according to his enlistment record was being gassed on Hill 269. Hellner got married in June of 1921 and went on to have two daughters. In later life he moved to Florida and passed away there on June 26th, 1975 at the age of 78.
Eight years ago I posted a series of snapshots taken by a US soldier showing the liberation of an unknown concentration camp during WWII. When I acquired the photos, they had no provenance and no information on the reverse side to start the process of identification. Luckily, a blog follower was able to help with the identification of the camp through the same processes I typically use. By observing the surrounding architecture and general contextual clues, he was able to identify the camp as Kaufering IV, a large subcamp of Dachau. Here is what he provided:
Some thoughts:
i)This is certainly somewhere Upper Bavaria – the house architecture is fairly typical of the region.
ii)The presence of the 2 Luftwaffe officers suggests some sort of air force activity is close by. Lager Lechfeld was used as a fighter base and a shake-down airbase for the nearby Messerschmitt complex in Augsburg. Prisoners were engaged in constructing bomb-proof bunker-factories in appalling conditions.
iii)One of the photographs has a very distinctive semi-sunken barrack type, known as “Erdhütten” (Lit: “Earth huts”) – very primitive constructions, the timbers of which were made from off-cuts and waste from furniture production and which survivors testify, leaked terribly. These barracks were a distinctive feature of the Dachau sub-camps in the Kaufering/Buchlöe area.
Thanks to the careful research of Taff Simon, we now know that the camp shown in these snapshots is Kaufering IV. A closer look at the details within the images supports his findings. One particular photograph offers the clearest confirmation: it shows an older man in civilian clothing with a closely shaven head, a haunting detail that anchors these scenes to the history of this Dachau subcamp.
Snapshot of SS Commandant Johann Baptist Eichelsdörfer
When I first wrote about the snapshot collection in 2017, I was unable to identify the man since he was in civilian garb. Artificial intelligence image searches at the time were unable to attribute the image to any individual, so I was under the assumption that he was a local civilian who was brought in to help with the burial of the camp victims. But now, with the attribution of the snapshots to Kaufering IV, I was able to find more images of Eichelsdörfer. His shaven head with the lopsided squirrel-tail appearance confirms his identity when compared to the images below.
Color Photo of Johann Baptist Eichelsdörfer (US Holocaust Museum image)
(SS officer Johann Baptist Eichelsdoerfer, the commandant of the Kaufering IV concentration camp, stands among the corpses of prisoners killed in his camp. US Holocaust Museum image)
(Wikipedia Commons)
Who was he?
Johann Baptist Eichelsdörfer was a German military officer and concentration camp commandant during World War II. Born on January 20, 1890, in Dachau, Germany, he served as a non-commissioned officer in the Bavarian Army during World War I and remained in the military after the war, retiring in 1924 with the rank of lieutenant. He rejoined the military in 1940 and served in various locations, including France, Poland, and the Soviet Union. In 1944, he was assigned to the Dachau concentration camp system, where he served as the commandant of several subcamps. In January 1945, he took command of Kaufering IV, a subcamp of Dachau located near Hurlach, which was designated as a “hospital camp” but was, in reality, a site where sick and dying prisoners were abandoned without adequate medical care. Under his command, thousands of prisoners died due to starvation, disease, and mistreatment.
Eichelsdörfer’s actions came to light when American forces liberated Kaufering IV on April 27, 1945. U.S. soldiers discovered hundreds of bodies and surviving prisoners who had been subjected to brutal conditions. Eichelsdörfer was captured and photographed standing among the bodies of dead inmates, a stark image used as evidence during his trial. He was tried at the Dachau Trials, a series of military tribunals held by the U.S. Army to prosecute Nazi war criminals. On December 13, 1945, he was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity and sentenced to death. Eichelsdörfer was executed by hanging on May 29, 1946, in Landsberg am Lech prison. His trial and execution highlighted the atrocities committed in the Nazi concentration camps and served as a reminder of the need for accountability in the aftermath of war.
