The Lost Paratroopers Of Normandy Stephen G Rabe

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 The Lost Paratroopers of Normandy
The fateful days and weeks surrounding 6 June 1944 have been extensively
documented in histories of the Second World War, but less attention has
been paid to the tremendous impact of these events on the populations
nearby. The Lost Paratroopers of Normandy tells the inspiring yet heart-
breaking story of ordinary people who did extraordinary things in defense
of liberty and freedom. On D-Day, when transport planes dropped para-
troopers from the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions hopelessly off-target
into marshy waters in northwestern France, the 900 villagers of Graignes
welcomed them with open arms. These villagers – predominantly women –
provided food, gathered intelligence, and navigated the floods to retrieve
the paratroopers’ equipment at great risk to themselves. When the attack by
German forces on 11 June forced the overwhelmed paratroopers to with-
draw, many made it to safety thanks to the help and resistance of the
villagers. In this moving book, historian Stephen G. Rabe, son of one of
the paratroopers, meticulously documents the forgotten lives of those who
participated in this integral part of D-Day history.

Stephen G. Rabe is the Ashbel Smith Professor in History (emeritus) at the

University of Texas at Dallas. He is a veteran of the US Marine Corps. The
Lost Paratroopers of Normandy is his thirteenth book.

Published online by Cambridge University Press

Published online by Cambridge University Press
 The Lost Paratroopers
of Normandy
A Story of Resistance, Courage,
and Solidarity in a French Village

Stephen G. Rabe

Published online by Cambridge University Press

 University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom
One Liberty Plaza, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10006, USA
477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia
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Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge.

It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of
education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence.

www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781009206372
DOI: 10.1017/9781009206389

© Stephen G. Rabe 2023

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2023
Printed in the United Kingdom by TJ Books Limited, Padstow Cornwall
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-009-20637-2 Hardback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of
URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication
and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain,
accurate or appropriate.

Published online by Cambridge University Press

 Grandson Ethan Emil
Born 12 February 2021
Named after his great-grandfather, S/Sgt. Rene Emil Rabe

The heroic collaboration of US paratroopers and the people of

Graignes, Normandy in June 1944 made Ethan’s life possible.

Published online by Cambridge University Press

Published online by Cambridge University Press
 CONTENTS
List of Figures page viii
List of Maps x

Introduction 1

1 Paratrooper 14

2 Overseas 40

3 Occupied France 65

4 Liberators and Friends 91

5 Days of Friendship, Hope, and Waiting 113

6 The Longest Day in Graignes 137

7 Escape, Exile, and Annihilation 163

8 Graignes in Historical Memory 188

Afterword 214

Acknowledgments 218
Notes 220
Unpublished Primary Sources 242
Index 244

Published online by Cambridge University Press

 FIGURES

I.1 Marthe Rigault His and Odette Rigault Lelavechef

and their younger brother, Jean Claude Rigault, in
2017 page 4
I.2 The “silk from the sky” wedding of sisters Odette
Rigault and Marie Jean Rigault in 1945 5
1.1 A paratrooper dropping from a C-47 transport airplane 21
1.2 Major General James M. Gavin on patrol 27
1.3 Paratroopers of the mortar platoon in England before
D-Day 35
2.1 The transport ship Strathnaver 46
2.2 First Lieutenant Olga Louise Campbell Penchard 54
2.3 General Dwight Eisenhower speaks to paratroopers before
D-Day 59
3.1 The renowned cows of Normandy 73
3.2 Gustave and Marthe Rigault, holding their son Jean
Claude 76
3.3 The twelfth-century Romanesque church of Graignes 78
3.4 Marthe Rigault and Jean Claude Rigault in the marais 80
3.5 Albert Mauger, the local leader of the Resistance in
Graignes 82
4.1 Paratroopers with jump equipment 92
4.2 A paratrooper who drowned on D-Day 101
4.3 Mayor Alphonse Voydie of Graignes 111
5.1 Captain Leroy David Brummitt 115

Published online by Cambridge University Press

 ix / List of Figures

5.2 Colonel Frank Naughton on the bridge that his team

destroyed 118
5.3 The Rigault family horse and cart 123
5.4 Madame Germaine Boursier, a leader of the Resistance
in Graignes 124
5.5 German commanders meeting to discuss the assault on
Carentan in June 1944 135
6.1 Sergeant John Hinchliff 143
6.2 The ruins of the church in Graignes 147
6.3 Sergeant Fredric Boyle and Staff Sergeant Rene E. Rabe 150
6.4 Private First-Class Richard J. Hoffman 157
6.5 Abbé Albert Le Blastier of Graignes 159
7.1 The Rigault family barn 168
7.2 Technician Fifth-Class Edward “Eddie” Page 169
7.3 One of the stained-glass windows in the church
at Sainte-Mère-Église 177
7.4 The Rigault family in a boat after the Liberation 181
7.5 Emmanuelle Barbey models a dress made of parachute
silk 182
7.6 Temporary buildings in Graignes after World War II 183
8.1 Polish workers liberated in Germany by paratroopers 195
8.2 Marshal Georgy Zhukov and General George S. Patton
in Berlin in September 1945 196
8.3 The burial place of Private Arnold J. Martinez in the
American Cemetery in Normandy 203
8.4 The War Memorial at Graignes 207
8.5 The Distinguished Service Medal awarded to Marthe
Rigault His 210
8.6 The German cemetery in Normandy 211

Published online by Cambridge University Press

 MAPS

4.1 The area of the Cotentin Peninsula (Normandy) where

US paratroopers operated from 6 to 16 June 1944 page 100
7.1 The area surrounding the village of Graignes, including
Le Port St. Pierre, the home of the Rigault family 170

Published online by Cambridge University Press

 INTRODUCTION

This is a story to remember. It is not a well-known story. At 2:38

a.m., on 6 June 1944, a date to be forever known as “D-Day,” nine C-47
transport planes dropped 143 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne
Division near the village of Graignes in Normandy, France. This was not
where the paratroopers were supposed to be. They were about thirty-
five kilometers away from their drop zone. Many landed in marshy
water, the marais of the Cotentin Peninsula. A few became entangled
in their parachutes and drowned. Another C-47 dropped a contingent of
paratroopers from the 101st Airborne Division near Graignes. They,
too, were hopelessly off target. A glider plane attached to the 101st, with
two pilots, two enlisted men, and equipment, slammed into the marshes.
The wet, confused paratroopers made their way to Graignes. The village
was visible from the marais, because it was on a hill. The troopers could
also see the steeple of the village’s remarkable twelfth-century
Romanesque church.
By the end of D-Day, the commanding officer had ordered that
the paratroopers would defend Graignes and wait for the Allied inva-
sion forces to reach them. The officer’s decision was facilitated by the
enthusiasm of the villagers. On their own initiative, villagers had taken
their boats into the flooded areas to retrieve the bundles of equipment
that had been dropped in distinctive blue parachutes. The paratroopers
now had radios, machine guns, mortars, and ammunition. With visions
of first communion, confirmation, and wedding dresses in their heads,
girls and young women gathered up the unused white silk reserve
parachutes. On 7 June, the men in the village assembled in the church,

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 2 / The Lost Paratroopers of Normandy

and, with the encouragement of the mayor and priest, voted unanimously
to support their unexpected guests. Villagers, including Albert Mauger,
the leader of the local Resistance, carried out reconnaissance missions in
the surrounding areas for the paratroopers. Germaine Boursier, the
owner of the local café, organized women in a round-the-clock effort to
cook for the paratroopers. Women drove their horse-drawn wagons into
villages occupied by German troops and surreptitiously purchased bread
and food. Children brought meals to the paratroopers ensconced in their
foxholes.
Until 10 June, the paratroopers and the 900 people of Graignes
enjoyed a semblance of peace. The US men offered their chocolate and
chewing gum to the children. The children taught the soldiers Norman
songs. Plans were made to stay in touch in the postwar world. Hope for
liberation arose when two infantrymen who had landed at Omaha
Beach, some twenty-five miles from Graignes, wandered into the village
on 9 June. But the troopers had destroyed a bridge to their north and
twice clashed with German troops. The Americans knew on 10 June
that a Waffen-SS division had entered the area.
The battle for Graignes began on the morning of 11 June, when
villagers and troopers of the Roman Catholic faith were attending
Sunday mass. The well-prepared US forces routed the German invaders.
But in the afternoon and then in the late evening, a battalion of the 17th
SS Panzergrenadier Division launched assaults and pounded the village
with artillery fire. The church suffered heavy damage. The paratroopers
began to take casualties, with more than twenty dying of battlefield
wounds. By the end of Sunday, the paratroopers were shooting off their
red flares of distress and preparing to withdraw from Graignes. The SS
invaders had at least a five-to-one numerical advantage, and the US
mortars did not have the range to hit the German artillery. Most
important, the paratroopers had run out of ammunition. One frustrated
machine gunner took to hurling pieces of slate from a roof at the
advancing SS men.
What happened after the withdrawal order proved even more
haunting. Nineteen US uniformed men stayed behind. They included
a medical doctor, medics, and the wounded. The SS men murdered them
all. Their war crimes included bayonetting badly wounded men and
pushing them into a pond. Nine other men suffered similarly hideous
fates at the hands of the Nazis. They were forced to dig their own graves
and then were shot in the back of the head. Two officers, one of whom

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 3 / Introduction

was the doctor, were interrogated and then executed. The Nazi rampage
was not limited to uniformed personnel. The SS murdered the village
priest, his religious associate, and two elderly housekeepers. Their crime
was that they had ministered to the wounded soldiers. German troops
subsequently torched the village. Of the 200 structures in the town, all but
two were either destroyed or damaged by fire or artillery bombardment.
In the midst of unspeakable horror and depravity, the people of
Graignes remained defiant. The SS men rounded up forty-four villagers
and tried to intimidate them into identifying collaborators. No one
broke. Indeed, the resistance continued. Individuals hid fleeing soldiers
in their homes. Approximately ninety Americans made it to the regional
center of Carentan, thirteen kilometers from Graignes, by the evening of
Tuesday, 13 June. US forces had just liberated the strategically vital
town. During their difficult journey through the marais, the paratroop-
ers received guidance and food from country folk.
Two extraordinary young women, nineteen and twelve years of
age, saved twenty-one paratroopers. They led fleeing men to the loft of the
family barn, some three kilometers from Graignes. For three nights, the
girls and their parents concealed the men and shared their meager rations
with them. Looking for Americans, German soldiers actually entered the
barn but did not investigate the loft. Discovery of the paratroopers would
have inevitably led to the execution of the family. Germans typically shot
male resisters and dispatched female resisters to Germany to be beheaded.
On the night of Thursday, 15 June, the twenty-one paratroopers made it
to Carentan. Their hosts arranged for a guide and a large, flat boat to
navigate the marshes and canals.
The farm family and the people of Graignes would soon them-
selves be refugees. The Germans ordered an evacuation of the village
and the region. Villagers could not return until the middle of July, when
US forces liberated Graignes. On 22 July 1944, a US priest and a French
priest celebrated mass in Graignes to commemorate the military and
civilian victims. Postwar celebrations included weddings, where the
heroines of Graignes took their marital vows in gowns made from
white parachute silk. The D-Day “silk from the sky” had become
a tangible symbol of liberation and the enduring nature of the Franco-
American alliance.1 The village would not, however, be fully restored
until the mid 1950s. The grand church could not be saved. One arch was
preserved as a memorial to the soldiers and civilians who had died
defending Graignes and France.

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 4 / The Lost Paratroopers of Normandy

Figure I.1 Here are two of the many intrepid females who lived in the
village of Graignes, Normandy on 6 June 1944, or “D-Day.” They are
sisters. Behind them is their brother Jean Claude Rigault, who was an
infant in 1944. To the right is Odette Rigault Lelavechef, a self-described
“soldier” of the French Resistance. She was nineteen years old in 1944.
Odette passed in October 2018 at the age of ninety-three. The younger
sister, Marthe Rigault His, was twelve years old in 1944. In 2021, Marthe
remains as lively as ever, cooking enormous feasts for visitors from
America and painting scenes from the family home for the children and
grandchildren of the US paratroopers she knew in 1944. The two women
recounted their story innumerable times. But, in Marthe’s words, “we
always live and feel it.” Photograph courtesy of the Rigault family.

What happened at Graignes was historically significant. The

battles of 11–12 June had slowed the progress of the 17th SS
Panzergrenadier Division. Their primary mission was to recapture

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 5 / Introduction

Figure I.2 The “silk from the sky” wedding of Odette Rigault and her older sister,
Marie Jean in 1945. The third person to the right of Marie Jean is Marthe Rigault,
sitting next to her little brother, Jean Claude. Gustave and Madame Rigault are
standing behind Marthe. Courtesy of Marthe Rigault His.

Carentan, the port town which lay between Utah and Omaha Beaches.
German control of Carentan would prevent the US invaders from
joining forces. The defenders of Graignes had delayed the attack on
Carentan by at least a day, giving the 101st time to consolidate its hold
on Carentan. They had also bloodied and wearied the SS attackers of
Graignes, the 1st Battalion of the 37th Regiment. That very same
battalion led the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division attack on Carentan
on 13 June and reached some of Carentan’s outlying streets. The 101st
Division held on, however, and, by the end of the day, tanks of the 2nd
Armored Division had forced the Germans into retreat. Carentan
remained liberated.
By helping to save the lives of well over 100 paratroopers, the
bulk of whom were members of Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion,
507th Regiment of the 82nd Airborne, the people of Graignes contrib-
uted to Allied victory. These survivors of Graignes participated in future
combat in Normandy in June and July 1944, in the Battle of the Bulge in
Belgium in the winter of 1944–1945, and in a combat jump over the
Rhine River on 24 March 1945. The paratroopers then waged war in

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 6 / The Lost Paratroopers of Normandy

the Rhineland area, before Germany finally surrendered on 8 May 1945.

The paratroopers also freed thousands of Eastern European slave labor-
ers toiling in German factories. In their individual ways, the defenders of
Graignes, many of whom were repeatedly wounded during their eleven
months of combat, contributed to the defeat of Nazi Germany and the
liberation of Western Europe.
The memory of D-Day looms large in the popular imagination.
As Olivier Wieviorka, a French scholar, has noted, the invasion of
Normandy “unquestionably ranks among the greatest events in
human history.”2 The stakes could not have been higher. The forces of
liberation embarked on a journey to defeat and eliminate the murder-
ous, genocidal, imperialist regime that was Nazi Germany. That odious
Nazi regime slaughtered Professor Wieviorka’s Jewish grandparents.
One would spend a very long time trying to master the ever-expanding
literature on the invasion and the liberation of France. Films like The
Longest Day (1962) and Saving Private Ryan (1998) are considered
cinematic classics. The quintessential American movie hero, John
Wayne, played the role of an officer in the 82nd Airborne in The
Longest Day. President Ronald Reagan gave a memorable speech in
1984, when he became the first US president to attend in Normandy
a commemoration of D-Day. The president hailed the “boys of Pointe
du Hoc,” the American Rangers who scaled the cliffs of Omaha Beach.
The Rangers, who suffered appalling losses, had, in Reagan’s words,
“fought for humanity.”3
What happened at Graignes is part of the storied history of
D-Day and its aftermath. But what happened at Graignes was also
distinctive. It is a case where an entire locale rose in defense of the
Allied troops. To be sure, individual Normans and Resistance members
aided the Allies. French partisans began carrying out sabotage missions
against the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division, as the division made its
way from the interior of France toward Graignes and Carentan in the
immediate days after the invasion. Other French towns and villages,
such as Oradour-sur-Glane, suffered foul war crimes at the hands of SS
units. Nonetheless, what prompted an entire village to act spontan-
eously to protect men that they and their descendants continue to refer
to as “the liberators” or “our paratroopers” deserves analysis. Despite
losing friends and relatives, their village, and, for a time, their way of
life, the people of Graignes never regretted their commitment. At
a twentieth anniversary service in 1964, the village priest drew an

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 7 / Introduction

analogy between the paras floating down toward Graignes and God
sending his only son, Jesus, to earth.4
The people of Graignes also do not fit the standard characteriza-
tion of French partisans under German occupation. Those who pledged
allegiance to the French Resistance tended to be politically active, urban
people who disproportionately identified with leftist groups like the
Socialist and Communist parties. Graignes was a rural village. People
worked with their famed Norman cows and the butter, cheese, and milk
byproducts and on orchards that produced the fruit for distilling
Normandy’s sublime Calvados brandy. The French Department of
Manche, where Graignes was situated, tended to vote for political con-
servatives, not political leftists. Women, both young and old, played
principal roles in defending their paras and the village. This was
a notable development in a country that, as late as 1944, still denied
French women the right to vote. Histories of D-Day and its aftermath
traditionally focus on men, not the adventures and contributions of
Norman women and girls to liberation.
The war crimes that the Nazi soldiers committed at Graignes
against civilian and military personnel have not been thoroughly assessed.
One high-ranking enlisted man in the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division
was found guilty in 1947 by a US military tribunal for overseeing, on
17 June 1944, the execution of US soldiers in a village a few kilometers
away from Graignes. US military investigators interviewed the villagers of
Graignes, including the mayor, in 1947 about the execution of the nine-
teen paratroopers. The decision was made, however, not to pursue just-
ice, as the SS men that had perpetrated war crimes had vanished into
eternity. During the summer of 1944, Allied forces destroyed the over 900
men of the 1st Battalion of the 37th Regiment of the 17th SS
Panzergrenadier Division. Finally, what also needs highlighting and
remembering was the steadfastness of the doctor and the medics, who
stayed with the wounded paratroopers in Graignes and were murdered
for their loyalty to the ideals of medicine.

