A couple of posts ago, we shared Laura Hemingway's article about Jean Thompson, in which she noted that Mrs. Thompson's poem "Resurrection," written as a tribute to a young Cheraw man who lost his life in World War I, had been set to music and performed by soprano Elizabeth Spencer at the unveiling of a WWI Memorial in New York City. In light of that and with Memorial Day at the end of next month, it seems a good time to look at the 52 young men (31 Black, 21 White) from Williamsburg County who also died during the First World War.
All their names are engraved on Williamsburg County's World War I Memorial located on the grounds of the Williamsburg County Courthouse. But they are all more than names engraved in granite. Behind each name is a uniquely individual story. They were from every corner of the county and from all walks of life. Many were farmers, farm hands, sharecroppers, but there were also store clerks, a barber, a druggist. Some spent several years in the military, others, like Israel Burgess and Herbert McCutchen, died within days of their induction into the Army. Burgess died of pneumonia 15 days after his induction at Camp Jackson in Columbia. McCutchen fell ill with the flu the day after he arrived at Camp Wadsworth in Spartanburg and died of pneumonia a few days later.
Of the 52, only five were killed in action, with two more dying from wounds they received. Sgt. Walter Paul, the only Black soldier from Williamsburg County to die in combat in WWI, was killed on September 29, 1918, on the Champagne Front. Sgt. Paul served in the 371st Infantry, an all-Black unit formed from draftees at Camp Jackson. Several Williamsburg County men were part of the 371st Infantry, and a later post will be solely devoted to them. One more that I will mention here is Sgt. Henry Cleveland McClary, an ordnance sergeant in the 371st. He survived the fierce fighting of the Meuse-Argonne, and his name was on a passenger list to return to the United States on February 3, 1919. However, his name is crossed off that list with a penciled notation that he had been admitted to a hospital. Sgt. McClary died of pneumonia on January 27, 1919. Both Sergeants McClary and Paul were from the Cedar Swamp area.
On October 7, 1918, Pvt. Verdie L. Venters, Company B, 47th Infantry, 4th Division, was killed in action. He lies buried in Plot F, Row 40, Grave 18 of the Meuse-Argonne American Cemtery, Romagne-sous-Montfaucon, Departement de la Meuse, Lorraine, France. Sgt. Walter Paul is buried not far from him in this cemetery in Plot F, Row 36, Grave 30. Pvt. Venters was from the Hemingway/Johnsonville area.
The other three Williamsburg County soldiers killed in action were all members of 118th Infantry. Pvt. William P. Camlin and Pvt, Eddie W. Sports were both in Company "L," while Cpl. Thomas G. Norton was in Company "I." Cpl. Norton was killed on Oct, 8, 1918; Pvt. Sports, on Oct. 12; and Pvt. Camlin on Oct. 17. Camlin was from the Harmony community of Williamsburg County; Sports was from Morrisville, and Norton from the Suttons/Trio area.
The two wounded soldiers who succumbed to their injuries were Pfc. David W. Hanna, also of the 118th Infantry and Pfc. Deams Baylor of the 117th Engineers. Hanna died on October 1, 1918, and Baylor on October 14, 1918. Hanna is buried in Plot A, Row 13, Grave 10 of Somme American Cemetery, Bony, Aisne, France. Baylor was initially interred in the same Meuse-Argonne Cemetery as Sgt. Paul and Pvt. Venters, but his remain were exhumed and reinterred at Arlington National Cemetery on Dec. 20, 1921.
The 45 other casualties from Williamsburg County died of disease, 35 of them from pneumonia. It is likely that many, if not all, of these pneumonia cases were in reality victims of the 1918 Influenza pandemic. British-born author Jaime Breitnauer in her book on the pandemic notes that all of the countries engaged in WWI were hesitant to attribute any of their losses to the flu pandemic. However, a close look at the deaths attributed to pneumonia show them clustered during the three waves of the pandemic with most of them occurring in the Fall of 1918, when the pandemic was at its worst.