The Other Snapshots
Now that we know the snapshots from the 2017 blog post were taken at Kaufering IV, the other images captured by an unknown US GI make more sense. I will post them here with some updated commentary. Feel free to weigh in if you have any comments or suggestions for descriptions.
Kaufering IV Survivor
In the above image, we see a recently liberated survivor of his time at Kaufering IV. He’s using his bandaged hands to tie on a pair of shoes, likely a pair provided to him by US soldiers. He also appears to have some soup in a small can as well as a striped blanket wrapped around his head and body. In the back of the image appears a US T28E1 which was likely one of the 12th Armor Division’s anti-aircraft mobile vehicles. The painted sillouettes of 14 German aircraft on the side hint that the operators of the T28E1 shot down lots of German aircraft as the war came to an end.
Generalized View of the T28E1
German Luftwaffe Officers
German Civilians Help with Burial
Camp Building and Ditch
Local Civilians Observe the Dead
Kaufering IV Victims
US Officers Speak to a Crowd
US GI’s View the Dead
Camp Victims
Camp Victims and Army Officers
Camp Victims
Local German Civilians Listen to US Officers
I really don’t know how to close this sobering post update from 2017. I did pass the snapshots along to a WWII veterans museum based here in the United States, but I’m unsure of what they ended up doing with them. I hope that his post will help educate those researching Kaufering IV and bring some closure to the mystery of when and where these snapshots were taken.
If you want to see some footage from the camp liberation, please check out the video here.
Easy Co. 506th PIR, 101st Airborne, Band of Brothers at Kaufering IV
HBO’s Band of Brothers covered Kaufering IV briefly in one episode. The unit was involved in the liberation of the camp, along with the 12th Armored Division. See below for a dramatized version of the events. The small earthen huts described by Taff can be clearly depicted. The HBO historical accuracy consultants did a great job!
From time to time, I like to browse the pages of eBay in search of portrait photographs of identified U.S. soldiers — small windows into the past that I can casually research to uncover the individual’s story and their role in whichever conflict they served. In today’s post, I was drawn to one particular image: a portrait captured by a British photographer. Unlike the widely circulated press photos that often made their way into American newspapers, this photograph was unlikely to have been distributed stateside and equally unlikely to have fallen into the hands of the soldier’s family.
When soldiers were photographed, it was common for them to provide their names, ranks, and often their hometowns. Yet in most cases, there was little chance for photographers or newspapers to follow up and let those soldiers know that their likeness had appeared in print. That disconnect is part of what makes original press photographs so compelling today. Many remain unpublished, and most have never been thoroughly researched. In fact, I’ve noticed a growing trend in 2025: more and more World War II–era press photos are surfacing on the secondary market, offering new opportunities to rediscover stories that might otherwise have been lost.
PFC James “Jack” C. Warren of Kentucky
The photograph above was discovered in August 2025 during one of my routine eBay searches for intriguing portrait shots of World War II servicemen — images that spark my curiosity to uncover the stories behind the faces. This particular shot is especially striking: crisp, tightly framed, and, based on the other photographs sold by the same seller, likely taken in England at a collection point for wounded or ill soldiers. I cleaned up the scan and cropped the edges to make it more visually appealing for digital presentation.
The next question became the most important one: how do we identify him?
Reverse Side From eBay
What do we know?
The photo was taken on July 13, 1944 at a port in the South of England.
The photographer worked for a British newspaper.
The subject of the photo is a PFC J.C. Warren from Kentucky and was wounded.
The photo was approved for publication by US censors a few days later.
Who was J.C. Warren?