Graignes in Historical Writing

The people of Normandy and France are familiar with the story of
Graignes. For a variety of reasons, the story is less well known in the United
States. In 1948, France awarded the village the Croix de Guerre, with silver
star. The next year, US Ambassador to France David K. E. Bruce attended

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 8 / The Lost Paratroopers of Normandy

a ceremony to establish a Franco-American memorial in the ruins of the

church. General Dwight D. Eisenhower had previously issued commenda-
tions to villagers who had rescued paratroopers. In the ensuing years, the
village held memorial services to mark notable anniversaries of the dra-
matic days in June 1944. But in the postwar years, the villagers had to focus
on rebuilding their village and their lives. European and US economic aid
assisted the rebuilding of Normandy and Graignes.
For nearly four decades, contact between villagers and the
surviving paratroopers was infrequent. The Rigault family, who had
hid paratroopers in the barn, did not know the fate of the men. The
family had lost the paper signed by the twenty-one paratroopers com-
mending them to US authorities in the hurried rush to evacuate their
home in late June 1944. For their part, the paratroopers were not fully
aware of the death and destruction that SS troops had inflicted on
Graignes. Between the middle of June 1944 and May 1945, the para-
troopers concentrated on staying alive in Normandy, the Battle of the
Bulge, the jump over the Rhine River, and the concluding, dangerous
house-to-house fighting in the Rhineland region. Some of the paratroop-
ers also pulled occupation duty in Berlin in the second half of 1945.
When they returned to the United States, the veterans wanted to forget
the economic hardships of the Great Depression and the combat trau-
mas they had experienced. They wanted a spouse, family, work, and
a middle-class life. By the mid 1950s, most veterans had achieved this in
an America that was growing and prosperous. Corporal Homer
H. Poss, who left high school to enlist and at the age of nineteen was
one of the youngest paratroopers in Graignes, served as mayor of his
town of Highland, Illinois. Staff Sergeant Fredric Boyle returned to his
wife Charla, set up housekeeping, and attended Palmer Chiropractic
School in Davenport, Iowa. Dr. Boyle and his wife had four children. He
also served as mayor of Keosauqua, Iowa. The veterans of Graignes did
occasionally reminisce at barbecues in Stamford, Connecticut hosted by
Technician Fifth Grade (T/5) Edward T. “Eddie” Page. Page had hidden
in the Rigault barn with his buddy, Staff Sergeant (S/Sgt.) Rene E. Rabe.
Rabe related how a “farm family” had hid him and others in a barn and
provided them with a meal of cabbage with melting butter, when they
were ravenously hungry. Page told his wife, Betty, that if he ever
returned to Europe, Graignes would be his first stop.
The fortieth anniversary of D-Day in 1984 seemed to motivate
the veterans to think about Graignes. President Reagan had given his

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 9 / Introduction

inspiring speech. Veterans of the 82nd and 101st Divisions, then in their
sixties, initiated an annual ritual by jumping once again out of C-47s over
Normandy on 6 June. The “experienced” paratroopers had white hair or
no hair but seemed as fit and fearless as ever. American citizens saw on
television visual images of the stunning but sad rows of Christian crosses
and Stars of David at the American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer,
which is near Omaha Beach. Division and recrimination had character-
ized public debate in the 1960s and 1970s over the Vietnam War. D-Day
seemed worth remembering as a time of national purpose and unity.
Renowned television journalist Tom Brokaw kept the positive feelings
flowing with his popular book The Greatest Generation (1998).5
The veterans of Graignes began to act individually and collect-
ively. The large, extended family of Private (Pvt.) Arnold J. Martinez of
Colorado, who had died at Graignes, began an extensive writing cam-
paign to the Department of Defense trying to determine the circum-
stances of his death. In 1944, Martinez’s parents had initially been
informed that their son was missing in action. Later in the year, they
received another telegram saying that Arnold had been killed in action,
but with no further explanation. Arnold’s younger brother, Samuel
Martinez, Jr. would subsequently receive financial backing from his
employer, Coors Brewing, in his quest to honor his brother. In the
1980s, veterans, who were approaching retirement, now had the time
and money to travel to Europe. Some paratroopers approached the idea
hesitantly, because they believed they had let the villagers of Graignes
down, when they retreated in the dark hours between 11 and 12 June.
To their relief, they discovered that villagers annually commemorated
their “heroism” and “bowed in sorrow” for those who had sacrificed
their lives “for the liberty of our people.”6 Veterans began to bring their
families to meet the people that had aided them in Graignes. Most
important, two career military officers, Colonel Francis E. Naughton
and Lt. Colonel Earcle R. “Pip” Reed, gathered information and lob-
bied the Department of the Army to recognize the heroism of the people
of Graignes. Both men had been junior officers in 1944 and had helped
lead the withdrawal from Graignes to Carentan. On 6 July 1986, in
a grand ceremony, Secretary of the Army John O. Marsh, Jr. awarded
eleven Distinguished Service Medals, several of them posthumously, to
the people of Graignes. The medals are the highest award that the
Department of Defense can award to a civilian. Five US veterans of
Graignes and the brother of Pvt. Martinez attended the ceremony.

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 10 / The Lost Paratroopers of Normandy

The story of Graignes thereafter entered public consciousness.

Gary N. Fox’s Graignes: The Franco-American Memorial (1990) offered
a useful summary. Having attended reunions of the 507th Regiment, Fox
wrote from the perspective of the veterans. Fox’s book was published by
a small press and had limited distribution.7 Two chroniclers of the 507th
Regiment, Dominique François and Martin K. A. Morgan, tried to publi-
cize the history of Graignes. François, who lives in Normandy, has
a special connection to D-Day. His grandparents, who lived on the
coast of the Cotentin Peninsula, were unfortunate victims of Allied
bombing on 5 June 1944. The German defenders had built a large bunker
near their village. The couple’s three sons survived the bombing, and US
soldiers initially cared for François’s father and two uncles. François has
written La bataille de Graignes: Les paras perdus, 5–12 Juin 1944 (The
Battle of Graignes: The Lost Paratroopers, 5–12 June) (2012), which
includes testimonies by French citizens.8 François also assisted Colonel
Naughton in establishing a memorial to the 507th Regiment in
Amfreville, the village where the regiment, including the defenders of
Graignes, were supposed to land.
Martin Morgan, who has worked with the National
Geographic Society, has led battlefield tours around the world. Both
his history of the 507th Regiment in Normandy, Down to Earth
(2004), and his photographic history of D-Day (2014) have sections
on Graignes.9 Morgan’s approach has been to give equal weight to the
memories of the paratroopers and those of the villagers. Morgan has
also served as an authority for two television broadcasts, D-Day:
Down to Earth, Return of the 507th (2004) by the Public
Broadcasting System and D-Day: The Secret Massacre (2004) by the
History Channel. François has also aided a compelling visual presen-
tation, Papa Said: We Should Never Forget (2009) produced by
Georgia Public Broadcasting. The twenty-four-minute story focuses
on twelve-year-old Marthe Rigault and pointedly asks young people in
America if they would be as brave as Marthe was in defending liberty.
François’s wife, Gaelle, played Madame Rigault and Denis Small, the
long-time mayor of Graignes and a historian of the village, played the
father, Gustave Rigault. The historical recreation garnered significant
recognition, including an Emmy Award.10
Despite these artistic and literary endeavors, the story of
Graignes remains generally unknown and incomplete. As Martin
Morgan lamented at the end of 2018, “despite my best efforts though,

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 11 / Introduction

the story of Graignes has still not reached a broad audience, nor has it
been popularized to any meaningful level.”11 A new look at Graignes is
justified, because significant new evidence has become available. In the
early twenty-first century, historical societies and universities in states
such as Minnesota, Tennessee, and Wisconsin began projects to inter-
view aging veterans. In part, these archivists and librarians were react-
ing to the “greatest generation” phenomenon. Research in the military
records of the veterans of Graignes has always been difficult, because
a massive fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis in
1973 destroyed 80 percent of individual service records of those who
served in the Army. But some records, such as those of Private First-
Class (Pfc.) Harold J. Premo, survived replete with burn and water
marks.
Properly telling the story of Graignes also highlights develop-
ments in scholarship on US foreign relations. Scholars have increasingly
employed innovative approaches to international history, such as
“decentering” the United States as a foreign-policy actor and analyzing
the roles of ordinary people in the making of international history.12
This study is grounded in documentary evidence not just from the
United States but also from France and Germany. In the case of
Graignes, non-elite actors, the paratroopers and the villagers, made
choices that affected the conduct of US foreign and military policy, the
liberation of France, and the defeat of Germany. The women of
Graignes were among those who made critical decisions and exercised
power. The story of Graignes teaches us that a “local” event can tell us
much about “global” history.
A complete understanding of Graignes also demands analysis of
the roles and memories of French citizens and German soldiers. French
archivists and librarians, such as in the Norman city of Caen, collected
the memories of older Normans about D-Day and the subsequent
warfare in Normandy. The interviews included testimonies by villagers
from Graignes. As historian Mary Louise Roberts demonstrated in
D-Day through French Eyes (2014), the joy of liberation was always
tempered by the reality that nearly 20,000 Normans lost their lives in
the fighting in 1944.13 After a long period of silence, the French have
also been asking hard questions about official and private collaboration
with the German occupiers from 1940 to 1944. The long-running
television series Un village français (A French Village) (2009–2017)
explored the compromises that citizens made with the Germans during

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 12 / The Lost Paratroopers of Normandy

the occupation. The seventy-two-part series proved dramatically com-

pelling and drew a large audience in France for seven years. In the
twenty-first century, the government has declassified records that
revealed painful incidents and uncomfortable secrets about French life
under occupation. Ronald C. Rosbottom of Amherst College made
good use of occupation records to write Sudden Courage (2019), his
stirring telling of French adolescent resistance to Nazi tyranny.14
Probing the actions and rationales of the 17th SS Panzergrenadier
Division at Graignes is a scholarly challenge. For seventy-five years, SS
officers and their civilian acolytes have been trying to cover up the
division’s war crimes. Massimiliano Afiero, a prolific Italian chronicler
of the Axis powers, goes as far as to assert in his coffee-table-style
illustrated history of the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division that “through-
out its history, the division was never involved in any war crimes or in any
war crimes against civilians, as witness of its character as a strictly mili-
tary unit.”15 Afiero and other chroniclers of the division conveniently
ignore in their books the assault on Graignes on 11–12 June. But the
Germans kept precise, comprehensive records of their military activities.
Using German archival sources facilitates an understanding of the course
of events in Graignes and further demonstrates how historical actors and
their enthusiasts will try to shape an understanding of an atrocious
history for future generations.
In preparing this study, the author has had singular access to the
military veterans of Graignes. As a budding young historian, I soaked up
the conversations that I heard my father, S/Sgt. Rabe, have with other
veterans in our neighborhoods in Connecticut. I further listened in to the
anecdotes that he and his colleagues told at Eddie Page’s reunions. I now
realize that some of these tales were about Graignes. I naturally spent
most of my time at reunions with the other children. In the past few
years, I have renewed my relationship with them and they have provided
me with valuable written resources about their fathers. Many of these
childhood friends had already traveled to Graignes and met the French
heroines of Graignes. As an academic historian, I told myself that
I would tell the story of Graignes. But for more than four decades, my
scholarship focused on the history of US foreign relations with Latin
America. It would have been preferable to conduct in-depth interviews
both with the paratroopers and with the villagers, almost all of whom
have sadly long since passed.

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 13 / Introduction

This study proceeds in a chronological fashion. To provide

context, the first three chapters look at the preparation and training of
the US paratroopers, the organization of the 17th SS Panzergrenadier
Division, and the character of life in France and Graignes under German
occupation. In these opening chapters, readers are introduced to the
background and lives of individual paratroopers, villagers, and SS offi-
cers. The opening section also focuses on the influence of a US military
officer who was not in Graignes, Major General James M. Gavin, the
Associate Commander of the 82nd Airborne. General Gavin put his
imprint, in terms of physical fitness and mental agility, on the men of the
Headquarters Company of the 3rd Battalion of the 507th Regiment.
The fourth through seventh chapters detail the intense scenes –
the landing, the battle, and the escape from Graignes. These chapters
emphasize the interactions between the villagers and the paratroopers
and the central roles that the villagers played in the drama. Documentary
materials provide insight into the three attacks that German military units
launched against Graignes. The story is continued through July 1944. The
villagers faced hardship, hunger, and death as refugees. The paratroopers
who survived Graignes would spend another month in Normandy and
would engage in hard combat. After their failure at Carentan, the SS
soldiers who attacked Graignes and executed the wounded would be
engaged in costly, futile combat in June and July 1944, trying to forestall
the liberation of France.
The final chapter surveys postwar developments. The villagers
worked on rebuilding Graignes and establishing their village’s honored
place in French history. The young US veterans of Graignes returned to
America and started creating their civilian lives. Many veterans had,
however, suffered grievous wounds, and all had to work through their
respective traumas. Four decades would pass before they would return
to Graignes, both mentally and physically. The handful of SS soldiers
who survived World War II undoubtedly had their physical and psycho-
logical issues. But they never had to defend publicly their execution of
priests, wounded soldiers, and medical staff in Graignes.

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 1 PARATROOPER

The young men of Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion,

507th Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division who landed near the
village of Graignes, Normandy in the early morning of 6 June 1944
embodied a cross-section of their society that grew up in the United
States in the Great Depression of the 1930s. As had their parents, the
paratroopers had experienced hard times that limited their education
and job prospects. But these ordinary men had become pioneers. The
idea of airborne assaults behind enemy lines was a new and challenging
concept in US military science. The men had also undergone a regimen
of physical training that set them apart from other uniformed personnel.
Their beloved leader, James N. Gavin, the youngest general in the US
military, embodied the background and aspirations of the men he
commanded. The product of a hard-scrabble life, Gavin defined for his
men what it meant to be a paratrooper.

