January 15, 2004
One of the last of his cohort
When I was very young, I remember hearing of the death of the last Civil War veteran. He had supposedly been a drummer boy, though there was some doubt about him.
Now, the last American combat-wounded veteran of WWI has died at the age of 108! (Links here and here) There are only about 1,000 American WWI vets left alive.
....Born Jan. 17, 1895, in Everett, Mass., Mr. Pugh raised 16 foster children, played the organ into his 100s and was an avid football and baseball fan.Sounds like quite a guy. Pugh's outfit was the 77th Division. I wrote about them in the Melting Pot Division, the New York City division with an astonishing ethnic variety......The Jews, the Wops, and the Dutch and Irish copsHe is one of 10 veterans profiled in the book, The Price of their Blood, published last month and co-written by Jesse Brown, former U.S. secretary of Veterans Affairs.
He spoke French and was used overseas as an interpreter until the battle in the Argonne forest, when he inhaled mustard gas that left him unconscious and with chronic laryngitis.
After the war he returned to Maine and worked as a railroad telegraph operator for 12 years before delivering mail for 26 years....(Thanks to Dave Trowbridge)
They're all in the army now!
Doughboys of the 77th divsion wait on the edge of the Argonne Forest, before the attack on September 26, 1918.
It looks like there are two French officers in the upper left corner. (By the way, my interest in WWI has had the result, that I don't find very funny the endless jokes about the fighting qualities of the French. They lost millions in battles whose sustained ferocity we can't even imagine. Likewise, don't sneer about Italians at war until you know something about the Battles of the Isonzo.)
Posted by John Weidner at January 15, 2004 03:35 PM | TrackBackWith concern to WWI, I agree with you about not dismissing the fighting spirt of the French and Italians. I do believe that most derision for the Italians come from their interwar opponents - spear weilding Ethopians. Of course, WWI was very costly for the French and the will did not exist in the rank and file anymore.
That of course is just the opinion of this amatuer military historian.
Posted by: Fersboo at January 16, 2004 09:50 AMYes.
Living somewhat in the past as I do, I tend to think of the French as one might think of an old friend who has Alzheimers...Block out the present and just remember the old days.
Posted by: John Weidner at January 16, 2004 12:56 PMWhatever spirit survived World War I (and didn't die in the Vosges or in street-fighting in France) probably died in the jungles of French Indochina.
Reading "Hell in a Very Small Place," one cannot help but wonder what happened to the kinds of men who would counterattack and drive Viet Minh forces back repeatedly in the fights for the Elianes, or who were sufficiently fierce that there were Viet Minh defectors up until nearly the end of the siege.
Of course, the OFFICERS weren't always quite as effective, but nothing should take away from the courage of the men (not all of whom were foreign, even in the Foreign Legion).
Posted by: Dean at January 16, 2004 03:52 PM