Given the information provided in the brief writeup on the reverse side of the photo, we know that the subject is a young male, likely aged 18-24 from Kentucky named J.C. Warren who was wounded or injured at some point after the D-Day landing a month earlier. His “walking wounded” paper tag (Form 52b-MEDICAL DEPARTMENT, U.S.A. (Revised October 25, 1940), 16-15434) seen poking up at the bottom hints that he wasn’t disabled or infectious. With that information in hand, I began narrowing the search. Since the most common first names beginning with “J” at the time were James and John, I started there, turning to an obscure database that tracks U.S. servicemembers admitted to hospitals during World War II.
After only a few minutes of typing I found a hit to a James C. Warren with the Army Serial Number(ASN) of 35487228, and the only J C Warren who was from Kentucky that was admitted to a US hospital in July of 1944.
WWII Hospital Admission Card for James Warren
And when looking up his ASN…
WWII Draft Registration Information
With confirmation like this, I decided to dig deeper into PFC Warren’s life story in hopes of pulling out a few more details about his life story. Luckily, Ancestry.com and Fold3.com provide prompts based on confirmed information when researching so I was quickly on my way down the rabbit hole.
Veteran Headstone Application Form
It’s always a bittersweet discovery when I come across one of these documents, which tend to surface most often for veterans who passed away between the 1950s and 1980s. This particular record (which I’ll share below) shows that PFC Warren served with the 816th Ordnance Base Depot Company, a unit stationed in southern England at the time of his hospital admission. Interestingly, there is no mention of a Purple Heart on the form. That leaves me to wonder whether his injury did not meet the criteria for the medal, or whether it simply wasn’t recorded on his discharge papers after the war. Perhaps his family would know the answer.
Veteran Headstone Application
Luckily, the document provides just enough detail to shed light on who James Carmen Warren sadly left behind when he passed away in 1968. Born on April 8, 1921, he died on August 8, 1968, at the age of 47. He was survived by his wife, Mary Emma Green Warren, along with their two sons, Ivan and James C. Warren Jr.
After taking a break from writing, I’m excited to finally share some of the fascinating WWI photos and research I’ve uncovered over the past few years, little hidden gems I’ve been eager to bring to light on this little corner of the internet. In this quick post you will meet Punkins, the official mascot of Company C of the 27th Engineer Regiment. Photographs of unit mascots during WWI are not exceedingly rare, but studio portraits of an identified mascot/dog are nearly impossible to find. Most, if they exist, were kept in personal albums or letter collections and discarded or forgotten about over the past 100+ years, but this shot of Punkins somehow emerged on eBay several years ago.
Punkins Posed for the Camera!
Sporting a studded leather collar and matching riveted harness, Punkins seems like a quite the bruiser, a fitting mascot for an engineering regiment during WWI. With just the image and brief stamped caption below (the stamping hints at a volumed production of photo postcards for veterans after the return home), it seemed a difficult task to identify the sitter based on contextual clues such as insignia or other identifying material. Although the postcard backstamp suggests a stateside printing of the postcard, I’m guessing the original photograph was taken in France or Germany and replicated stateside for dispersal to fellow soldiers who wanted photographs to remember their wartime experiences.
Luckily, I did some deep diving and discovered a digitized version of a unit history of the 27th Engineer Regiment that included a brief caption mentioning a ‘Punkins’ below a photograph of our mystery sitter with one of his wartime friends.
“Punkins” and PFC William H. Hall of Santa Clara, CA.
Punkins has now been identified as the regimental mascot of the 27th Engineer Regiment! Note that he is sporting a custom coat with markings and insignia showing he was a member of Company C. of the 27th Engineer Regiment with the First Army. His downward pointing chevron on the right means he served at least six months with the unit. Based on the background contextual clues in the unit history photo, this shot appears to have been taken aboard a return vessel from France to the USA in March of 1919. Private First Class William H. Hall of Santa Clara, CA was aboard the USS Dakotan, a US military transport ship that served in both WWI for the US and later in WWII for the Russians starting in 1942.