Airborne
Human beings have long fancied flying or floating through the
sky. In Greek mythology, Icarus tried to escape the island of Crete with
wings of feathers and wax designed by his father, the master craftsman
Daedalus. The hubris of Icarus led to his failure and demise, and
prompted the everlasting warning about “flying too close to the sun.”
The genius of the Italian Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci, sketched in
his notebook something that looked like a parachute, a tent of linen that
was thirty-six feet wide and thirty-six feet deep. Da Vinci predicted that

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 15 / Paratrooper

with his device a man “will be able to throw himself down from any
great height without sustaining any injury.” Indeed, in 1887, a large
crowd assembled at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco to cheer Thomas
Scott Baldwin, who successfully jumped from a hot-air balloon tethered
at 5,000 feet. Baldwin and his brother, Samuel, designed the parachute.1
Military implications quickly became associated with the con-
cept of jumping from something in the sky and landing safely. In 1783,
the Montgolfier brothers demonstrated the efficacy of hot air balloons
to the delight of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette. The first
“test pilots” were a sheep, a duck, and a rooster. Benjamin Franklin,
who was serving as the first US Minister to France, subsequently fore-
saw the day when “ten thousand men descending from the clouds”
could do “an infinite deal of mischief before a force could be brought
together to repel them.” More than a century later, another American in
France, Colonel William L. “Billy” Mitchell, attached some concrete
plans to Franklin’s vision. Mitchell, who commanded US air forces in
France in 1918, recommended to General John J. “Black Jack” Pershing
on 17 October 1918 that the United States could shorten the war against
Germany by launching an airborne assault on the city of Metz. The
troopers would then attack German forces from the rear. Major
Mitchell predicted that he would soon have large enough airplanes to
accomplish the mission.2 The war ended, however, less than a month
later.
US military planners did not follow up Mitchell’s ideas on
paratroopers or his larger belief in air power. Twelve US Marines did
a demonstration jump in 1927 in Anacostia, which is part of
Washington, D.C. But until 1940, the US military did not have
a parachute unit. Other global powers led the way. The Soviet Union
began developing parachute forces in 1929 and by 1933 had created
twenty-nine parachute battalions. On 30 November 1939, at the outset
of Soviet aggression against Finland known as the “Winter War,”
a small detachment of Soviet paratroopers dropped in northern
Finland. Soviet military officials never, however, relied on airborne
assaults and by 1943 had given up on the idea, judging that the dropping
of paratroopers raised too many logistical challenges.3
Nazi Germany, led by Oberst (Colonel) Kurt Student, a protégé
of Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, assembled eleven parachute divi-
sions by the end of World War II. Oberst Student established
a parachute training school at Stendhal, west of Berlin. The paratrooper

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 16 / The Lost Paratroopers of Normandy

branch of the Luftwaffe, known as Fallschirmjäger, participated in

1940 in the invasions of Norway, Holland, and Belgium. Most notably,
a German parachute infantry division successfully attacked the island of
Crete in May 1941. Thereafter, German generals, upon the orders of
Führer Adolf Hitler, deployed the Fallschirmjäger solely as ground-
based infantry units. Hitler heaped praise and medals on the Nazi
conquerors of Crete. The Führer apparently thought, however, that
the costs of conquest were high, with casualties at 33 percent and 200
airplanes destroyed. Hitler further reasoned that parachute assaults
depended on the element of surprise, which would no longer be possible
during a time of general war.4
In one of the ironies of history, US military planners drew
different lessons from the Nazi airborne assaults on European countries
and the invasion of Crete. The Crete operation had been conducted
entirely from the air, with parachute drops, glider-plane landings, and
air-landed forces. Captain James M. Gavin, a young instructor at West
Point, judged the German parachute drops, “bringing parachute troops
and glider troops to the battlefield in masses,” a “promising” develop-
ment in military science. Gavin analyzed the German invasion orders,
copies of which he obtained from the War Department.5
High-ranking officers agreed with Captain Gavin’s assessment.
In April 1940, Major William “Bill” Lee, often dubbed the “father of
the US Airborne,” received permission to organize a “test platoon” of
paratroopers. Major Lee developed an intensive eight-week training
course at Ft. Benning, Georgia based on training models for British
Commandos and US Rangers. The experimental nature of the training
was highlighted by the use of football helmets by troopers to protect
against crash landings. In September 1940, a mass jump of Lee’s platoon
of approximately fifty men suitably impressed Chief of Staff General
George C. Marshall. Marshall authorized the expansion of the platoon
into a battalion. Thereafter, as the lessons of Crete took hold, the US
military created three additional parachute battalions in 1941. Captain
Gavin escaped from the classroom, graduated from jump school at Ft.
Benning, and took command of a new parachute battalion. Gavin also
wrote Field Manual (FM) 31–30, “Tactics and Techniques of Airborne
Troops.”6
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 and
Nazi Germany’s declaration of war against the United States four days
later accelerated the development of airborne capabilities. The 82nd

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 17 / Paratrooper

Infantry Division would be designated an airborne division in

August 1942. The division had been activated a few months previously.
The 82nd Division had fought with distinction as an infantry unit in
France during World War I. The division had created the “AA” or “All
American” shoulder patch in red, white, and blue to celebrate that it had
soldiers from all forty-eight states. Sergeant Alvin C. York became the
most celebrated of the division’s soldiers, winning the Congressional
Medal of Honor. At the conclusion of World War I, the War
Department deactivated the 82nd.7 In mid 1942, General Mathew
Ridgway, who graduated from West Point in 1917, assumed command
of the division. Gavin, now Colonel Gavin, brought his parachute
infantry regiment, the 505th, to the 82nd in early 1943.
From the outset, those who volunteered to jump out of “per-
fectly good airplanes” learned they were “special” members of the US
armed forces. That designation proved to be a double-edged sword for
those who served as parachutists in the 82nd Airborne. Lee, Ridgway,
and especially Gavin imparted their visions on what it was to be “spe-
cial.” The paratroopers wore their chestnut-brown, custom-designed
jump boots at all times, even when wearing dress uniforms. They
bloused their pants over their boots. On their overseas cap, they wore
a cloth patch depicting a white parachute on a blue field. When a soldier
graduated from jump school at Ft. Benning, he was awarded a unique
badge of “silver parachute wings.” Their combat uniforms appeared
“baggy,” with oversized pockets in their blouses and pants to carry
what they needed when they hit the ground. Famed war correspondent
Martha Gellhorn, who reported on the 82nd in Europe, felt over-
whelmed in the paratroopers’ presence, noting “each man wears his
soiled and baggy clothing as if it had been designed for him alone and
was not Army issue at all.”8 As a scholar of the 82nd observed, the men
had their “totems.”9
The special status also meant higher pay. Jump pay for para-
troopers was $50 extra a month and $100 extra a month for officers. In
the context of prevailing civilian and military wages, this was a king’s
ransom. A private in the US Army earned about $21 a month and then
had $1.25 deducted to pay for laundry expenses. Paratroopers training
in England in 1944 for D-Day earned more than a mid-ranking British
officer. John Hinchliff, who had grown up poor in Minnesota and sadly
recalled being mocked at school for wearing second-hand clothing,
found the extra $50 most attractive. John W. “Jack” Dunn, a medic

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 18 / The Lost Paratroopers of Normandy

who jumped with the 82nd, rued his life of hard poverty in Milwaukee.
Bob Bearden, who had become a sergeant in the Texas National Guard
and earned $80 a month, thought a monthly salary of $130 would be “a
lot.” Bearden further dreamed that his romantic life would improve,
thinking that young women “would go crazy for parachute wings.”10
Lee, Ridgway, and Gavin wanted intelligent, athletic volun-
teers, described as “men of the highest order” that “never faltered or
failed.”11 Gavin reasoned, an analysis that was supported by experi-
ence, that paratroopers dropped behind enemy lines inevitably would be
scattered. They would fight as small units, without central command.
Enlisted men would need to show initiative, think for themselves, and
show an independent streak, even as they accepted military commands.
In order to qualify for the paratroopers, an enlisted man was required to
score high on the standardized examination, the Army General
Classification Test (AGCT). Although many recruits lacked four years
of high school, they often achieved test results high enough to qualify for
officers’ candidate school. Having enlisted personnel that had the men-
tal capabilities of their officers helped create a unique military structure.
Homer Jones, who was a platoon leader in Normandy and would
achieve the rank of Lt. Colonel as a career military man, recalled that
in the 82nd “the normal walls between officers and enlisted men broke
down. I often finished marches carrying a mortar or machine gun.”12
Whereas astute observers might quickly glean the native intel-
lectual abilities of paratroopers, their first impression would be of their
overwhelming physical presence. Paratroopers appeared and moved
like athletes ready to compete in the Olympics. From the outset, jump
training at Ft. Benning was characterized by its “sheer physical brutal-
ity.” General Ridgway wanted each trooper “to be as finely trained as
a champion boxer.” General Gavin would have made physical training
challenging for legendary champions like Joe Louis or Jesse Owens.
Gavin once took his paratroopers on a night march of twenty-three
miles. The men conducted field exercises for the entire day. At 9:00 p.m.,
the troops were granted two hours of sleep. They then hiked back to
camp that night by a different route. They had covered more than fifty
miles. Any man who complained or fell out of formation would no
longer be a paratrooper. Such a regimen, Ridgway and Gavin agreed,
produced “a special kind of animal.”13
Recruiters judged that young men who had participated in
athletics in high school or college might best be able to complete the

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 19 / Paratrooper

training. Lt. Frank Naughton and Sgt. Hinchliff had both been boxers.
Homer Poss of Illinois had competed in track and field. The Roman
Catholic Chaplain, Father and Captain John Verret, played football
and hockey in high school in Burlington, Vermont. Private Robert
R. Miller, a medic who died at Graignes, was considered “one of the
best baseball catchers ever” at Boyertown High School in Pennsylvania.14
The 82nd Division had officers who had attained “All-American” acco-
lades in football at various universities. Ben Schwartzwalder was a center
and captain of his football team at West Virginia University. Captain
Schwartzwalder coached the 507th Regiment’s football team and per-
formed splendidly in action, garnering the Silver Star, the Bronze Star,
and the Purple Heart. Schwartzwalder was the head football coach at
Syracuse University from 1949 to 1973. Ernie Davis, the first African-
American to win the Heisman Trophy, and Jim Brown, one of the greatest
professional football players ever, played for Coach Schwartzwalder.
Recruiters took a subtle approach in making their sales pitch for
joining the paratroopers. The recruiters were handpicked, or, in Gavin’s
words, “very alert, sharp-looking guys.” The recruiters would spend a day
at a training base before talking to men. They would be seen at the Non-
Commissioned Officers (NCO) Club and at the commissary or PX. Their
totems – the jump boots, the wings, the airborne patch – would create
a buzz. When meeting with potential recruits they would show off their
gymnastic abilities by doing a series of exercises, such as tumbles. They
wanted to challenge the men and show off the “élan” of a paratrooper.15
Reverse psychology was also applied. James P. James of Wisconsin recalled
that a recruiter displayed a matchbox designed to look like a coffin and
asked: “Who wants to join the paratroopers or go home in one of these?”
Commanders at training bases understood that recruiters were over-
whelming their trainees. Officers at Ft. Warren, near Cheyenne,
Wyoming tried to talk Kurt Gabel out of becoming a paratrooper, remind-
ing him “of the gravity of choice.” Gabel, who was a German-Jewish
émigré, was in the Battle of the Bulge and jumped over the Rhine River.
Rene E. Rabe did basic training at Ft. Wolters in Mineral Wells, Texas. His
commanding officer used scatological language, trying to warn him about
the harshness of training at Ft. Benning.16
Jump training proved as arduous as advertised. Less than 50 per-
cent of the recruits – officers and enlisted men – completed the training
course within the designated four-week period. James Megellas, who
claimed the title of “the most decorated officer in the 82nd Airborne,”

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 20 / The Lost Paratroopers of Normandy

remembered that only twenty-seven of the eighty-six officers in his class

finished jump school.17 The first week consisted of running and calisthen-
ics, followed over the next two weeks with lessons on folding chutes and
practice jumping from 250-foot towers. Instruction on hand-to-hand fight-
ing was also included. Five-mile runs before breakfast were routine and
twenty-five pushups had to be done for every mistake. Recruits were
encouraged to do one-handed pushups. All movement was “double-
time.” Edward M. Isbell from the Blue Ridge Mountains of North
Carolina recalled that during the first days of training aching men had to
help each other out of bed. Isbell added that “the drill instructors were
merciless,” trying “to make it so tough that men would ask for a transfer.”
Drill instructors also played with the minds of the recruits, alternately
employing shame and praise. Men who quit had to undergo the humiliation
of packing their bags in front of others. The drill instructors assured those
who endured, however, that a single paratrooper was superior to five
soldiers. A sign on the shed where parachutes were packed read:
“Through these portals pass America’s finest troops. Pack well, and jump
again.”18
During the final week of training, recruits were required to
complete five jumps, including usually a night jump, in order to secure
their parachute wings. Officers estimated that 98 percent of the recruits
had never been in an airplane before their first jump. The initial jump
might be at 1,200 feet altitude and the last at 800 feet. John Hinchliff
laughingly remembered about his first jump that he felt the opening shock
“and I looked up at that canopy and I said, ‘God damn.’” Ed Isbell
“looked up to see this beautiful white canopy of silk that meant life
itself.” Many troopers admitted to being nervous about their subsequent
jumps, perhaps now comprehending what could go wrong. Colonel Mark
J. Alexander, a battalion commander in the 82nd, witnessed a training
accident, with a C-47 suddenly losing altitude and hitting and killing three
men floating to earth. Ambulances normally waited on the ground ready
to collect those who broke ankles and dislocated knees. The landing
shock was the equivalent of jumping from a fifteen-foot-high platform.
On his fourth training jump, Hinchliff landed on top of an ambulance,
injuring his tailbone. Against medical advice, his buddies carried him out
of the hospital so he could make his all-important fifth qualifying jump.
General Gavin made over fifty jumps, suffering a fracture in his spinal
cord on one of his four combat jumps. In civilian life, Gavin would suffer
pain from the accumulated toll of the opening and landing shocks.19

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 21 / Paratrooper

Figure 1.1 A paratrooper carries out a practice jump during World War II.
The paratrooper is in excellent position – upright and having turned his
body away from the airplane. His parachute is beginning to deploy. Note
the bundles of equipment with parachutes underneath the airplane. Rene
E. Rabe photograph.

Airborne soldiers came to perceive their profession as an indis-

pensable duty, not a privilege or pleasure. S/Sgt. Frederic Boyle made
twenty-five jumps, including two combat jumps with Poss and Rabe. He
told his family he was frightened every time.20 Bob Bearden concurred
with Boyle, noting that “I never made a parachute jump that I liked.”
The men took sustenance, however, from the “esprit de corps” that
characterized paratrooper life. Gavin reinforced this by trying “to
impress upon them what outstanding individual soldiers they were.”
He explained that “we wanted to do everything we could to enhance
their pride.” Bearden found out that civilians had bought into the image
of paratroopers as “supermen.” When he returned home in
September 1942 after jump school, citizens in Dallas, Texas immedi-
ately noticed his jump boots. As he explained, “it was this national
infatuation and adoration along with fifty dollars a month jump pay
that kept me and the rest of the new breed of soldier jumping.”21

James M. Gavin
Matthew Ridgway commanded the 82nd Division during the
invasion of Normandy. Brigadier General Gavin was the assistant

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 22 / The Lost Paratroopers of Normandy

commander of the division. To his credit, Ridgway, who was forty-nine

years of age, jumped on D-Day and remarkably had one of the most
accurate and softest landings of the more than 6,000 men in the division
who jumped. He landed in a gentle cow pasture, near the target zone of
Amfreville, Normandy. Ridgway had not graduated from Ft. Benning.
The Normandy jump was only his fifth jump. Ridgway initially planned
to arrive later on a glider plane but decided he needed to be in
Normandy at the outset of the mission. Whereas Ridgway was strong
and skillful, he is usually not identified with the 82nd in Normandy.
Paratroopers minced no words in identifying General Gavin as their
commander. Veterans would later focus on singing Gavin’s praises, not
Ridgway’s.22 General Gavin was in charge of the training of the three
parachute infantry regiments, the 505th, 507th, and 508th, who jumped
on 6 June 1944. Gavin not only put his imprint on those regiments but
also defined what it meant to be a paratrooper.
James M. Gavin led a life of hardship and striving right out of
a novel by Charles Dickens. Gavin was born on 22 March 1907 in
Brooklyn, New York to a single mother. The pregnant Katherine Ryan
had emigrated from County Clare, Ireland. Unmarried pregnant women
faced shame, ridicule, and hardship in the conservative Catholic country.
Sometime after his birth, Ryan placed her baby in the Angel Guard Home,
an orphanage run by the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn. Martin and Mary
Gavin, a couple who lived in the anthracite coal-mining region of
Pennsylvania, adopted the two-year-old James. Mary Gavin was an abu-
sive, violent alcoholic. Her husband often considered leaving her. Their
adopted son was a dedicated student in grammar school, who especially
loved studying history. His parents forced Gavin to leave school after
completing eighth grade, insisting that he supplement the family income.
The teenaged Gavin peddled newspapers, pumped gasoline, and sold
shoes. He read history books at night in the local library. At the age of
seventeen, he ran away from home to his birthplace, New York City.
Gavin’s grim, unhappy life took a positive turn. On
1 April 1924, Gavin enlisted in the US Army. A helpful recruiter
arranged for a surrogate father to sign the underaged Gavin’s enlistment
papers. Gavin had told the recruiter he was an orphan. The Army
became Gavin’s family, although Gavin dutifully sent half of his $21
monthly pay to his adoptive parents. He was initially assigned to the US
military base in Panama for training and rose rapidly to the rank of
corporal. His superiors recognized his ambition and intelligence, and

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 23 / Paratrooper

encouraged him to take the entrance examination for West Point.

