Over the past few months, we've looked at the World War I stories of several young men from Williamsburg County. Most of those stories were pieced together from the public record–draft cards, troop ship passenger lists, death certificates, cemetery records, and the occasional news story. However, there is one Kingstree native whose story can be told directly in his own words, as he remembered his time in the Army 40 years later. On August 23, 1958, jazz cornetist Amos Mordecai White recorded an oral history that has become part of the Hogan Jazz Archive at Tulane University in New Orleans. His oral history is almost two hours long and covers much more than his service in the Great War, including information from his early years in Kingstree. If you're interested you can listen to it here.
Amos White says, "I am Miles' bandmaster because Miles liked to play the drums and keep the tempo up. So I had to take over for Miles. ...then is when I really had to cut it because the bulk of the work was on me, playing all these galops and fast marches and segueing from one number to another, you know. You're playing the big show now; you had no white band on the show, so the band would split up and take six pieces and play the sideshow. ... And the other nine pieces would stay and play the circus. I was always with this nine pieces because the bulk of the work, as I said, was in the big tent.
"Well, when the commissioners (United States Commissioners Investigators) came through, ...and they asked for the (draft) card, there were about five of us in there who were supposed to be fellows of war age, and I didn't have my card in my pocket. Fact of it is, I had gone to the circus that day in my shirtsleeves because we put on our band coats in the tent. ...'Well, where's your card?' And they got right hostile with me, you know. So, they grabbed me. I say, 'It's down in the privileged car. I'll go down and get it.'
"'No, you won't get anything,' they said. 'We're gonna take you on in. You're expected to have that card on you.' So they took me straight to jail. And then, then I got busy. Miles went up and got my card and brought it to me, but by that time, the commissioners have all gone. So now I got to spend the night there, and this is on a Saturday afternoon.
"Now, this is Sunday, and Miles is off, so Miles came to the jail and brought me my week's salary and some more money. I think he all total gave me about $40. And he brought some clothes to me, and I said, 'Well, I don't need the clothes because I'm going on to the Army, I know it.',,,
"Well, when the commissioners came to sit in Sunday afternoon, and Sheriff Dawes was the sheriff there in Nevada, Missouri. You see, they didn't take me up in Sedalia while there. They took me where the regular United States Commissioners office was, and that was in Nevada, Missouri. They had different points for these places in states. And regardless of the fact that Sedalia was a much bigger city than Nevada, still they took me to Nevada. I've got proof of registration and everything, and they were no longer hostile. ....Three commissioners came in on Sunday afternoon at the request of Sheriff Dawes. Sheriff Dawes said, 'Well, I don't see what they want to keep you in here for. You've proved registration. You've got your card and everything.' Says, 'I'm going to call 'em down there. ...So they made a special trip back there to the jail, and they sat in and said, 'Well, what do you want to do? You didn't have that card on you.'
"I said, 'I want to go to the service.' ...Well, they sent me on to camp. I rode all that evening. No sheriff went there or anything. And all that night, ...went to Camp Funston. ...Well, I finally reached Camp Funston on one of these old slow trains that looked like–they didn't care how you traveled in those days, you see. Army movements. I reached Camp Funston along about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, might have been a little earlier than that, but anyhow when I got to the gate, I had my trumpet with me, and I had a little bag. I had an extra pair of shoes in there. I don't know why I carried them along. I knew I wasn't going to need them. I didn't think so, anyhow. But anyhow, just to be ready for an occasion.
"And the sergeant at the gate said to me, 'Where is the sheriff who brought you here?' I told him, I said, 'No sheriff brought me here.'
"'Yes, he did. Where's the man who brought you here?'
He kept on after me, and I said, 'No man brought me here,' and when I said, and I said it kind of forcibly, I said, 'I came unguarded here,' he slapped me, and I didn't say nothing. I just took the little slap and I kinda halfway grinned, but, brother, all the hell and fury had gotten into me then. If I must go to war, don't beat me up before I get in there.
"All right, so he pushed me down through the gate. 'Go on in there.' So, I went in the gate, and I went straight on up the steps. Now my plan of action was already in me. I knew what to do because I had a little military training in the schools. They taught us military training in Jenkins Orphanage. They also carried some good tactics and training in all the colleges down there. They didn't have no regular ROTC, but the orders of the day had to be obeyed in the colleges and in the schools also.
"When I got in, I asked for the officer in charge. They referred me to a Major over there who afterwards became one of my majors–Major Blaine. And I saluted, came to attention. I had no training, but I knew this had to be done. I said, 'Sir, I'm Private Amos Mordecai White, reporting from Nevada, Missouri. I was arrested two days ago for not having my card on me. I had the card, and I came here unguarded. Sheriff Dawes granted me that privilege because he saw I wanted to get in the Army. ...And I says, 'When I came in the gate, the officer, the non-commissioned officer at the gate, slapped me and kicked me and beat me up at the gate.' I put it all strong! (Laughs)
"He said to his orderly, 'Go to the gate and bring that sergeant at the gate here.' Brought this tall sergeant, a walking stem, from Georgia. He says, 'Yes, Sir, Major.' He says, 'Come here.' He called him over to him and he snatched the chevron off first. 'Ah, Sir, Major, what's that for?' And he says, 'For kicking and hitting this man at the gate while he's trying to give you an explanation for coming into the service. Take him to the guard house and put him in there and lock him up and throw the key away until I tell you when to pick it up.' And I laughed. I said, 'HA HA HA.' And when I laughed, the Major told me, 'Shut up and stand at attention!' And I said, 'Yes, Sir!'...