Pvt. William Hall heads to France in June of 1918
It’s unclear and likely impossible to know the circumstances of Punkins’ adoption by the 27th Engineer Regiment in WWI, but based on the visual info provided in the unit history, it’s likely that they were adopted at least three months before departure from France in March of 1919 which points towards an adoption date of August or September of 1918 while the unit was serving in Germany at the time. Punkins appears to be a Bull Terrier mix of some sort based on the pointed ears, coloring and general boxy frame. If anyone knows anything else about Punkins please reach out and share.
One last note – Punkins appears to be wearing an actual WWI US dog tag. Dog tags used by the US Army and Marines were primarily aluminum discs that could be hand punched with pertinent information bearing the owners name, unit, serial number and sometimes other personal touches. It looks like Punkins received a set of his own tags although the details are obscured. Note that the ridges on the left tag hole hints that they’ve been worn long enough to encounter some wear and tear. The circular tag to the right doesn’t seem to be a proverbial dog tag but some sort of other identifier or an actual DOG tag.
November, 2025 Update
It appears that Punkins sat for several photographs during his illustrious career as a mascot. Another eBay listing appeared a month or so ago (I didn’t win) that provided a bit more information about our sitter. Amazingly, we now know the birthdate, birthplace and wartime career of Punkins to a level of detail I never thought I would learn. See below for a transcription of the caption from the eBay postcard.
Nov. 2, 2025 Ended Listing for Another Punkins Postcard!
Punkins was born Dec. 30, 1917, in Baltimore, was mascot of Co. C., 27th Eng., was smuggled across on a transport in a suit case, thru the worst of the submarine zone, landed in France May 18, 1918. He spent nine months in the front line trenches, went over the top three times at the battles of Chateau Thierry, Argonne and St. Mihiel. He was gassed Sept. 28, 1918, in the Argonne. Punkins is the only dog that ever received an honorable discharge from the U.S. Army. He received a Medal of Honor from the French Government at Verdun, also wears the U.S. Victory button. Here’s to the Good Old U.S.A. – Punkins
Punkins’ “Other Portrait”
This secondary portrait of Punkins provides a very similar view but shows a few more details that “my” version does not include. Now, we can see a little more detail to the dog tag/medal attached to his collar.
The tag that I had originally assumed was some sort of identifier appears to have a castle at center which may be a 27th Engineers commemorative medal given out to members of that unit. See below (top left) for a possible match from the US Army Engineering collection website. (Image 16 in the first slideshow)
When searching for new portraiture to add to PortraitsofWar I generally tend to look for material with identifiable soldiers, uniforms, medals and other written or visual clues to help shed light on life during wartime. In this post, I will be researching a photograph of a US Navy sailor who caught my eye during a recent eBay search.
Reverse Side of Postcard
The information written on the back of the postcard shows an identification of the sitter as a B.G. Miller. He is identified as being a Pharmacist’s Mate 1st Class from Salt Lake City, Utah who was on duty at one point at a hospital in Samoa on August 1st, 1918. Additional info added to the photo includes an anecdote about his position as a Mormon missionary in Germany during the breakout of the war between Germany and France.
With a little bit of luck and a lot of research I was able to track down our mysterious B.G. Miller. Byron Gardener Miller was found listed in the Utah World War 1 Military Service Questionnaire on ancestry.com. Please see his card below:
Byron’s WWI War Service Card
It looks like Byron attended the University of Utah for a year before being shipped off for his overseas missionary work. This is likely the reason for his service as a Pharmacist’s Mate with the US NAVY as can be seen in the details of his uniform.
Navy Pharmacist Rate Patch
The reference to his missionary service in Germany during the outbreak of war in July of 1914 is partially confirmed through my discovery of his listing aboard a ship ledger arriving in Montreal, PQ in September of 1914.
His service in Samoa has also been confirmed through the same series of records.