Nighttime study helped him master the math and science subjects he
had missed in high school. With his appointment to West Point in 1925,
Gavin had become a “mustang,” an enlisted soldier who matriculated
to the military academy. Gavin graduated from West Point in 1929,
finishing in the top third of his class. Gavin studied at night in the
latrines, compensating for his lack of formal education. He took notes
and wrote mathematical formulas on pieces of toilet paper.23
Over the next ten years, Gavin had routine military assignments
and progressed slowly in the peacetime Army. In 1939, he was pro-
moted to captain. Upon graduation from West Point, Gavin had mar-
ried Irma M. “Peggy” Baulsir from Washington, D.C. Baulsir had
experienced a prosperous, stable upbringing. The couple had one
child, Barbara, born in 1933. Gavin adored his daughter, whom he
called “Babe,” writing 209 letters to her while in Europe. A mere five
days after landing in Normandy, Gavin wrote to his daughter, reassur-
ing her that he had been “shot at but not shot.” Barbara Gavin
Fauntleroy reminisced that Gavin wrote so often “because he wanted
her to have the security and love he did not have in his youth.”24
Gavin wrote only once to his wife, and that was about divorce.
The marriage had broken down before World War II. Peggy Gavin did
not enjoy the life of a military spouse. Gavin confessed to his diary in
1940 that he had become “sexually indifferent” to his wife.25 The
couple stayed married during the war, because it made life easier for
Peggy and Barbara. But Gavin no longer thought he was married and
became sexually adventurous in Europe. He often called on Valerie
Porter in London, took up with Martha Gellhorn, the estranged third
wife of writer Ernest Hemingway, and had a brief affair with the famed
German actress Marlene Dietrich. During his command in occupied
Berlin in the second half of 1945, Gavin arranged for Dietrich’s mother
to escape the Soviet-controlled sector of Berlin. Except perhaps for
Gellhorn, Gavin was not emotionally involved with his lovers. Just
before the outbreak of the Battle of the Bulge, Gavin visited Valerie
Porter. His diary entry read: “Had a wonderful time. Just what
I needed.”26 Gavin divorced his wife in 1947 and married Jeanne
Emert Duncan of Knoxville, Tennessee in 1948. She was sixteen years
younger than Gavin. Like her new husband, Jeanne Gavin brought
a daughter to the marriage, and the two of them produced three more
daughters. They remained married for more than four decades.

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 24 / The Lost Paratroopers of Normandy

Gavin recognized that paratrooper duty was a young man’s

game and seized his opportunity, although he was comparatively old,
thirty-four years of age, when he completed jump school. His stature
grew with his field manuals on paratrooper warfare and his innov-
ations in training. He led his 505th regiment in airborne assaults into
Sicily in July 1943 and near Salerno, Italy in September, 1943. For his
service in Sicily, he received the Distinguished Service Cross for valor
and a Purple Heart for the wound he suffered to his leg. By the end of
1943, he had attained the rank of brigadier general. He had risen in
rank from captain to general in less than five years. When he assumed
full command of the 82nd Airborne after Normandy and was pro-
moted to major general, he became, at age thirty-seven, the youngest
general to command a division since the Civil War. Tall, slim, fit, and
handsome, Gavin seemed to have emerged from central casting in
Hollywood. His reputation did not suffer from the worshipful reports
that Martha Gellhorn, who had a wide audience, sent about him and
his paratroopers in Europe. As Gellhorn gushed: “From the general on
down, they are all extraordinary characters and each one’s story is
worth telling, for men who jump out of airplanes onto hostile territory
do not have dull lives.”27
Gavin’s biographers summarized their subject by noting his
commitment to a “Spartan” life, characterized by heavy manual labor,
long-distance marches, and a simple diet. Above all, Gavin believed “in
the virtue of physical toughness.”28 Routine training involved a daily
run of four or five miles, followed by long sessions of calisthenics. Once
a week, paratroopers took a twenty- to thirty-mile forced march, with
the warning “if you fall out, you ship out.” A restless Gavin would go
for a run in the afternoons, informing an aide: “Son, let’s go for a run.”
After a field training exercise, he would lead his paratroopers in a jog
back to camp. Gavin focused on grinding down junior leaders, reason-
ing that weary men made mistakes and those who commanded small
fighting units had to learn how to cope with the “fatigue factor.” Gavin
turned an especially critical eye toward his high-ranking officers. He
demanded the replacement of Colonel Herbert Batcheller, the com-
mander of the 505th Regiment, when he learned that Batcheller had
skipped a training exercise so he could be with the Irish woman whom
he loved. Gavin could care less that Batcheller, a married man, was
unfaithful. Not participating in training with your men was, however,
a mortal sin. Colonel George V. “Zip” Millett, Jr., the commander of

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 25 / Paratrooper

the 507th Regiment, was a family friend. Millett’s sin was that he was
“overweight” and “not in shape” and lacked “the leadership and dedi-
cation to professional soldiering.”29 General Ridgway rejected Gavin’s
request that he be replaced. A few days after landing in Normandy,
Millett was captured by the Germans and sat out the rest of the war as
a prisoner of war (POW). Perhaps sarcastically, Gavin informed his
daughter in a 21 June 1944 letter that everyone was fine, but “Zip
probably likes cabbage soup and black bread.”30
The emphasis on physical toughness fit into Gavin’s straightfor-
ward perception of war in Europe. The Allied forces would be victori-
ous, when his paratroopers killed German soldiers as quickly as
possible. He once characterized paratroopers “as cold-blooded killers.”
In a 12 June 1944 letter from Normandy to Barbara he judged the
performance of the paratroopers, most of whom were “green” to com-
bat, as “nothing short of remarkable.” He added that “I believe that the
violence and savagery of their combat technique is without parallel in
our military history. The Germans fear them now and give them lots of
elbow room.”31 Gavin understood that dropping behind enemy lines
would inevitably lead to high casualties. Just before the Normandy
invasion, he recorded in his diary the observation that “it is regrettable
that so many of them have to get lost, but it is a tough business, and they
all figure that parachutists have nine lives.”32 Gavin tried, however, to
limit the exposure of paratroopers. His writings emphasized that para-
troopers were assault troops. They should be assigned specific, limited
missions and be withdrawn once they fulfilled their mission.
Paratroopers normally fought without air support, powerful artillery,
or tanks. T/5 Eddie Page recalled that he and his colleagues believed that
they would spend about a week in Normandy and then be withdrawn.33
Indeed, the 82nd Airborne Division fulfilled its assigned missions by
13 June. But their ferocity and skill had caught the attention of high-
ranking officers. Gavin’s superiors, like General Omar Bradley, ordered
paratroopers into action because regular infantry units often advanced
too slowly. Paratrooper units, whether they be the 82nd, the 101st, or
the 17th Airborne, repeatedly “passed through” heavily armed infantry
units and took on the enemy. As such, the Headquarters Company that
Page was a member of not only defended Graignes, but also engaged in
bloody hedgerow fighting in Normandy, and then, in early July, charged
up Hill 95, near the village of La Haye-du-Puits. One week had turned
into thirty-three days of combat. Page’s 507th regiment left Normandy

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 26 / The Lost Paratroopers of Normandy

with a staggering 61 percent casualty rate. Traditional military doctrine

called for units to be withdrawn after suffering 25 percent casualties.34
General Gavin tried to keep his paratroopers out of the battle
for La Haye-du-Puits but was overruled by General Ridgway, who
thought that the “fighting spirit” of the weakened 507th “was still
unimpaired.”35 Gavin had, of course, nurtured that mental and physical
toughness. He had also built up their confidence. He told his paratroop-
ers that “they were the most capable guys on earth.” A squad of
paratroopers was worth as much as a platoon of other soldiers. Gavin
further explained that “we wanted these guys to find out there is nothing
too good for them; no bed too soft, no food too good, no conditions too
good for them.” In turn, Gavin expected that paratroopers would
accomplish all missions on the battlefield, no matter what the cost.36
As he told his daughter on D-Day minus 1, the paratroopers were
“highly idealistic, gallant, and courageous to a fault. They will take
losses to do anything.” Overcoming the fear and danger of jumping out
of airplanes had transformed the men “in that it exacts out of partici-
pants peculiar qualities of courage.”37
Paratroopers imbibed Gavin’s military philosophy, because he
was not just offering the standard motivational talk of a football coach.
Gavin famously informed a junior officer: “Lieutenant, in this outfit you
will jump first and eat last.”38 During training, Gavin met with enlisted
men to inquire about their food, mail, and equipment, always urging
paratroopers to carry extra pairs of socks. He complained to his diary
when he discovered in England that his regimental commanders lived in
fine homes, whereas the enlisted men lived in tent camps. As he wrote, “I
don’t like the mud and rain any more than anyone else, but neither do
the troops. Someone is losing their sense of values, maybe their
perspective.”39 Officers in the 82nd Airborne, including Gavin, always
were the first out of the C-47s. Enlisted men jumped knowing that their
commander was already on the ground facing the peril that awaited
them. Tom Graham, an intelligence specialist, jumped from the same
plane as Gavin over Normandy. Once on the ground, Graham won-
dered if he could move with cramps in his legs induced by nervous
tension. Seeing Gavin moving inspired Graham to get on his feet.
Sergeant John McNally of the 508th Regiment elaborated on
Graham’s experience: “Imagine the terrific morale factor of the simple,
stark facts: the General jumps first! If there is a mistake in picking the
drop zone, the General is the first to pay the penalty.”40

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 27 / Paratrooper

Gavin further inspired paratroopers by engaging in combat.

Gavin shouldered an M1 Garand rifle. When he jumped into
Normandy, he carried 156 rounds of ammunition, four grenades,
a pistol, and a knife “in case I had to fight my way through enemy
territory, which once I did.”41 Paratroopers saw their general firing his
rifle at the enemy. He was acting like a lieutenant leading a platoon.
Stories are legion of paratroopers challenging someone approaching
their perimeter and becoming aghast when they realized they had
aimed at Gavin. The general, sometimes with an aide, conducted recon-
naissance on enemy positions. The general added to his legend by
introducing himself as “Jim Gavin” to the sentries. Two paratroopers

Figure 1.2 Paratroopers in the 82nd Airborne often saw Major General
James M. Gavin as he is presented here, walking alone, conducting
reconnaissance, and with a weapon in his hand. General Gavin was the
ultimate paratrooper. US Army Photograph.

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 28 / The Lost Paratroopers of Normandy

of the 505th Regiment shared the story of Gavin asking permission to

jump into their foxhole in Normandy to escape the rain. The general
offered a packet of coffee, which the men brewed. He also took his turn
on watch from the foxhole. In the postwar years, veterans unsurpris-
ingly toasted Gavin as the “best commander in the US Army,” the “most
respected” officer, and “our hero.” Gavin frequented reunions, and,
when he entered any room or hall, the old veterans would give him
a standing ovation.42
To be sure, negative, anti-social behavior emerged from the
aggressive nature of training. Paratroopers were brawlers and woman-
izers. Most paratroopers were young, single, looked great in their jump
boots, and had plenty of money to spend on European women. As one
historian noted, under Gavin “the 82nd had striven to be the best
dressed – or at least the ‘smartest’ unit on any battlefield or in any
barroom.”43 The upright General Ridgway once lamented to his trusted
aide, General Ralph “Doc” Eaton, “Doc, our people are getting mixed up
sexually with British women.” Eaton responded: “Right, Matt, we’re
probably the only two virgins left in the 82nd.”44 Memoirs by paratroop-
ers, like Bob Bearden and John Hinchliff, are filled with accounts of
brawls. Ridgway and Gavin agreed that, especially after their feats in
Normandy, paratroopers maintained that it was “their God-given right
to go around punching other soldiers in the nose.”45 None of this
troubled Gavin. In retirement, Gavin related that he told troopers if
they needed a blanket, “kill a German and take his.” If they wanted
a truck, “take a German truck.” Soon Gavin discovered that his men
were stealing trucks from US infantry divisions. Gavin rationalized that
“it was better to learn to tolerate a certain amount of misbehavior but
have guys who were really capable fighters and confident and proud.” If
his paratroopers tore up a town, Gavin would abjure judicial punishment
for the miscreants and take his men on a forced march in full-gear.46

Headquarters Company
The men who defended Graignes imbibed General Gavin’s
philosophy of being tough, confident, and proud. The paratroopers
who constituted Headquarters Company of the 3rd Battalion of the
507th Regiment had largely unremarkable backgrounds. As Gavin told
his daughter, paratroopers came “just from farm, home, school.”47 For
the most part, the paratroopers and their families had experienced the

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 29 / Paratrooper

hard times of the Great Depression of the 1930s. As was the case with
the orphaned Gavin, their education and their career goals had been
stymied by poverty and family tragedies. But, as demonstrated by their
test scores, they were highly intelligent young men who craved respect
and professional attainment. Becoming a paratrooper helped fulfill
those ambitions. An analysis of the pre-war lives of some of the officers
and enlisted men underscores the themes of their desire for standing and
success and their triumph over adversity.
Young men and women in the United States emerged from the
Great Depression with physical and mental disabilities. With German,
Italian, and Japanese aggression and conquest running rampant, the US
government began to bolster the country’s military readiness by estab-
lishing conscription with the Selective Training and Service Act of
16 September 1940. Local draft boards began conscripting men
between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-five for twelve months of
service. The age group would be subsequently expanded to between
eighteen and thirty-seven years, and uniformed personnel would be
required to serve for the duration of the war. The history of World
War II conscription revealed the deep traumas the nation had suffered in
the 1930s. As President Harry S. Truman pointed out, on
19 November 1945, in his message to Congress on the health status of
the nation, the draft had “forcibly” highlighted national health issues
“in terms of which all of us can understand.” Between 1940 and 1945,
five million men, 30 percent of the total examined, were rejected as unfit
for military service for physical and mental reasons. Prior to Pearl
Harbor, 52.8 percent of men examined were found to be unfit. Under
pressure to increase numbers, draft boards relaxed educational and
physical standards. A conscript would be judged eligible for military
service if he had as little as four years of grammar school. The key
physical deficiencies included poor feet, defective teeth and eyes, and
“musculo-skeletal” issues. Many problems could be traced back to
nutritional deficiencies such as a lack of calcium and protein. Public
health scientists, who examined draft records from World War I, found
that there had been a noticeable decline in the health of young men in the
United States.48 Eddie Page, a life-long resident of Stamford,
Connecticut, knew he would be rejected for military service because of
the quality of his teeth. He sought the aid of a local dentist,
Dr. Fodiman, pledging that he would pay the doctor for the dental
work when he returned from the war.49

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 30 / The Lost Paratroopers of Normandy

By definition, paratroopers had escaped some of the ravages of

the Great Depression. They had to be physically strong to endure the
rigors of jump school and General Gavin’s training exercises.
Nonetheless, the vast majority of the 143 men from the 82nd Airborne
who jumped near Graignes on D-Day had faced hard times in their early
civilian years. Captain Leroy David Brummitt was second in command
at Graignes. After the presumed death, on the night of 11–12 June, of
the commanding officer, Major Charles D. Johnston of Knoxville,
Tennessee, Brummitt assumed command of the defenders of Graignes
and organized their escape from the village. Dave Brummitt (1916–
2002) was born in Excelsior Springs, Missouri, a spa town known for
its therapeutic mineral springs. In postwar life, he declined to tell his
children much about his youth other than to suggest it was “a very
unhappy time.” His working-class father died when he was about eleven
years of age, and he was raised with care by his paternal grandmother,
Susan. Brummitt graduated from high school in 1934 and achieved
a couple years of college. Unlike most paratroopers, Brummitt did not
participate in organized sports. As a young man, he was passionate
about the dramatic arts, working in the theater industry. He earned
little money, and preached to his three children the values of thrift in the
postwar years.50
Dave Brummitt enlisted as a private in the Army in June 1941.
He was selected for officer training in April 1942. He had some college,
and he undoubtedly scored high on the standardized test. Most of the
thirteen officers from the 82nd and 101st at Graignes did not have
college degrees. Major Johnston, who graduated from the University
of Tennessee, was unusual in that respect. The army accepted for officer
training enlisted men like Lowell Maxwell, Frank Naughton, and Earcle
Reed, who had graduated from high school and had some college. The
three lieutenants helped defend Graignes. Even attaining that high
school degree could be a struggle. Brummitt’s close friend in the 3rd
Battalion, Lt. John W. Marr of Missouri, took six years to attain his
high-school diploma. Marr had to enter the coal mines to help his rural
family of nine children survive the Dust Bowl drought of the 1930s. The
determined Lt. Marr graduated from high school at the age of twenty.51
Upon being commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant, Brummitt volun-
teered for jump school and earned his parachute wings in August 1942.
He rose to the rank of Captain in the newly formed 507th Regiment and
became the 3rd Battalion’s S-3 Officer in charge of operational