September, October, and November of 1918 must have been an extremely somber time in Williamsburg County. Thirty-seven of the 52 men from the county who died, died during these three months. September 8, Walter Fulton of pneumonia; September 23, Reddick McClam, pneumonia; Sept. 24, Frank Wartham, pneumonia; Sept. 28, Joe E. Jordan, pneumonia; Sept. 29, Mose Cunningham, pneumonia; Sept. 29, Walter Paul, killed in action; Sept. 30, James Gibson, pneumonia; Sept. 30, William McClary, myocarditis, October 1, David W. Hanna, wounds; Oct 1, Nathan Burrows, influenza; Oct, 2, Ashton T, Nelson, pneumonia; Oct 2., Phelix Moore, pneumonia; Oct. 3, Ben Cooper, pneumonia, Oct. 5, Henry Gilliard, pneumonia; Oct. 5, Ben Chandler, pneumonia; Oct. 6, James Alexander Thompson, pneumonia; Oct. 7, Verdie Lee Venters, killed in action; Oct. 8, Thomas G. Norton, killed in action;Oct. 8, Carter Johnson, pneumonia; Oct. 9, Spencer Fulton, pneumonia; Oct. 10, Richard Moultrie, pneumonia; Oct. 10, Charles E. Lawrence, pneumonia; Oct. 11, Sam Tisdale, pneumonia; Oct. 11, Henry Lee McCants, pneumonia; Oct. 12, Eddie Sports, killed in action; Oct 12, Thomas Troy Pope, pneumonia; Oct 12, Isaiah Giles, pneumonia; Oct. 13, Joseph White; pneumonia; Oct. 14, Deams Baylor; wounds; Oct. 17, William P. Camlin, killed in action; Oct. 17, Levi G. Brunson, pneumonia; Oct. 21, Aurin B. Wilson, pneumonia. November 5, David Covert, pneumonia; Nov. 9, I.E. Davis, pneumonia; Nov. 16, Herbert James McCutchen, pneumonia; Nov. 16, John Heyward Scott, acute dilation of the heart; November 29, Allen Ravenell, pneumonia. When you consider that county residents at home were also likely dying from the flu pandemic, it must have been a very painful time. There are no County Records available from March 1918 through February 1919, so it is difficult to get a good feel for what was going on and how residents re-acted.
Company "A" of the 1st Provisional Regiment, 156th Depot Brigade at Camp Jackson provides some evidence that many of these pneumonia deaths were likely tied to the pandemic. Spencer Fulton, Carter Johnson, Charles E. Lawerence, Sam Tisdale, Aurin B. Wilson and Richard Wilson, were all members of this company, and all died of pneumonia in the space of a little less than one month.
Others who died of pneumonia either earlier than September 1918 or after November 1918 were Henry Carlisle Myrick, Henry C. Williamson, Ivory Gamble, Philip Whitfield, and E.A. Cribb,
Two soldiers, E.J. Clary and Irby Anderson Altman, died in 1917 of measles. Another two, Charlie Creel and Dewey Douglas, succumbed to meningitis. Alex Scott's cause of death was a brain abscess, while Richard Wilson died of typhoid fever, and John Montgomery of pulmonary TB.
Dr. D.C. Scott's son, John Heyward, actually died at home. He had been on furlough and was expected back at Camp Jackson the night of November 16, 1918. He had been visiting friends in town but went to his parents' home on Railroad Avenue about 3 p.m. to get ready to return to Columbia. He was suddenly taken ill and died at 10 o'clock that night. Drs. T.C. Hemingway and E.T. Kelley both signed his death certificate which attributed the cause of his death to "acute dilation of the heart." Before entering the service, he had been a druggist at the Scott Drug Company. He was remembered for his great fondness for Wiliamsburg County barbecue.
And, of course, there is at least one mystery. Harpy Mouzon was inducted into the Army on July 29, 1918. He was assigned to Camp Wadsworth near Spartanburg, where he was a Private in Company "C" of the 422nd Reserve Labor Battalion. He died January 27, 1919. The Official Roster of SC Men in World War I gives his cause of death as broncho pneumonia and skull fracture. On the day of his death, the entire city of Spartanburg was placed under quarantine in an attempt to combat the flu pandemic. There also had been racial tension between the Black soldiers at Camp Wadsworth and white residents of Spartanburg. In addition, several soldiers had attempted to "escape" from camp and had been hunted down and returned, with one of them killed by his pursuers. Did any of these factors play a role in how Pvt. Mouzon's skull came to be fractured? We likely will never know. He did not appear to have any close family ties as he listed his employer James V. Burgess as his emergency contact on his draft card, and Mr. Burgess was notified of his death. James Burgess, himself, died a few years later when his vehicle was hit by a train at the railroad crossing in Kingstree.
Of the 52 men who died in the war, six of them are buried in American cemeteries in France. They include David Hanna at the Somme American Cemetery, Verdie Venters and Walter Paul at Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, and Nathan Burrows, John Montgomery and Phelix Moore, all at Oise-Aisne American Cemetery at Seringes-et-Nestes. Deams Baylor and Ivory Gamble are buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virigina, and Mose Cunninghan was laid to rest at Edgewood Arsenal Post Cemetery, also known as Aberdeen Proving Ground South Cemetery, north of Baltimore, MD.
Years after the war, an article in the News & Courier brought to mind Pvt. Spencer Fulton. His father, Robert, a leading member of Williamsburg County's African-American community, dropped dead of a heart attack on August 24, 1931, in Clarence Alsbrook's American Legion Office in the Williamsburg Count Courthouse where Robert Fulton had gone to attend to some paperwork regarding his son, Spencer's, death during the war.
These men have all been gone for over 100 years now. But their stories shape how those of us from another generation view them and their times, just as our stories will one day shape how future generations view us.
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