Sadly, his arrival back in the US in 1919 wasn’t likely a time of joy for the Miller family; a Utah death certificate shows that he died of the Spanish Influenza only a few months later on February 7th, 1920. Interestingly enough, my research into the US Hospital in Samoa shows that a MASSIVE flu outbreak in the Samoan Islands lead to the deaths of nearly 25% of the population. With over 8500 deaths, the Spanish Flu was devastating to the island. In response, the US Navy set up an epidemic commission to deal with the issue. The results of the intervention in American Samoa were incredible. Apparently the method of using maritime quarantine lowered mortality rates to nearly 1%. It’s strange that Byron would die of influenza only a few months later while in the United State…
One of the main goals of this website is to help share photos and pertinent military service information with the families of the men and women depicted in the images I collect. In this case, I’m hoping a Miller family representative will discover a rare image of their ancestor who witnessed a formative time in history.
One of my closely held collecting secrets is that I love WWII and WWI photographs of soldiers holding or interacting with their dogs. My recently dearly departed furry companion Violet originally led me to start collecting shots of soldiers with their canine friends nearly eight years ago. Without her I would’ve never thought twice to bid on a dog photograph.
Violet at the Hilton Portland, ME
I dedicate this post to her. In this particular case, I bid on and won (eBay) a photograph of a US soldier holding a young puppy during wartime in France. Typically, shots of US soldiers holding dogs or other mascots were taken (at least that I’ve found) in the post-war era following the 11/11/18 Armistice. This studio photograph was taken on September 10th, 1918 and shows Thomas (Tom) Gray Jr. posing in a French studio with a puppy cradled in his left arm while sporting a custom knit necktie.
Thomas Gray Jr. and a cute puppy!
The photo was taken in September of 1918 and the writing on the back (see below) notes that Thomas had been overseas for ten months at this point. Additionally, he addresses the postcard photo to his mother, Mrs. Thomas Gray of 329 North Pearl Street, Bridgeton, NJ. After my normal run of extensive research it appears that his father and brothers worked, at some point, for a local glass factory as glass and bottle blowers. This company was likely the Cumberland Glass Works which was located not far from their duplex home. Additionally, the factory could’ve been the More-Jones factory that appears in a series of Lewis Hine photographs depicting child labor. In fact, Thomas appears in the New Jersey State Census of 1905 and is listed a “Snapper Boy” in the occupation column. So, at age 14 Thomas was working in a glass factory… Could he be one of the young boys captured by Hine?
Lewis Hine Photograph Taken in Bridgeton, NJ Ca. 1909
Reverse side of the postcard
As far as I can tell, Thomas served with Company B, 501st Engineers and shipped out in November of 1917 and served until mid 1919 when he eventually went home to New Jersey with no mention of a companion. I wish I could learn more about the dog in his hand and about his service in this obscure unit, but I can only do so much research before moving on. I hope that a relative finds this post at some point and can help fill in the gaps. Crazier things have happened on this blog.
One of my favorite pieces of WWI ephemera to research is the pre-printed postcard that was handed out to soldiers intended to be sent to loved ones from the decks/bunks of the multitude of transport ships that brought doughboys back from Europe in the years following the war. In tonight’s case, I purchased this card on eBay without any prior research. The date of 9/11 caught me as particularly interesting given the 2001 connotation, so I made a quick bid and won the postcard. My research process can be followed below:
Step 1: Purchase the card
Only $9.89+0.99 shipping!
Step 2: Receive the card in the mail
Front side of the postcard
Back side of the postcard
Step 3: What the heck is going on?
The first actual step in the interpretation and research of a WWI postcard is to figure out when it was made, when it was sent and who sent it. This one should be pretty easy.
Copyright date of 1919
Most WWI postcards don’t usually come with a Copyright date and/or an artist’s signature. This one comes with both. I don’t have time to delve into the identity of the artist, but I can say that the card was copyrighted in 1919.
So, the written portion is from September 11th, 1919 at the very earliest.
September 11th
Step 4: Who the heck sent this thing?