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 31 / Paratrooper

planning. His family believed that their father joined the paratroopers
because he had a life-long desire to be the best and to associate with the
best. He also enjoyed being physically fit. In 1943, while training in
Alliance, Nebraska, he met his future wife, Mary O’Connor. Captain
Brummitt carried a photo of Mary in his wallet throughout the war.52
Captain Abraham “Bud” Sophian, Jr. (1915–1944), a medical
doctor and battalion surgeon, stood out among the paratroopers at
Graignes. He came from a privileged, upper-middle-class background.
Sophian’s parents were of Russian Jewish heritage. Sophian’s father
emigrated as a child with his parents from Kiev, Russia in 1890, fleeing
religious persecution. Abraham Sophian, Sr. entered Cornell Medical
College in New York City at the age of eighteen years and became a star
medical researcher. He authored an influential study on cerebral men-
ingitis. Dr. Sophian spent his career in Kansas City, practicing medicine
and continuing his medical research. He had the financial resources to
send Bud Sophian to boarding school – Phillips Academy in Andover,
Massachusetts. Both President George H. W. Bush and President
George W. Bush attended Phillips Academy. At the academy, Sophian
played golf and football, and earned a letter in varsity wrestling.
Sophian moved on to prestigious Stanford University and then Cornell
Medical. At Stanford, Sophian played on the golf team. He also associ-
ated with Hollywood celebrities, including the famous star Clark Gable.
Upon graduating from Cornell in June 1941, Sophian married Dorothy
Murphy Keck, a nurse and a Roman Catholic. The Sophian family tried
hard to assimilate into the dominant culture. Sophian’s sister attended
a private school sponsored by Roman Catholic nuns.
Dr. Sophian was inducted into the Army on 17 August 1942 as
a 1st Lieutenant. He had hoped to start his medical residency at Mt.
Sinai in Cleveland, Ohio. Instead, the Army assigned him to Camp
Barkley, near Abilene, Texas, for military medical training. In the
summer of 1943, Sophian volunteered for jump school. His biographers
noted that he was athletic and adventurous. He may have also found the
additional $100 a month in jump pay attractive. Dorothy Sophian had
become pregnant and gave birth in November 1943. Captain Sophian
never held his child. It was unusual for recruiters to accept a married
man with a pregnant wife for jump school. But the paratroopers needed
doctors.53 At Graignes, Dr. Sophian supervised seven other paratroop-
ers who had military medical training either with the 82nd or 101st
Divisions. An eighth paratrooper, Pvt. Robert W. Britton of New Jersey,

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 32 / The Lost Paratroopers of Normandy

who was a medic, died on the first day, 6 June. Of the nine men,
including Dr. Sophian, who had military medical training, only one
would survive Graignes.
Lt. Francis “Frank” Naughton (1918–2015), who came from
rural Illinois, not only survived Graignes but also became a career
military officer, retiring with the rank of colonel. Thereafter,
Naughton earned a law degree and served as a Magistrate Judge in
Gwinnett County, Georgia. Naughton’s career path was as remarkable
as that of General Gavin. At the age of two, he lost his mother, who
succumbed to tuberculosis. Two unmarried aunts raised Naughton and
his brother, Tom. His father lost their farm in the 1930s. Naughton,
who took up the sport of boxing, attended the University of Illinois for
a semester. He considered it “paradise.” He could not, however, sustain
his education because of a lack of money. Thereafter, he did the classic
1930s thing, hopping on a boxcar, “riding the rails,” seeing the country,
and fruitlessly searching for meaningful employment. He enlisted in the
Army as a private on 4 August 1941 and then volunteered for jump
school. He coveted the extra $50. That money doubled when, in 1942,
the Army selected the jump-qualified Naughton for officer training. He
received his bronze 2nd Lieutenant bars on 28 July 1942.54
Dave Brummitt, Frank Naughton, and Lt. Colonel Earcle “Pip”
Reed (1919–1998) were three officers at Graignes who devoted their
lives to the US military in the postwar period. Like General Gavin, they
had enlisted as privates and achieved high-ranking status. The Army
unsurprisingly kept on combat-experienced paratroopers who had
ambition, intelligence, and talent. But the relationship was symbiotic.
The young officers had wanted a university education. The Army sup-
ported Gavin with an appointment to West Point. In the postwar period,
the Army sent young officers to school. Naughton spent a year studying
at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Brummitt finished
his university education through the University of Maryland extension
services, attended the War College in Carlisle, and while there achieved
his M.A. degree in international relations under the auspices of George
Washington University. Officers who knew misfortune and hard times
and had started as privates perhaps had insight into the personal strug-
gles of enlisted personnel.
Empathy and understanding would be required of any officer
handling the irrepressible Sgt. John Joseph Hinchliff, the enlisted leader
of the machine-gun teams. By his own admission, Hinchliff repeatedly

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 33 / Paratrooper

lost and regained his sergeant’s stripes. He had a fondness for brawling
with men in uniform who had the misfortune not to be paratroopers.
Hinchliff (1921–2020) was born in Park Rapids, Minnesota, which is
near Lake Itasca, the source of the Mississippi River. His grandmother,
a devout Roman Catholic, raised Hinchliff. His mother had been
unmarried and, after giving birth, lived in Minneapolis and played
a minimal role in Hinchliff’s life. Hinchliff was subjected to bullying
by older children, who mocked his second-hand clothing and his pov-
erty. His grandmother found a solution that foreshadowed the lovable
Christmas movie The Bells of St. Mary (1945). She found prize-fighters
who could teach her grandson how to box, and he became a local hero
for taking down the town’s nasty boys. In the film, the good Sister Mary
Benedict (Ingrid Bergman) gave the bullied young “Eddie” lessons in the
art of self-defense she had gleaned from a book. Despite several near
brushes with death, including at Graignes, Hinchliff emerged from
World War II physically intact. He ascribed this to his habit of praying
constantly, as advised by his grandmother. Hinchliff has never men-
tioned whether his grandmother would have approved of his wartime
brawling.
Hinchliff enlisted in the Minnesota National Guard in 1937 at
the age of sixteen. He lied that he was seventeen, and his grandmother
signed the enlistment papers. He prized the $15 he received every three
months, and he liked training at the rifle range. The Minnesota National
Guard was federalized in February 1941, and Hinchliff and his unit
were shipped to California for coastal defense. In June 1942, he volun-
teered for jump school, figuring that the extra $50 combined with his
$52 in sergeant’s pay would amount to a princely sum. He knew he had
made the right decision when he arrived at Ft. Benning in July, noting
that “we were duly impressed with the personnel in the airborne troops
compared to what I had been used to.” On 1 January 1943, in a civil
ceremony in Georgia, he married Muriel, who was nineteen years of age
and from Minnesota. His commanding officers at Ft. Benning disap-
proved, not wanting their paratroopers to be married or have children.
Muriel Hinchliff, who in the postwar period served on the Minneapolis
City Council, immediately became pregnant. To please his grand-
mother, the couple repeated their marriage vows before a Catholic
priest near the training base in Alliance, Nebraska. Hinchliff had the
joy of holding his daughter for a couple of months before shipping out to
Europe.55 In the vocabulary of World War II, Hinchliff’s daughter was

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 34 / The Lost Paratroopers of Normandy

a “bye, bye, baby,” a means for those about to enter harm’s way to
preserve the genetic code.56
The inseparable Rene E. Rabe (1923–1982) and Homer Poss
(1925–2005) were key members of the two 81 mm mortar teams that
defended Graignes. As teenagers, both men enlisted in February 1943,
trained in Texas, graduated from jump school together, and then were
assigned to the 507th Regiment. Poss and Rabe joined the mortar
platoon, because they were strong, powerful young men who could
handle a mortar. Each of the three major components of an 81 mm
mortar weighed about 45 pounds. A mortar shell weighed approxi-
mately 7 pounds. Poss and Rabe fired their mortar shells at Graignes,
in Normandy, at the Battle of the Bulge, and in the Rhineland area. They
jumped from the same C-47 airplane into Normandy and over the Rhine
River. Only enemy fire could separate them. On 28 March 1945, four
days after jumping over the Rhine, Rabe’s face was splattered with shell
fragments from a German mortar round.57 It may have been part of the
same mortar round fragments of which lodged in Poss’s head, knocking
him unconscious. He woke up in a military hospital in Holland.
Like other men in the Headquarters Company, Rabe and Poss had
challenging early lives. Rabe’s parents, Emil J. Rabe from Hamburg,
Germany and Maria Jeanne Radoux from Liège, Belgium, emigrated to
the Canadian Prairies. Emil, who arrived in Canada in 1890 as a teenager,
worked for a time on his Uncle William’s homestead ranch in Manitoba
and in a lumber camp in northern Saskatchewan before acquiring account-
ing/bookkeeping skills. He became a Canadian citizen in 1895 so that he
could visit his parents in Hamburg and not be subjected to Germany’s
mandatory military conscription. In 1912, at the age of thirty-seven, he
married Maria Jeanne, who was eighteen years younger than Emil. They
had four children in Saskatchewan, with Rene being the youngest. The
family emigrated to the United States in 1924, and built a seemingly secure
lifestyle in Westchester County, New York. The family was weathering the
Great Depression. Dire poverty and family collapse ensued, however,
when Emil suddenly died in 1938. Maria had been a homemaker, and
had no work skills for the paid labor force. Rene, a young teenager,
thereafter drifted, failing to complete high school and working at jobs
without futures. His application to join the Navy was rejected because he
was not a US citizen. The Selective Service, however, drafted immigrants.
The $50 extra a month in jump pay was a powerful incentive, for he was
constantly worried about his mother’s financial status and sent money

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 35 / Paratrooper

home throughout the war.58 Becoming a paratrooper also restored the self-
purpose he had lost when his father died. He earned four promotions,
rising from private to staff sergeant and the enlisted leader of the mortar
platoon. The day after escaping from Graignes, he received a battlefield
promotion for his ability with his 81 mm mortar.59
Homer Poss grew up in Lebanon, Illinois, not far from St. Louis,
Missouri. He was the eldest of four boys who came in rapid succession.
Tragedy struck, when the youngest child, Gordon, stepped on a nail and
died in 1939 from the infection. Homer lived in a two-parent household,
but his parents, albeit loving, were not vocationally successful. Patriotism
infused the Poss brothers. Homer’s brother, Tom, served in the Marine
Corps in the South Pacific during the war and his other brother, Duane,
served in the Army during the Korean War. Homer left high school,
persuading his mother to sign his enlistment papers when he was seven-
teen. He was outraged by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He feared
that the war would be over before he could participate. As he explained in

Figure 1.3 This photograph of mortar men includes Arnold Martinez and Homer
Poss, who are kneeling. Standing behind are Rene Rabe (in a sweater) and Joseph
Ferguson (wearing a cap). It is May 1944 in England. Rene E. Rabe photograph.

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 36 / The Lost Paratroopers of Normandy

later life, “I wanted to get my licks in, too.” Poss was well-built, had an
athletic body, and looked sharp in his service uniform. The women of
Europe would take notice of Corporal Poss. Poss would return to the
United States with ambition and drive. He would eventually become city
manager and then mayor of Highland, Illinois. There are memorials in
Highland to his military and civilian service.60
Poss and Rabe were close to Eddie Page (1922–1998), the
paratrooper, along with Frank Naughton, most responsible for keeping
the memory of Graignes alive and the veterans of Headquarters
Company together. He hosted reunions of veterans at his Stamford
home and would be recognized in 1992 as the “507th Paratrooper of
the Year,” only the third paratrooper to receive the accolade. He was
fond of celebrating each day with the cry of “Airborne.” The Page
family fared well in the 1930s, until the father, Edward T. Page, Sr.,
an insurance salesman with Metropolitan Life, died while Eddie was in
high school. Young Edward promised his father he would take care of
his mother, and he did. Eddie, who did not play competitive sports,
dropped out of high-school. He volunteered for the paratroopers “for
the adventure and the money.” While at jump school in Georgia, he met
his future wife, Betty King, from Atlanta. He would write 198 letters to
her during the war. When he and Betty had the time and money to travel
to Europe in 1990, he told his wife: “I don’t care where we go, but I have
to go to Graignes.”61
The US military during World War II practiced racial segrega-
tion. There were no African-Americans in the 82nd Airborne. Generals
Ridgway and Gavin opposed racial discrimination, and acted immedi-
ately when clashes broke out in England in March 1944 between para-
troopers who had just arrived on the island and African-American troops
who had been stationed there. In the postwar period, Gavin would
facilitate the integration of the US armed forces.62 Black soldiers were
recruited to become paratroopers and formed the 555th Parachute
Infantry Battalion, nicknamed the “Triple Nickles.” The battalion did
not serve overseas but did give heroic service in the Pacific Northwest. In
the winter of 1944–1945, Japanese forces launched thousands of “bal-
loon bombs,” which contained incendiary devices, toward the US West
Coast. Some of the bombs started forest fires in California, Idaho, and
Oregon. The “Triple Nickles,” who were based in Pendleton, Oregon and
Chico, California, fought the fires, and, in some cases, parachuted into
burning areas.63 That the United States practiced segregation during

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 37 / Paratrooper

a war against racist Nazi Germany has led historians to question whether
Tom Brokaw’s “Greatest Generation” sobriquet is appropriate.
Hispanic/Latino men – Pvt. Jesus Casas (1924–1944), Pvt.
Carlos J. Hurtado (1924–2008), and Pvt. Arnold J. Martinez (1921–
1944) – were proud paratroopers in Headquarters Company. Their
enlistment records classified them as “white,” which was a racist way
of saying they were not African-American. Whatever their phenotype
or skin color, Casas, Hurtado, and Martinez, like other paratroopers,
knew hard times. Casas, a medic who jumped with Captain Sophian,
grew up in the Los Angeles region of California. His parents were born
in Mexico. The entire family labored in California’s agricultural fields.
He did not attend high school. Like other medical personnel, Pvt.
Casas died at Graignes. Hurtado was born in Texas, but his family
moved to Los Angeles. When he enlisted, Hurtado was working in the
kitchen of a hotel or restaurant. He had finished one year of high
school. Hurtado, who enjoyed a long life, was a popular member of
the company who attended reunions and returned to Graignes. He was
one of the paratroopers that hid in the Rigault family barn. Veterans
merrily told stories of Pvt. Hurtado’s penchant for landing in trees
with his parachute.64
Pvt. Arnold Martinez came from a remarkable extended family
that first emigrated from Spain to Florida and then homesteaded in
Colorado. Arnold was one of the eldest in a family of twelve children.
As part of family tradition, Martinez men joined the US military.
Arnold’s younger brothers, Gilbert and Jim, served in Korea, and Elias
served in the Coast Guard and was assigned to guard the waters off
Hyannis Port when President John F. Kennedy vacationed there. During
World War II, six of Arnold’s cousins were fighting on various fronts.
Arnold enlisted three weeks after Pearl Harbor. In December 1941, he
lived in Denver, where he had moved because he did not like rural life.
He became a mortar man with Headquarters Company. Though short
in stature compared with veritable giants in the mortar teams, like
Arthur “Rip” Granlund and William P. “Willie” Coates, Martinez
had a strong frame. He jumped into Normandy from the same C-47
with his buddies, Homer Poss and Rene Rabe. Martinez did not survive
Graignes. His remains rest in the American Cemetery in Normandy,
near Omaha Beach. One of Arnold’s cousins, Pfc. Ernest “Chili”
Martinez, died later in 1944 during the Italian campaign and rests in
the American Cemetery in Florence.65

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 38 / The Lost Paratroopers of Normandy

Native Americans also fought at Graignes. S/Sgt. Stephen

E. Liberty, who was born in 1916, came from Sanders County in
northwestern Montana and was listed as a “Native American” on his
enlistment card. He had a grammar school education and had worked in
Montana’s mines. Liberty, a mortar man, survived Normandy, the
Battle of the Bulge, the jump over the Rhine River, and the subsequent
fighting in Germany. After the war, Liberty worked again in the mining
industry near Butte, Montana. Lt. Irwin J. Morales was another Native
American who arrived in Graignes. Morales steered, along with his co-
pilot Thomas Ahmad, a glider plane with the 101st Airborne Division
on D-Day. His glider plopped into a swamp seven miles south of
Carentan and twelve miles from the intended landing zone. The glider
carried a jeep and two additional soldiers of the 101st. Morales, Ahmad,
and two enlisted men made their way to Graignes. In postwar life,
Morales attended college, sampled several occupations, and eventually
settled on nine acres of land on an Indian reservation in Arizona.66
Patterns can be discerned in the early histories of the defenders
of Graignes. The Headquarters Company did its part in upholding the
82nd Airborne Division as “All American.” Company members came
from all regions, with the populous industrial states of the Northeast –
New York, Pennsylvania, and Illinois – and California contributing the
most paratroopers. Except for Captain Sophian, the paratroopers and
their parents had struggled in the 1930s. Financial hardship and stunted
educational growth characterized life in the United States. Only
a handful of enlisted personnel had completed high school, and many
had attended only grammar school. A significant number of men in
Headquarters Company had also lost parents during their formative
years. Pvt. Marion Hatton, Jr. of the Appalachian region of Kentucky,
one of the most impoverished areas of the United States, readily fit into
those categories of privation. Hatton, who became a mortar man,
finished 8th grade. His widowed mother finished 2nd grade. Hatton’s
older sister was a waitress. Prior to enlisting, Hatton worked as an
unskilled laborer on a road construction project financed by the federal
government. How such experiences helped formulate decisions to vol-
unteer for jump school cannot be precisely determined. Most men
admitted that they coveted the extra $50 a month. Perhaps also they
were searching for something bigger in their lives. Frank Naughton’s
time “riding the rails” might serve as symbol of that quest. What is
certain is that the paratroopers were by definition healthy, innately

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 39 / Paratrooper

intelligent, and generally aware they had embarked on a perilous jour-

ney. The nonagenarian John Hinchliff jocularly responded to a question
of whether recruiters hinted that paratrooper duty was dangerous:
“Well, they did mention we have to jump out of airplanes.”67
Basic training and jump school had not fully prepared the
paratroopers of Headquarters Company for the jump into Normandy.
Hard, James Gavin-style training awaited them in Nebraska, Northern
Ireland, and England. They also had to endure a slow, sickening, and
uncertain voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. The training would equip
them with the skill and fortitude to carry out their mission of liberation
for the people of Western Europe. Life in Northern Ireland and England
would also foreshadow their bonding with the villagers of Graignes.