"Well, ...I had no more gotten my uniform on, delivered to me. I didn't even have straps on the leggings around me or anything, when they called and say, 'Fall out! Fall out! Line up! Any of you fellows here, of you 'cruits,' this was old Sergeant Clark talking now, 'know how to typewrite?' I said, 'ME!'
"'Step up. Two paces forward.' Sent me to the office, and I started picking and pecking at the typewriter. I could type correctly, but I couldn't type fast, and I had no keyboard, but I know printing. You see a printing case is almost similar. But any man who can print correctly and observe punctuations and capitalizations, you can type your own letter better than one of these half-handed, ill-tutored, supposed secretaries.
"Well, I typed out a letter for him–typed it out quicker than anybody in there, too. With my nervous self. 'That's good.' So, all right. He dismissed me out. 'Go to your barracks. I'll go over to the YMC, and we'll fall out again in half an hour.'
"Next time, 'Fall in!' We come out again. 'How many of you men in here had any office work experience?' 'Me.' I had experience in everything. But the last call they issued around about six o'clock. you know, the sun is way up. 'How many musicians are in this rank?' 'Me. Me.' Nine fellows down the line held their hands up. Another rank over here the sergeant was asking the same thing over there. About 11 men from over there held their hands up. 'All right, all you men report to the YMC. So into the YMC went about 24 of us. And when we stepped into the YMC, there was a lieutenant there, just out of the Chautauqua band. ...This fellow was already in his first lieutenant's uniform, and they had sent him to take charge of the 816th Pioneer Infantry Band. He held a rehearsal with we 24 fellows. and he says. 'I'll have an early rehearsal tonight at nine o'clock.' This was around six o'clock.
"That night at nine o'clock, we all assembled in there again. He said, 'I'm going to have an elimination contest in here,' he says, 'because I have gotten new orders. I'm going to be a line officer, and there is a promotion for me, and there is a chance for one of you men in this outfit to become the bandleader of this regiment now being formed." ,,, Now this is my second day in camp. He says, 'One of you men in here is going to take charge of the 816th band temporarily because I am going to recommend it to the Colonel in charge here. ... Lt. Col. Potter will be over here in a few minutes because he wants this unit to do guard mount tomorrow.' Okay. Fine and dandy.
"So, the first thing he put up is Aspire Waltz (hums the tune). You don't want me to sing this. All right. He put up that. So he went all the way down until he came to the, I think C section in there... When he observed his dal segno sign, or da capo, and got back down to that strain, he cut off.
"Of course, there is a little flair in there. I might as well tell you about it. I had played the waltz before. (Laughs) Wasn't anybody playing but me. He says, 'What's your name?' I said, 'Amos Mordecai White.' 'Step out! Now, fellows, here's your bandmaster. Now, I'll be a line officer and good luck to you. You play a wonderful trumpet.' I was playing then a J.W. York & Sons trumpet, and he had an E.A. Couturier trumpet. That made me have a love for the Couturier horn, and I bought the 10,000th instrument, no, one thousand and some odd, one oh seventy-six. My boy's got–my grandson has the trumpet out there now, one oh seventy-six, designed by E.A. Couturier and Sons, La Porte, Indiana, after he came to America to demonstrate for the Holton Company.
"Well, then, that began my tenure with the 816th Pioneer Infantry, and the next five days we were on a train making Liberty Loan drives in the cities. The first city out of Camp Funtston was Kansas City, Missouri. Kansas City, Missouri to St Louis; St. Louis to Indianapolis; Indianapolis to Columbus, Ohio; Columbus, Ohio, to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and strangely we jumped all the way back cross county to somewhere round about where we went up to Omaha, Nebraska to St. Paul, double back in there with about three days riding, making Liberty Loan drives in various cities, and the band wasn't so well-rehearsed but they gave us a whole boxcar, and we sat in this boxcar–they served us meals in there–at these various points, and the Red Cross and everybody was giving us fine food on the route and put berths in there for us, and in those quarters in four days the band became a very well-constructed unit.
"When I got to Camp Upton, Long Island, why, they had recruited about seventeen more men out of Fort Riley, and they had sent them to me, also. They came–it was William Triggs–a fellow name of William Triggs, who afterward became my first sideman in the band, and then I think I got about four fellows right out of Camp Upton. And the band's strength then was brought up to fully 47."
The 816th Pioneer Infantry shipped out of Camp Upton on October 12, 1918, for Europe. Amos White said he remembered little of the trip across the Atlantic as "I stayed seasick from the time I got on the boat until I got across almost."
Next week we'll look at his adventures in Europe, including an interesting meeting with Capt. Harry Truman.
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