Whenever I attempt to identify a soldier-sent postcard, I always try to research the recipient first. Normally, we have the name of well established member of a community as well as a normal mailing address and town name intended as the recipient. Assuming most postcards are sent to a mother or father, it doesn’t take much effort to track down the 1910 census record for that family using Ancestry.com. This is exactly what I did in this case. The first Maroney to appear in the Eyota, MN 1910 census was a Patrick C. Maroney… Bingo.
1910 Census record
From here I researched the children of Patrick and Emma Maroney (the card says “Dear Ma”) and found that they had a son named Charles E. Maroney who was born on September 22nd, 1895 and passed away on September 5th, 1934.
Charles’ September 11th, 1919 return to the USA
Charles signed in aboard the U.S.S. Montpelier after his time in France on August 28th, 1919 and landed back in the US on September 11th. It was at this time that he was most likely given the above card to fill out and ship to his parents back in Minnesota. His wartime record puts him with an engineering unit that was focused on railway work during the war and this tombstone identifies him as a Private with the 69th Engineers . This doesn’t exactly jive with his US Headstone Application or the US Army Transport records seen above. According to records, his grave should’ve listed him as being with the 144th Transportation Corps. Please note that his mother was also the recipient of his body after he passed away in 1934. 😦
I really enjoy meeting with elderly citizens who can remember local events of historic significance and always make an effort to ask them where they were during critical national or international turning points in history. But in the case of the man below, I’m not sure I could top his story. At the time this TV show was filmed in 1956, Mr. Samuel J. Seymour (1860-1856) had already lived through the Civil War, the financial depressions of the late 1800s, the Spanish American War, the invention of the automobile, the invention of flight, WWI (he was in his 50s when that happened), the jazz era, the Great Depression, WWII, the nuclear era, the beginning Korean War and McCarthyism. This guy had seen it all!
Although the contestants figured out his story pretty quickly, the story of his traveling to the show and his determination to tell his story are remarkable. Encounters with people who witnessed history like this are examples of what drives me to continue to take the time to chat with WWII veterans when I encounter them. With so few left, it’s important to just… talk to people. Mr. Seymour passed away only 63 days after his filming of the episode shown below. Enjoy.
eBay can be a fun way to research WWI soldiers in a way that wouldn’t have been possible ten years ago. With the emerging databases of WWI soldier roster information and the ever-expanding capacity of Ancestry.com for genealogical data, WWI veterans are becoming easier and easier to research. In this case, I purchased a photo of two US officers posing in a French studio in March of 1919. The signature on the front and the inscription on the back give roughly enough information to make a positive identification. The standing officer is 2nd Lt. William H. Barry of Langley, Washington. He served with F. Co of the 28th Infantry Regiment, 1st Division during the American involvement in WWI. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) for his bravery and extraordinary heroism in the breakthrough of the Hindenburg Line. A large percentage of his company became casualties and he assumed command after the CO was wounded. He reorganized the company and completed their objective under the rain of German machine fun fire.
To think, this photograph was obtained on an internet auction site for less than the price of a tank of gasoline and had been sitting in a pile of postcards for years before it was posted. I’m glad to provide this information – I hope a family member can find this post and learn a little about their ancestor!
Lt. William H. Barry (Standing)
Lt. Barry’s March 1919 Signature
BARRY, WILLIAM H. Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army
28th Infantry Regiment, 1st Division, A.E.F.
Date of Action: October 5, 1918 Citation:
The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to William H. Barry, Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in action near Exermont, France, October 5, 1918. Assuming command of his company after his company commander and a major portion of the company became casualties, Second Lieutenant Barry reorganized his company and personally led it forward in the attack, successfully attaining his objective in the face of intense machine-gun and artillery fire. He constantly exposed himself to enemy fire in order to encourage and insure the protection of his men. General Orders No. 103, W.D., 1919
Home Town: Langley, WA
Portraits of War 