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color of his hair, that won't enlist in the interest of his home, his
wife, his children and everything that is sacred and good, to drive
out lopeared Dutch, a certain class of Hessians, from our land." He
urged them to come forward and place their names upon the rolls.
Nearly all the preachers present placed their names on the recruiting
list first.
The excitement grew still more bitter. In the afternoon they began to
threaten openly that the stars and stripes should be hauled down;
that no flag should be allowed to float in West Plains that
countenances and tolerates heathen in our land. The Union men
declared that the stars and stripes should not be lowered unless it
was done over their dead bodies. Quite a number of Union men had
assembled under the flag. The Union men were led by a man named
Captain Lyle. He had been warned and cautioned by his friends not
to open his mouth, for the reason that he would be shot full of
holes. Late in the evening there was a lull in the speaking. The
author walked up into the speaker's stand, called the attention of the
people, saw a number of rifles grasped in their hands, and
announced to them that they had been sitting all day listening to
Confederate speeches, but on the next Saturday, if they would meet
him at Black's store, about ten miles west of West Plains, they could
hear Union speeches and the constitution of the United States would
be read; thanked the crowd and stepped down. Quite a number of
guns were raised in the hands of parties and a shower of groans and
hisses, and remarks openly from a number that "We ought to shoot
his black heart out now."
It appeared for a while that it would be impossible to evade a
conflict of arms. A number of orders being sent to the Union men to
draw down their flag or they would fire on it and the men who
supported it, an answer was returned that the rebels were requested
to draw down their flag as it was a stranger in the land and unless
they lowered their flag the stars and stripes wouldn't be lowered an
inch, unless it was done over their dead bodies. At last a proposition
came that they would agree for the sake of averting bloodshed to
commence lowering both flags at the same time which proposition
was accepted; so wound up that day's proceedings.
On the Saturday following, the author, with several other Union
speakers, met at Black's store where there were several rebel
captains and lieutenants. The author made a speech in favor of
remaining in the Union and stated that the attempt to secede by
some of the states would eventually result in sad disaster, besides
bringing untold suffering upon the people. Several other Union
speeches were made after which the author read the constitution of
the United States and urged that all lovers of republican form of
government would comply with the demand of the supreme law of
the land and, if necessary, sacrifice property and life in defence of
the same; so ended that day's proceedings.

McBride Establishes Military Law.

As the organization of the confederates proceeded they still grew
more bitter against the Union men and declared, by meeting and
passing resolutions, that every Union man should show his colors in
favor of the South or be hung as high as Hamen. In the meantime
the Union men had secretly organized and met together, to take into
consideration as to the time when they should act.
The prevailing sentiment was, that they should remain dormant and
let the rebels shed the first blood, while the minority thought the
time had come for action, and that they ought to act before the
rebels crippled them and tied them up in such a manner that, when
the time did come, they would be entirely helpless and at their
mercy.
McBride, who had been elected judge of the 18th Judicial circuit,
which included Howell county, whose home was in Texas county,
was made Brigadier General of the Confederate forces and
commenced organizing and massing his troops. On the arrival of the
federal troops at Rolla, Missouri, he became fearful that they would
attack him, rout him and destroy his forces, so he concluded to
march south to West Plains and make his headquarters at that place
until he could organize his forces and prepare for marching west,
where he intended to join the forces of Gen. Sterling Price and Gen.
McCullough who then were massing their forces to march on
Springfield, Missouri, to attack the federal forces who were then
stationed at Springfield under the command of Gen. Lyon and Gen.
Seigle. On his arrival at West Plains he opened up headquarters,
issued his proclamation that all Union men or any men that were
unfriendly to the Confederate cause should come in and take the
oath and the civil law was declared to be suspended and the military
law completely in force.
Then was when the dark day and trouble began to hang over the
Union people. As soon as it was known that the civil law was
suspended little bunches of rebels organized all over the country and
also in the state of Arkansas. In a short time after Gen. McBride's
arrival in West Plains a man who was a door neighbor to the author
came into his field where he was cutting wheat, asked him if he had
seen the order of McBride. My answer was "No." He remarked,
"Well, he has made a general order, requiring all Union men,
especially those who have been open and active in behalf of the
Union, to come in and take the oath, and unless they do they are
going to hang them as high as Hamen." The author replied to him
that he was a Union man and he knew it; he had been open and
outspoken for the Union and had voted for McBride when he was
elected Judge, but now he thought he was acting outside of the law
and humanity.
I had neither violated the law of my land nor harmed any man and I
didn't consider that McBride had any right to order me to take an
oath to take up arms against my country or support those who had
taken up arms. If this did become a general war, I thought they
were making a blunder, for the Government, or the lopeared Dutch,
as they termed them, would have the advantage in the way of
transporting forage and commissaries and amunitions of war, while
the Confederates would have to rely mostly for their resources upon
the county; that I was a peace officer and while I was a strong
Union man wasn't taking up arms and I thought that those who
wanted to fight, if there had to be a fight, should go out into the
open fields, and not force the war onto non-combatants, and that
the country would suffer enough at best. Now you know I am a
Union man, and I know that you are in favor of the Confederate
cause, and I think this is the course that ought to be pursued at the
present time. The Confederates are in control of the country, and
they will come around and say they must have forage for the
support of the army, and ask you if you know of any Union men; you
could tell them, "My neighbor right here is a Union man, but he is
not disposed to take up arms and go into the fight; take as little
from him as you can possibly do with, and as little from myself; in
return, if this war goes on, and the Federal authorities extend their
jurisdiction, they would be out hunting rebels for the purpose of
getting forage and commissaries, and I could say to them that my
neighbor here is a rebel but take just as little as possible from him,
and as little as possible from me, as we are going to have a hard
time to get through the war any way. But if you pursue the policy
you say has been adopted by the Confederates, you will force all
non-combatants into arms or drive them from the country and
completely depopulate it." He burst into a big laugh and remarked,
"Your promises are like a broken stick, you will never see the
lopeared Dutch in this country." I said to him, "My friend, if this war
goes on, before the end of it you will see what you call lopeared
Dutch as thick as blackbirds;" and we separated.

General Lyons Drives Rebels from Rolla.

About June 10, 1851, the rebels were having a big meeting at Rolla,
Phelps county, Missouri, for the purpose of recruiting. General Lyons
at St. Louis, learned of the meeting, and at once placed quite a force
in the cars, well armed and closed them up so they would not be
detected and started for Rolla with the intention of capturing the
whole outfit.
On the day set for the rebel meeting, quite a number of them had
assembled and a certain young lawyer was delivering an address,
telling them that one southern man could whip five lopeared Dutch
and all they wanted was just an opportunity; in the meantime Lyon's
forces had reached Dillon, the next station east of Rolla about five
miles distant. There the forces were taken from the cars and divided,
some marching southwest and the others northwest, making a flank
movement for the purpose of surrounding the whole place. While
they were marching some person, who was a rebel, went with all the
speed possible and informed the meeting that the Dutch were right
upon them; that the woods were full of them and to get out of there
as quick as possible, if they wanted to save their lives.
The lawyer who was addressing them sprang from the speakers
stand and holloing at the top of his voice as he went, "Get away
from here, the Dutch are upon us." It was said that the lawyer ran
so fast that if a glass of water had been sat upon his coat tail it
would not have spilled. They scattered to the woods in all directions.
The Federal force came in; but their birds had all flown and left the
citizens who had remained to tell the sad tale.
The rebel forces at once retreated to Salem, Missouri, where they
again concentrated their force. The Federal scout, in a few days
followed them to Salem, and there again routed them and they
retreated directly to West Plains, joining the command of McBride at
that place. The rebels, hurriedly, concentrated their forces from all
the south and southeastern counties of Missouri and from the
northern counties of Arkansas.
General McBride made an order to gather all the arms, amunitions,
and horses that were fit for the service, as speedily as possible and
the report was put in circulation that he had given the county over
to the leading rebels, who resided in it, whose action, whatever they
did touching the Union men, would be indorsed and carried out by
General McBride. The leading rebels of the county at once sent out
word that they were going to take all the arms, amunition and
available horses from the Union men and that McBride required each
and every one of them to report and take the oath at once, and if
they failed to comply with said order, speedy action would be taken
against them.
They would either be arrested, imprisoned or forced into the
Confederate army to fight and their leaders would be hung.
On the issuing of the said order the wildest excitement prevailed
among the Union men. They immediately met for the purpose of
consultation as to what their final action would be. There were
divers opinions among them; some of them were for acting at once;
others (and a majority of them) were in favor of waiting until the
rebels shed the first blood. Those who refused to report and take
the oath had to place themselves in hiding at once. The rebels made
a general move to raid, harass and capture the Union men. Then
real danger confronted a man who claimed to be a Union man. The
rebels had made a general amnesty, upon the condition that they
would join the Confederate army and become loyal to the
Confederate States. About two-thirds of the men who had been
open and avowed Union men saw the danger that confronted them,
and joined the Confederate army and claimed that they would be
loyal to its cause. The remainder of the Union men were disarmed at
once, except those who kept themselves concealed in the mountains
and hills.
After they had completely disarmed them and forced many of them
to join the Confederate service, had taken most of their horses,
cattle and hogs for the use of the army, the leading rebels in the
county claimed that they had organized for the purpose of ridding
the country of all Union men who had refused to join the
Confederate forces; that when McBride moved west he was going to
leave the whole matter in their hands, and they intended to string
up the Union men to limbs and shoot them, so they would soon be
rid of the class of men who were friends of the lopeared Dutch and
were nigger lovers.

The Testing of Loyal Hearts.

Small bunches of rebel troops came in from Arkansas and joined the
bands that were raiding the country, and the Union men were
hunted like wild beasts. Then set in the darkest day that ever any
class of patriots, true to their government, had to confront.
The author remembers well when the Union men would meet
together, that they took the proposition made by McBride into
consideration, and it was discussed pro and con. Some men would
say, "While I am a Union man and for the government, all that I
have in the world is here in Howell county; my little home, my
property and, above all, my wife and children. They have promised
us protection provided we will join the rebel army. Had we not better
accept the proposition and wait for results?" Others would arise,
with tears dripping from their eyes, and remark that this state of
affairs is hard indeed. "Can I afford to abandon my wife and children
that I love so well and leave them unprotected in the midst of an
open state of war, at the mercy of a mad and distracted people, who
are thirsting for the loyal blood of the nation, and be alienated from
them, perhaps, never more to see them?" Others would arise and
remark that "We have seen this danger coming for months and we
are satisfied that the worst has not come, and I know that I love my
wife, my family, my little children, as I love my own heart; I love to
meet them around my fireside and enjoy their sweet company, and I
have delighted in laboring to furnish them food and raiment and
shelter while they were growing into manhood and womanhood, but
I have read and heard read that my highest duty was to God and my
second duty was to my country; and the organic law of the nation
requires at my hands that whenever it becomes necessary to
preserve my government, that I owe to it my life, my honor and the
welfare of my family; and the trying ordeal is now at hand and I
don't know what the final result will be—if I am forced away from
my family, I know they will be left at the mercy of an intolerant and
unrelenting enemy, but I now and here lay my life, my family, my
property and my future happiness upon the altar of my country, and
let come what will, weal or woe, I intend, with all my feeble effort,
to defend the stars and stripes, and stand up openly and
courageously in defense of and for the preservation of the Union."
That proposition prevailed and was unanimously adopted by the
Union men.
At this time there was no government aid in reach of these loyal
hearts, that were controlled by nothing but love of country. Uncle
Sam could do nothing for them. They were completely surrounded in
an enemy's country, and while they (the men), with what arms they
had preserved, could by strategy evade the arrest and slaughter of
themselves, their families were completely at the mercy of a mad
and howling mob, thirsting for the blood of Union men.
While the loyal men in the North were enlisting in the interest of
their country, Uncle Sam paid them $13.00 per month, clothed them,
and their families were left in the care of friends; they knew nothing
about the war, except what they read; but not so with the Union
men who were surrounded in an enemy's country. They, without a
single word of protection or comfort from the government for
themselves or their families, but their love and devotion to their
country led them to furnish themselves, to leave their families as
best they could, at the mercy of a howling mob, for the defense of
their country.

Rebels Defeated in Douglas County.

The loyal men in Douglas county and the north part of the county of
Ozark were in the ascendency. A rebel force organized from the
county of Howell, Missouri, and Fulton county, Arkansas, wanting to
have some fun hunting Union men, learned that on Bryant's Fork on
the north fork of White river in Ozark county there was a bunch of
Union men. So they armed and equipped themselves, furnished
themselves ropes, and marched to hunt the place these men were
said to be. The Union men hearing of their intention hurriedly
prepared a temporary barricade around the house, and about sixty
of them gathered together with their squirrel rifles in readiness to
repel the attack in case it was made. The rebel scout consisted of
two hundred and fifty men.
Early in the morning reliable information reached the Union men that
the rebel forces were well under way and would reach them some
time in the afternoon. One of the Union men, who had always borne
the reputation of being a brave man and would fight anything,
became impatient as the time drew near that they were to be
attacked. He had been a great hunter and was considered a first-
class shot, and he remarked to the Union men, "I can't wait for the
rebels to attack us, I want to get a shot at one so bad with Old
Betsy (his gun). I know of a bald knob, about a quarter of a mile
from here, where the rebel force is bound to pass. I am going there;
place yourselves in waiting, and when you hear 'Old Betsey' belch,
you may know there is one dead rebel, and be certain that they are
coming." In about an hour after the man referred to had left, the
rebel advance came in sight, but they never heard "Old Betsy" belch.
They vigorously attacked the Union men inside their fortifications,
and after fighting for about an hour, they retreated, leaving one man
dead upon the field and one wounded. The Union men received no
injury whatever. They became very uneasy in regard to their friend
and "Old Betsy," supposing he had fallen into the hands of the
enemy and they had used the rope on him. Search was made all
along the line of march of the rebels for the missing man, but no
information could be learned of his whereabouts. However, in about
one week, news came from Douglas county that their friend and
"Old Betsy" arrived safely at another rendezvous of Union men in
Douglas county, about forty miles distant, and reported that the
Union men had had a fight with the rebels, and they were all
captured or killed, with the exception of himself, and he had made
his escape after the fight.
Just before McBride broke camps to march west to join Gen. Price
and Gen. McCullough, he made a general order that they arrest and
seize every Union man possible, and after he left the country, that
the committee who had been organized to take charge of the
county, would at once exterminate every Union man who had failed
to take the oath or to join the Confederate army, giving them full
power as to what disposition they would make of them.

Rebels Capture Col. Monks.

On the 7th of July, 1861, one of my neighbors came to me and
informed me that the time had come that every Union man had to
show his colors and unless they reported and took the oath or joined
the Confederate army, they would hang as high as Haman. While the
Union men were on their guard and watching their movements, once
in a while they would slip in home to see how the family was getting
along. My family at that time consisted of a wife and four children,
three girls and one boy. My wife had never been accustomed to
staying alone and I came in home late on the evening of the 7th,
thinking that I would leave the next morning before daylight.
Sometime after the family had retired, not far from 11 o'clock in the
night, I was awakened by a rapping on the door. My wife, suspecting
who the parties were, answered them, and demanded to know what
was wanted; one of them, who claimed to be an orderly sergeant,
remarked that he wanted to know if Monks was at home. She replied
that he was not. A man by the name of William Biffle, whom the
author had been acquainted with for years, replied, "He is here, I
know, for I coursed him into this house late yesterday evening." The
author at once arose to his feet and remarked, "I am here, what is
wanted?" A man by the name of Garrett Weaver, who claimed to be
an orderly sergeant and in charge of the squad, also a neighbor to
the author said, "I have been ordered by Gen. McBride to arrest you,
bring you in and make you take the oath." I owned at that time a
first-class rifle and there was also another rifle gun in the house. I
took my gun into my hands and my wife took hold of the other gun.
I told them that a general order had gone forth, so I was informed,
that they wanted to hang all the leading Union men and "if that is
your intention I will die before I surrender." Weaver replied they
were not going to hang me, but they were just going to take me to
McBride to take the oath and I should be protected. Upon those
terms I agreed to surrender, made a light in the house and found
that the house was surrounded by a posse of twenty-five rebels. As
soon as the light was made, a part of them rushed into the house,
took my gun and jerked the one my wife had in her hand out of her
possession, almost throwing her to the floor, began a general search
of the house for other arms and such things as they said the army
needed.
As soon as I dressed, they ordered me to move. They didn't even
give me time to say good-bye to my wife, nor to imprint a kiss upon
the cheeks of my loving children. Closely surrounding me, they
marched me about 250 yards, came to their horses, where two more
of their posse guarded the horses, they having dismounted, to
approach the house on foot so they might not be heard.

COL. MONKS ARRESTED AND TAKEN FROM HOME

"Billy, You Ought Not to be So Saucy."

When within a few feet of the horses the author was halted. It was
just starlight. I noticed a man by the name of Wilburn Baker, a man
with whom the author had been acquainted from a boy, go to the
horn of one of the saddles, lift therefrom a coiled rope and move
toward the author. The author quickly arrived at the conclusion that
the time had come to enforce the order of hanging. Baker ordered
the author seized by the arms, drew them behind him and securely
tied him. The author asked, just as they had completed the tying,
"What do you mean? Are you going to cage me?" Baker replied,
"Billy, you ought not to be so saucy, for you don't know the danger
you are in." I was at once ordered placed on a horse. One of the
posse rode up to my side and placed the other end of the rope
around his body and the posse moved west. A short time before
daylight they arrived at the house of William Nicks, who was a rebel
lieutenant. They dismounted and took the author into the house.
There appeared to be a general rejoicing among them. Nicks said,
"You have got him, have you? We had become uneasy about you,
and thought it might have been possible that he had his Union
forces around him and that you had met with disaster; but I feel
satisfied that we have now captured the leader and the counselor of
the Union forces and the remainder will be easily extinguished."
Gen. McBride in the meantime, being uneasy for fear the Federal
troops would attack him, had removed his forces from West Plains to
the south part of Howell county, camping at what was known as the
Flag pond.
I was closely guarded until daylight. McBride's forces had broken
camp at the Flag pond on the morning of July 8th and were
marching west with the intention of joining the forces of Gen. Price
and Gen. McCullough, who were then moving in the direction of
Springfield, Missouri, with the intention of attacking the Federal
forces at that place, commanded by Gen. Lyon and Gen. Siegel. Very
early on the morning of the 8th the party started in a southwest
direction, with the author closely guarded. On coming near the head
of Bennett's river, Fulton county, Arkansas, the posse commenced
cheering and remarked: "Listen! Do you hear the drums and the
fife? That is Gen. McBride's command moving west to kill them
lopeared Dutch that you Union men have brought into the state of
Missouri. Do you know what we are going to do with such men as
you are? Those of you that we don't hang, the first fight that we get
into with the lopeared Dutch, we will make breastworks out of to
keep the bullets off of good men."
About one mile further we came in sight of the moving column. We
rode along the line, when there was general cheering until we
reached a company that was organized in Oregon county and
commanded by Capt. Simpson. Simpson said, "Why have you
brought a Union man in here alive! If my company had possession of
him, he could not live ten minutes."
We soon reached a company commanded by Capt. Forshee which
was organized in this county to whom the whole posse that made
the arrest, belonged. The author was well acquainted with all of
them and over half of them resided in the same settlement and were
his neighbors. On reaching the company Captain Forshee walked out
of the line and remarked to them "Why have you brought him in
here alive?" Some of the posse remarked, that he had been a
neighbor and they had all been friends up to the war and they hated
to kill him. Forshee said "When I saw him at West Plains at the
speaking when he got up and contended that there was a union and
the government ought to be preserved, I wanted to shoot his black
heart out of him and I feel the same way yet."
The author was kept in close confinement and on the night of the
8th the command went into camp near what is known as the old
Steve Thompson farm. The author, with several other prisoners, was
placed in the guard house and orders were given that he be closely
guarded.
After they had taken their suppers, men that the author had been
acquainted with from his boyhood, and men who had been
acquainted with his relatives, came to the guard house in
considerable numbers and remarked, "Hello, Monks?" "I never
expected to see you under arrest." "What have you been doing that
they have arrested you? I thought you was a good Democrat." "Have
you left your party." "The Democratic party is in favor of the South."
The author replied to them that when they thought he was a good
Democrat they were right. But that he was not a slave to party and
that he held country higher than party and if Democracy meant
secession and nullification, that was one part of the principals of
Democracy that he had never learned; that true Democracy, as
understood by the author, taught every man that in case his country
was invaded either externally or internally that he owed his honor
and property in the support of it and for those reasons he was for
the preservation of the Union at all hazards. Some remarked that
"We ought to hang him right now without waiting any longer" Others
remarked that "We have been acquainted with his people both on
his mother's and father's side and they were all southern people and
Democrats and they are all of them, almost, in favor of the South. It
is strange indeed to see the course that he has taken." The author
remarked that "There were always some shabby sheep in a flock and
I suppose from your reasoning that I am one of them." They all
retired, the officers giving orders that the most vigilant watch be
kept over the prisoner. After he had retired a gentleman by the
name of Joseph Teverbaugh who resided in Ozark county, a
merchant and the owner of about twenty negroes, who had been
well acquainted with the author from his boyhood, brought up the
conversation as to what disposition they thought ought to be made
of the author. The author could easily hear all the conversation
inside of the guard line. Many opinions were expressed. Quite a
number said, "Hang him outright." That was the only way to get
shut of the Union men, to make short work of it, and forever rid the
country of that element.
Others said that appeared to be too harsh, that they were in favor of
taking him to Little Rock and confining him in the penitentiary until
the war was over, for it wouldn't take but a short time to rid the
country of the lopeared Dutch and those who were friends to them.
Others remarked that "that would be too easy for a man who was in
favor of the lopeared Dutch; that we are in favor of taking all like
him right into the army and making them fight and if they won't
fight, the first engagement we get into, pile them up and make
breastworks out of them, so that they will catch bullets off of good
men." At this juncture Teverbaugh remarked, "I have been
acquainted with Billy from a boy and you never can force him to
fight against what he believes to be right, that he was a good boy
and since he has grown up to be a man he has been an honorable
and straightforward man and quite an active man politically and my
advice would be to confine him in the State Penitentiary until the
war is over, for I tell you now if he ever gains his liberty you are
going to have him to fight."

Sold as a Beef Cow.

On the morning of the 9th they broke camp and marched near the
mouth of Bennett's river and went into camp at what was then
known as Talbert's mill. A short time after we had been in camp
Capt. Forshee, who had charge of the prisoners, came to the guard
house and the author requested him that he be allowed to take the
oath and return home, as his wife and children were almost scared
to death owing to the reports that were currently circulated all
through the country, his wife would believe they had hung him. The
captain replied that they were not going to allow him to take the
oath. They had plenty of proof against him, that he had been
communicating to the lopeared Dutch and as soon as they had
formed a junction with Price and McCullough he would be tried as a
spy. He gave orders to the guard to see that he was kept in close
confinement, and about 11 o'clock in the night as near as the author
can guess, it being starlight, the Captain came down to the guard
house in company with one of his men, Frank Morrison.
The author was lying on the ground pretending to be asleep. The
Captain came inside of the guard, called out, "Monks, are you
asleep?" The author raised up in a sitting position and said, "Captain
what is wanted"? The Captain remarked, "I want you to go up to my
camp fire," which was about 75 yards distance from the guard
house. The author said, "Captain, this is a strange time of night to
come down and order me to your camp fire." He said; "Not another
word out of you, rise to your feet." He ordered Morrison to step
behind him with the same gun that he had recently taken from the
author and cock it and "if he makes a crooked step from here up to
the camp fire shoot him through." The author heard Morrison cock
the gun and about half way between the guard house and the camp
fire the Captain remarked to the author, "Do you know Kasinger?"
The author, suspecting that he was going to be delivered to a mob,
said "I know him very well; we have grown up together from boys."
The Captain said, "I thought he was a mighty nice man. I have sold
you to him for a beef cow." The author remarked there was but one
thing he was sorry for; that if he had known he was going to be
delivered to a mob he never would have surrendered and had some
satisfaction for his life. The Captain said, "I thought I was doing
mighty well to sell a black Republican or a Union man for a beef cow
where we have as many good men to feed, as we have here."
His camp fire was under a gum tree with a large top. The fires had
all died down, it being in July and nothing but the stars were giving
the light. On coming within two or three feet of the tree the Captain
ordered the author to halt. He and Morrison walked about ten paces
and said, "I have brought you up here to liberate you. We have got
plenty of good men here to feed without feeding men who are
friends to the lopeared Dutch." The author replied to the Captain,
"you may think you are dealing with a fool. I have neither violated
the civil nor military law; have demanded a trial and you refuse to
give it to me. You can't bring me up here at this time of night and
pretend to turn me loose for the purpose of escaping the
responsibility of an officer and deliver me into the hands of a mob."

The Confederate Army or Hell.

The author was satisfied that he could then see a bunch of men
standing in readiness. The Captain replied, "Sit down or you will be
shot in half a minute." The author sat down and leaned against the
tree. He had on strong summer clothing, wearing an alpaca vest and
coat. In an instant, about twenty-five men, led by Kasinger, and a
man by the name of William Sap, approached the author; Kasinger,
holding a rope in his hand with a noose in it, walked up to the
author, held the noose of the rope above his head and said, "Monks,
you have half a minute to say you will join the army and fight, or go
to hell, just which you please." The author replied that it was said
that "hell was a hot place," but he had never been there, and that
he had always been counted a truthful man until he had been
arrested, and since his arrest he had been asked divers questions of
the whereabouts of the lopeared Dutch, and that he had told them
in every instance he knew nothing of them and had been cursed for
a liar. "If I was to say that I would join the army and fight, I might
have a cowardly set of legs and they might carry me away; and in
the next place, I am a Union man, first, last and all the time. I
suppose your intention is to hang me, and there is only one thing I
am sorry for, and that is that I ever surrendered; but there is one
consolation left, when you kill me you won't kill them all, and you
will meet plenty of them that won't be disarmed as I am now."
Kasinger replied, "No damn foolishness, we mean business," and
made an attempt to drop the noose over my head, which was
warded off with my arms.
At this juncture the author appealed to the Captain for protection
from the mob, saying that he was a prisoner, unarmed and helpless,
and if he suffered him to be murdered by a mob his blood would be
upon the Captain's head. No reply being made by the Captain, all of
the parties being considerably under the influence of whiskey, Sap
raised his left hand, pushed Kasinger back and remarked, "I have
been shooting and wounding some of these black Republicans who
are friends of the lopeared Dutch, but I intend to shoot the balance
of them dead." At the same time he drew a pistol from his right-
hand pocket, cocked it, stooped over, ran his fingers under the
author's clothing, gave them a twist and commenced punching him
around the chest with the muzzle of the revolver, and after, as the
author thought, he had punched him some fifty or sixty times with
the revolver, the author said to him, "William Sap, there is no
question but that your intentions are to kill me, and you want to
torture me to death. You know that if I was armed and on equal
footing with you, you would not do this." He made a quick jerk with
his left hand, intending to jerk the author upon his face, remarking
to the Captain at the same time, "Captain, you promised him to us
and we are going to take him." The author, with all force possible,
leant against the tree, Sap's hold broke loose, tearing off all the
buttons that were on the vest and coat.

A NARROW ESCAPE FOR COL. MONKS.

The author again appealed to the Captain for protection from the
mob. The Captain then remarked to Sap, "Hold on for a moment, I
will take a vote of my company as to whether we will hang him or
not." The company at that time was lying on the ground, most of
them apparently asleep. The Captain called out aloud to his
company, "Gentlemen, I am going now to take a vote of my
company as to whether we will hang Monks or not. All in favor of it
vote, aye; all opposed, no." He then took the affirmative vote and
the negative vote. They appeared, to the author, to be almost evenly
divided. Sap again remarked to the Captain "You promised him to
us, we have bought him and paid for him and he is ours."
The author again appealed to the Captain for protection. The
Captain replied to Sap, "He claims protection and as I am an officer
and he a prisoner I reckon we had better keep him until we reach
McCullough and Price and then we will try him for a spy and there is
plenty of evidence against him to prove that he has been writing to
the lopeared Dutch and after he is convicted will turn him over and
you men can take charge of him." At this juncture a brother in-law
of the Captain said, "Captain, I have one request to make of you. I
want you to take Monks in the morning and tie him hard and fast,
with his face to a tree, and let me shoot with a rest sixty yards and
show you how I can spoil a black Republican's pate." The Captain
replied, "As soon as he is convicted you can have the gratification of
shooting him just as often as you please."
The Captain and Morrison again took charge of the author, carried
him back and delivered him to the guard with instructions to the
guard to be diligent in keeping him closely confined so that he would
have no possible chance of escape. On the morning of the 10th we
broke camp and went into camp that night just beyond where
Mountain Home now stands. Dr. Emmons, of West Plains, who was a
strong Union man and who afterwards became captain in the 6th
Missouri Cavalry, attempted to go through to the Federal forces but
was pursued by the rebels, captured somewhere in Texas county
and brought back to the camp. He was also a prisoner at the same
time; but being a master mason, was paroled to the limits of the
camp and on the night of the 10th made his escape and got through
to the Federal lines, enlisted and was made captain. Of him we will
speak later.

In Camp at Yellville.
On July 11th they broke camp and reached Yellville, Marion county,
and on the 13th reached Carrolton, a small town in Arkansas, and
went into camp. The author well remembers the spring. It ran out of
the steep, rocky gulch and the branch ran a little south of west and
a beautiful grove of timber surrounded the spring. The prisoners
were marched down within a few feet of the spring and there placed
under guard. As usual, the abuse that had been continually heaped
upon the prisoners during the march was renewed and in a short
time a man who was said to be from one of the counties north of
Rolla, Mo., commenced making a speech and inciting and
encouraging the soldiers to mob the prisoners at once; that he had
disguised himself and entered the camps of the lopeared Dutch at
Rolla, and that to his own personal knowledge they had men's wives
and daughters inside of their camps, committing all manner of
offenses possible, and that they were heathens; didn't resemble
American people at all and that he would not guard nor feed any
man who was a friend to them; that they ought to be killed outright.
The men who enlisted in the Confederate army from Howell and
adjoining counties, before starting, went to the blacksmith shops
and had them large butcher knives made; made a belt and scabbard
and buckled them around them, and said that they were going to
scalp lopeared Dutch. In a short time the tenor of the above
mentioned speech had incited over 400 men and it had become
necessary to double the guard. The grove of timber was filled with
men and boys looking over, expecting to see the prisoners mobbed
every minute. There was a man who drew his pistol, others drew
knives and made different attempts to break lines and mob the
prisoners. The man in possession of the pistol declared that he
intended to shoot them. He was on an elevated place and they
called him "Red," and there were three or four men holding him to
prevent his firing. The author remarked to him that: "The time will
soon come when you will meet men who are not disarmed. You had
better save your bravery until you meet them, and my opinion is that
you won't need any man to hold you then." Just about this time on
the north side of the spring—the land dropped toward the spring, on
a descent of about 45 degrees—the author heard the voice of a man
ordering the guard to "open the lines and let these ladies come in."
The author at once arose to his feet and spoke out in an audible
voice to the guard to give away and let the ladies come in and see a
Northern monkey exhibited, that the monkeys grew a great deal
larger in the north than they did in the south. At this juncture it
appeared to take one more man to hold Red who said that "he
would kill the saucy scoundrel if it took him a week to do it."
When the posse came in we saw that the ladies were accompanied
by eight or ten Confederate officers with about fifteen ladies. All the
ladies carried small Confederate flags, the first ones that the author
had ever seen. On coming very close to the prisoners they halted
and one of the officers remarked, "These are the Union men that are
friends to the lopeared Dutch. Couldn't you tie the knot upon them
to hang them?" I think almost everyone spoke out and said "we
could." After heaping other epithets and abuse upon the prisoners
they and the officers retired outside of the line. The speaker was still
talking, urging and insisting that the prisoners should be mobbed at
once, that they should not be permitted to live.
At about this stage of the proceedings a man's voice was heard on
top of the bank saying, "Men, I believe your intentions are to kill
these prisoners. You have all started out to fight and you don't know
how soon you might be taken prisoner and you would not like to be
treated in any such manner; I know Billy, (referring to the author)
and all you have against him is the political side that he has taken
and I order the orderly sergeant to double the guard around the
prisoners so there will be no possible chance for the mob to get
through, and move with the prisoners south to a large hewed log
house and place the prisoners therein, and place a guard around the
walls and suffer no man to approach the house without an order
from the officers."
As the prisoner began to move, the excited soldiers, who were
wanting to mob them, brought out an Indian yell, and it appeared to
the author he could almost feel the ground shake. After they were
put into the houses, among the prisoners were some who were
deserters, the author whispered to the Union men and told them to
lie down close to them so that they could not distinguish from the
outside one from another. The author was informed by Maj. William
Kelley, of the Confederate army, who resides at Rolla, Phelps county,
Missouri, at the present time, that he was the officer who made the
order to remove the prisoners into the house and place a heavy
guard around them to prevent their being mobbed. This ended the
excitement for the evening.
The author had always been a believer in the realities of religion.
About one-tenth of the officers appeared to be Baptist and Methodist
preachers, and frequently when they would go into camp would call
a large number of the men together and very often take the
prisoners and place them near by under a heavy guard, and then
convene religious services. They always took for a text some subject
in the Bible and the author remembers well of the taking of the
subjects in the book of Joshua, where Joshua was commanded to
pass around the fortifications of the enemy and blow the ram's horn
and the fortifications fell, and, the God of Joshua was the same God
that existed to-day and there was no question but that God was on
the side of the South and all they had to do was to have faith and
move on, attack the lopeared Dutch and God was sure to deliver
them into their hands.
The author could not help but add, in his own mind, that when the
attack is made that God set the earth to shaking and all around
where the lopeared Dutch are standing that the earth will open and
swallow them up just leave their heads above the surface; so that
those Confederates who were so furious could take their big knives
and scalp the Dutch as they had said on divers occasions they
intended to do.

Makes His Escape.

The author was determined to make his escape whenever the
opportunity offered; and he could learn all about the whereabouts of
the Federal soldiers from the excited Confederate scouts who would
ride along the lines and say that the lopeared Dutch were as thick as
rats at Springfield, Missouri, moving around in every direction and
they might be attacked at any time and General McBride was looking
every day to be attacked by the Federal forces to cut off his forming
a junction with Generals Price and McCullough.
In about four or five days they reached Berryville, near where the
Eureka Springs are, and went into camp just west of Berryville right
at the spurs of the Boston mountain. The prisoners were placed in
the guard house near a little creek that was then dry. Captain
Forshee's company went into camp next to the company
commanded by Captain Galloway of Howell county. As the weather
was very hot and dry and the author had been marched barefooted
(one of his shoes having worn out) until his feet were badly
blistered, he was lying down, feigning sickness. The guard has
become a little careless. Just about sundown heavy thunder set in
the west. The clouds continued to increase, the elements grew very
dark. In the mean time they had put out a chain guard all around
the encampment and said guard was about thirty steps from guard
house. The low lands were all bottom, covered with heavy timber
and a large oak had fallen across the creek and reached from bank
to bank and the bark had all slipped off. About thirty feet from the
top of the tree the foot of a steep mountain set in. The guard fire
was about sixty yards south of the guardhouse. The clouds soon
came up and a heavy rain set in, with terrific thunder and lightning,
and as the army had temporary tents the guards all crawled in under
the tents and left the author by the fire. The rain soon quenched the
fire.
The chain guard were walking up and down the dry creek and they
met at the log referred to. The author thought now was his time to
make his escape, if ever; knowing that he would have to have a
shoe, slipped to one of the tents, got hold of a shoe, and then the
thought struck him that he would like to have a revolver, but on
further examination found their revolvers to be placed in such a
position that it was impossible to get one without waking the men.
He then slipped to the butt of the log and heard the guard meet at
the log and turn again on their beat. He at once crossed on the log
on the other side, walked into the brush, reached the foot of the
mountain about twenty steps distant and halted. Everything
appeared to be quiet, the release around the guard fire were
singing, whooping and holloing.
The author then took the mountain which was about one quarter of
a mile high, and it always has appeared to the author that he
crossed the log and went up the mountain as light as a cat. On
reaching the top, still raining heavily, the thought came into his mind
that "I am once more a free man, but I am in an enemy's country,
without friends," and at once determined in my mind to reach
Springfield, Missouri, if possible. I sat down, pulled on the shoe that
I had taken and it just fitted without a sock; I then procured a dead
stick for the purpose of holding before me as I traveled for fear I
would walk off of some steep cliff or bluff, as it was very
mountainous.
Having the guard fire for a criterion I moved northwest, soon struck
the leading road west that the army was marching on, traveled the
road for about one mile, came onto the pickets, surrounded the
pickets, struck the road again, traveled all night until just gray day,
directly west or nearly so. A slow rain continued all night. As soon as
it became light enough to see I found myself in a country completely
covered with pine timber. I turned square from the road, went about
350 yards up to the top of a high knob, found about one quarter of
an acre level bench. A large pine had turned out by the roots and
the hole was partially filled with old leaves. The author always had
been afraid of a snake but the time had come when he had more
fear of a man than a snake, so he rolled himself down into the hole
in the leaves and at the time had become chilled with the steady
rain. About 9 or 10 o'clock, as well as the author could guess, he
heard the beat of the drum which told that the army was marching
on the same road that he had traveled in the night. In a short time
the army passed where the author was lying in the sink. The author
could have raised himself up and have seen the procession pass but
he had seen them just as often as he wanted to and he remained
still. Late in the evening a company of about 65 men passed. The
author was informed afterwards that they had been detailed to make
search for the prisoner, with orders if they found him, to shoot him
at once. The author was further informed by Confederates who
belonged to the command that as soon next morning as it was
reported that the author had made his escape that the chain guard
declared that no man could have passed between them and they
were satisfied that the author was still inside of the lines.
They at once made a large detail and commenced searching. There
were quite a large number of box elders with very heavy, bushy
tops. They said every single tree, every drift and possible place of
hiding, was examined. Orders were at once issued by the
commander, who sent word back to the home of the author, that he
had made his escape and to watch for him and as soon as he came
in home to arrest him and either shoot him or hang him at once.
In the afternoon of the same day it cleared off and just as soon as
dark came, the author was determined to try to reach Springfield,
being in a strange country and knowing that if he was re-captured it
would be certain death. He knew somewhere about the distance he
had traveled west. He located the north star which he used as his
pilot or guide and set out for Springfield, having no arms of any
kind, not even a pocket knife and had become very hungry. He came
to a slippery-elm tree, took a rock, knocked off some of the bark, ate
it and proceeded on his journey, traveling all night. When gray day
appeared again, he went to a hickory grub, broke the grub off with a
rock, cut the top off with a sharp edged rock, to be used for a
weapon, placed himself in hiding, remained all day. As soon as night
came, again he proceeded on his journey, traveled no roads except
when they run in direction of the north star. On the second morning
he went into a small cave surrounded by a thicket, about 10 o'clock
in the day he found that he was near enough to some rebel
command to hear the drilling. As soon as dark came on he
proceeded on his journey. The nights were dark and only star light
until the after part of the night. He went near a spring house, but
when he got to it, there wasn't a drop of milk in it. He passed
through an Irish potato patch, grabbed two or three small Irish
potatoes and ate them; passed through a wheat field, rubbed out
some dry wheat in his hand, ate that; ate a few leaves off of a
cabbage. On the third morning, went into hiding, remained until the
darkness came again and resumed the journey.
On the morning of the 4th at daylight I had reached an old trace,
pulled off my clothes and wrung them and put them on again as the
dew was very heavy and every morning my clothes would be wet. I
went about 30 or 40 yards from the old trace and thought to myself,
if I saw any person passing that was not armed, that I would
approach and learn where I was. Hadn't been there more than a half
hour when I heard a wagon coming. As soon as the wagon came in
sight I saw that there was a lady driving, accompanied by a small
girl and boy, I got up and moved into the road, walked on, and met
the wagon, spoke to the lady. She stopped the wagon and I asked
her if she would be kind enough to tell me where I was, that I had
got lost, traveled all night and didn't know where I was. She told the
author that he was in Stone county, Missouri, and asked him where
he was from. I told her that I was from the state of Arkansas. She
wanted to know if there was much excitement there. I told her that
there was; that men were enlisting and going into the Confederate
service and the people were generally excited over the prospect of
war. I asked her if there was any excitement in this country. She
replied that there was—that the rebels a day or two ago had run in,
on White River, and killed four Union men and drove out about 40
head of cattle and "that's why I am going out here in this wagon. My
husband belongs to the home guards and has come in home on a
furlough and is afraid to knock around the place for fear he will be
waylaid and shot by the rebels."
I then asked her if she would allow me to ask her a civil question.
She replied that she would. I asked her what her politics were, and
she told me that she was a Union woman. I told her, then, that I
would tell her the truth; that the rebels had had me prisoner and
that I had made my escape from them and had been traveling only
in the night time; that this was the fourth morning since I had made
my escape, and I asked her how far it was to the house; that she
was the first person I had spoken to since I had made my escape.
She said it was about 350 yards around the point, to go on down to
the house, and as soon as she got some light wood she would be
back. I went to the house, halloed at the fence, a man came to the
door and invited me in. I walked in, and at once I began to look for
arms, and to my great delight I saw a Springfield musket lying in the
gun rack, with a cartridge box with the letters U. S. on it. O! the
thrill of joy that passed through my mind. I had often heard the old
adage quoted, that "a friend in need is a friend indeed," but had
never before realized its full meaning. In a short time the lady
returned. She went to work cooking, soon had me something to eat,
but I had almost lost my appetite, having fasted so long.
After I ate something and while she was preparing provisions to
carry with me the man told me there was but one place that we
could cross White river without being placed in great danger of
being captured by the rebels, for they were patrolling up and down
the river every day. I told him I never had attempted to travel a foot
in daylight since I had made my escape. He told me he thought if
we could get safely across the river, he knew of an old trace that led
across the mountains and intersected Taney county and as soon as
we reached that settlement they all belonged to home guards and a
man would be in no danger in making himself known.
The woman baked enough biscuit and tied up bacon and red onions
with them, the author thought, to have lasted a hungry man three
days, for him to carry with him and we at once, after taking leave of
the good woman followed by her best wishes that I would get
through to the Federal lines safely, started for White river, about two
miles distant. Just before reaching the river he left the author
standing in the road, went into the house near by and soon came
out with two other men in company with him. On reaching the river
where there was a canoe tied to the bank they stepped aside by
themselves, held a short consultation; then all got into the canoe,
carried me across the river, piloted me across the river bottom to
where the old trace left the bottom; there we separated, they hoping
that I would get through to the Federal lines safely. They didn't think
there was any danger in traveling in daylight, because there wasn't a
single settlement for the entire distance of 25 miles.
The author traveled on until dark had overtaken him. The moon
gave no light until the after part of the night. The author laid down
by the side of the road, took a nap, after the moon came up
proceeded on his journey and in about two miles came to a house.
Hallooing at the gate, a lady came to the door and said: "Come in."
They appeared to have a very savage dog. I remarked to the lady
that I believed the dog would bite me and noticed at the same time
that she stood off to one side of the door. She remarked: "Go in;
that dog will not bite you." As I stepped into the door I was
confronted by a man standing in the middle of the floor in his night
clothes with his old Springfield musket cocked and presented and he
called out, "Halt!" The author halted, of course, and the next remark
was, "Who are you and where is the balance of your crowd?" The
author replied: "There is no balance of them and there is not much
of myself left. The Confederates have had me prisoner and I have
made my escape from them and I am now trying to reach
Springfield, Missouri."
The man ordered his wife to strike a light, and after viewing the
author critically, placed his Springfield musket near the bed and
invited the author to take a seat, while he dressed himself. Being not
more than two hours until daylight, his wife asked me to go to bed
and rest. I told her that I wasn't fit to lie in bed; that I had lain on
the ground like a hog ever since I had been arrested. She said that it
didn't matter how dirty a Union man was, he was welcome to sleep
in her bed, and to lie down and she would proceed at once to get
breakfast; that there were some refugee wagons, about two miles
distant, making their way to Springfield, and that she would have me
up in time to reach them. Accordingly, after eating breakfast before
daylight, and starting with the purpose to reach the wagons before
they broke camp, the man remarked to the author, "My captain lives
just this side of where the wagons are camped and I know he would
love to see you and learn about the movements of the rebels."
When we got to the house, he hallooed and the captain came out,
asked the author his name, where he lived and when he was taken
prisoner. The author gave him his name and place of residence, and
on learning that he was from Howell county, asked him if he was
acquainted with a man by the name of Washington Galloway. The
author informed him that he was well acquainted with him. He
inquired as to which side he was on, the Confederate or Union. The
author informed him that he was on the rebel side and was a captain
commanding one of the rebel companies; that I saw him and had
had a conversation with him on the evening before I made my
escape. He said, "He is an own brother of mine. My name is Jesse
Galloway;" and the tears ran from his eyes like a whipped child. He
said, "Get down; you are not in a condition to travel any further at
the present time." He gave me a change of clothing and had my
clothes washed and sent me through to Springfield by one of his
men on horseback.
About three weeks after I left him the rebels slipped up near his
house, lay in ambush, and when he came out into the yard they shot
him to death while he was holding an innocent child in his arms.

Arrives at Springfield.
On reaching Springfield, I was conducted directly to the head
quarters of Gen. Lyon, gave him all the information in my possession
and told him I had been entirely stripped, had no means with me for
support and I would like to join the army. He remarked to me, "I
don't want you to join the army; we intend to move south next
spring and you are one of the men that will be in great demand. We
have a position for you and the Government will pay you good
wages."
A short time after I arrived I met a man by the name of Percy, a
lawyer, who resided at West Plains, a bitter rebel, who was in there
as a spy. I was alone and there were very few persons that I was
acquainted with living in Springfield. Percy had been posing as a
Union man and offered that if I would go with him, he would carry
me safely through home; tried to get me to agree to go outside the
lines with him after dark, but knowing that he was a bitter rebel and
had been taking an active part in the rebel movement I discarded
him as quick as possible. In a day or two Benjamin Alsup, who
resided on Hutton Valley, Howell county, happened to meet him in
town, and he being acquainted in and about Springfield, had him
arrested at once. A man by the name of Moore, who was a strong
Union man, lived about two miles from Springfield on the Wilson
creek road took me home with him for the purpose of resting up. He
was the owner of a fine dapple gray gelding four years old. He made
Gen. Lyon a present of him. About five days before the Wilson Creek
battle it was reported that the Rebels were on Cane creek, west of
Springfield, in considerable force. Gen. Lyon moved out with a
considerable force, riding the same horse, but on seeing the federal
forces approaching they retreated. On the 8th day of August the
rebels appeared in large force, being commanded by Gen. Price and
Gen. McCullough.

General Lyon Killed at Wilson Creek.

Gen. Lyon sent out scouts with glasses for the purpose, if possible,
of ascertaining their number. The rebels had gone into camp about
ten miles from Springfield, with the avowed purpose of attacking
Gen. Lyon the next day at Springfield, and as the scouts were not
able with their glasses to see the largest force of rebels, which was
encamped around a point out of sight, reported as to what they
thought the number was. Lyon and Siegel came to the conclusion
that by strategy they could easily whip them, so on the morning of
the 10th, about midnight, they broke camp at Springfield, taking all
of their available men. The morning being very foggy and misty, they
easily surrounded the pickets and took them prisoners without the
firing of a gun, then drew up and fired the artillery into them before
they knew they were there.
So the memorable fight known as the battle of Wilson Creek was
begun. Gen. Lyon rode the horse above referred to at the time he
fell on the battlefield. Both the Confederate and Union side were
founding all their future hopes upon the result of that battle, as to
settling the question in Missouri. The author heard the artillery all
day. Late in the evening word came to the Union men that Gen. Lyon
had been killed and that the Federal army was retreating in the
direction of Rolla, Missouri, and that all the Union men and the home
guard would fall in and meet them at once. O! the scene that
followed. Men would hurriedly ride around, meet their wives and
children, tell them that the battle was lost and they were then
retreating and they had only time to come around and bid them
good-bye, and to do the best they could; that they didn't know that
they would ever be permitted to see them again. We could hear the
wife and children crying and sending up the most pitiful petitions to
God to have mercy.
Everything on the Union side appeared to be dark, although it was a
drawn battle and the rebels commenced retreating at the same time,
and retreated about twenty-five miles west, but on learning that the
Federal troops were retreating, they faced about, taking possession
of the battle-ground and all of the southern and western portion of
the state; and then the rebels, being encouraged by the late victory,
determined to rid the country of all Union men at once.
About that time about 350 men mostly from Oregon county
commanded by two very prominent men, made a scout into Ozark
county, Missouri. On reaching the North fork of White river they
went into camp at what was known as Jesse James' mill. The owner,
a man of about 55 or 60 years of age, as good a man as resided in
Ozark county, was charged with grinding grain for Union men and
their families; at the time he, and a man by the name of Brown,
were cutting sawlogs about two miles from home in the pinery. They
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