With Memorial Day upon us I thought it would be a good idea
to talk about an American War Hero of yesteryear. Alvin C. York received a
Medal of Honor during WWI but let’s back up a bit so you can get to know him.
Alvin Cullum York was born December 13, 1887 in a small two
room log cabin near Pall Mall, Tennessee. He was the third child out of eleven
born to William Uriah York and Mary Elizabeth Brooks York. His family had a
farm which he, his father and brothers worked and harvested their own food. The
York family lived in poverty. William York also worked as a blacksmith to help
supplement the family income. Not having the money to go to the store to buy
whatever clothes they needed their mother made all the family’s clothing. Because
their father needed Alvin and his brothers to work the farm while he worked as
a blacksmith they only attended school for nine months. Besides working the
farm it was also their responsibility to hunt and fish in order to feed the
family. No, the York family was no stranger to poverty but they worked hard
never giving up because they had pride and trusted the Lord would provide.
In 1911 William York passed away and since Alvin was the
oldest who was still living close to home it became his responsibility to help
his mother raise his younger siblings since he was devoted to his family and
their welfare. Alvin had a negative side to him as an alcoholic who when drunk
became violent which caused him to get into fights and arrested. His mother
tried everything she could to get him to change his ways, to stop drinking
because without the alcohol he was a different person, calm, understanding, and
caring. He was the man she knew he would always be.
In 1914 Alvin attended a revival meeting at his church that
opened his eyes and helped him to realize he couldn’t continue on this path he
was taking because it would only lead to his destruction. The Church of Christ
in Christian Union was of Protestant denomination which opposed all forms of
violence. It is what helped Alvin to realize he couldn’t continue the way he
was. When WWI broke out and Alvin had to register for the draft there was
question on the form that asked “Do you claim exemption from draft (specify
grounds)”. For Alvin it was and easy enough answer as he wrote, “Yes. Don’t
Want To Fight.” His claim for conscientious objector was denied so he appealed.
If anyone, during WWI, claimed to be a conscientious
objector they still had to serve in the military if they were drafted however
they were not given assignments that would interfere with their beliefs. Since
Alvin’s application was originally denied it was in appeal when he was drafted
into the army so he had to report to Camp Gordon in Georgia. This is when he
decided to start keeping a diary and he did so until he returned from the war
in 1919. He noted in his diary that he refused to sign papers provided by his
pastor asking for a discharge from the Army on religious grounds as well as
forms from his mother claiming he was the sole supporter to his mother and siblings
which he was.
Alvin York served in the United States Army in Company G,
328th Infantry Regiment, and 82nd Infantry Division at Camp Gordon,
Georgia. He confided in his company commander Captain Edward Courtney Bullock
Danforth and his battalion commander, Major G. Edward Buxton about how troubled
he was training for war when his belief was not to fight, not to take another
life. During one of their discussions Captain Danforth cited Biblical passages
that were about violence giving Alvin something to think about as he was
granted a 10 day leave to go home for a visit, think it over and if upon his
return he still felt the same he would receive a position to honor his
decision.
While Alvin was home he thought long and hard over what he,
Captain Danforth and Major Buxton discussed as well as reading his Bible before
coming to the decision he would fight. Alvin was convinced that God meant for
him to fight and would keep him safe so he could return home to his family. He
took this commitment to the United States Army with the same passion and
commitment he did to his belief to pacifism. There is no doubt in his mind or
anyone else’s that he was indeed right due to the circumstances and outcome of
the Battle of Saint Mihiel.
With the events that unfolded on October 8, 1918, Alvin and
his battalion did indeed have an angel watching over them. They were sent to
capture German positions near Hill 223 along the Dacauville rail-line. Those in
command of this operation were Sergeant Bernard Early and four non-commissioned
officers which included Cpl. Alvin York along with thirteen privates as well.
Their orders were to infiltrate the German lines and take out the machine guns.
They worked their way behind the Germans and overran the headquarters
of a German unit capturing a large group of German soldiers who were preparing
an attack on U.S. troops. While Sergeant Early’s men were watching the
prisoners they started taking on machine gunfire which took out a total of nine
soldiers with six Americans dead and 3 wounded. Corporal York was now in charge
of the seven remaining soldiers. He left his men under cover to guard the
prisoners while he made his way into position to take out the German machine
guns.
When Corporal York was asked to give an account of his
actions on this day he said the machine guns were firing down on them and he
didn’t have time to dodge behind a tree or take cover because once the Germans
saw him they opened fire giving him no choice but to exchange shots with them. “There
were over thirty of them in continuous action” he stated “All I could do was
touch the Germans off just as fast as I could.” While he did this Corporal York
kept yelling for them to come down. He states he didn’t want to kill any more
than he had to but they were giving him no choice. While all this was going on
with the machine guns he was also attacked by six German soldiers with bayonets
and had to use his M1911 semi-automatic pistol as he shot all six soldiers
before they could reach him, since he had already used all his rounds of his
M1917 Enfield rifle taking out the machine guns.
Seeing they were not going to win this battle German First
Lieutenant Paul Jurgen Vollmer offered in English to surrender to York, who of
course accepted. By the end of the battle York and his seven men had 132 German
prisoners to march back to the American lines. The actions taken by Corporal
York that day were responsible for enabling the 328th infantry to
renew its attack to capture the Decauville Railroad. Alvin York was promoted to
Sergeant and he received the Distinguished Service Cross. It took a while but a
few months later an investigation into the chain of events on that day was done
by York’s chain of command. This investigation resulted into now Sergeant York receiving
the Medal of Honor which was presented to him by the commanding general of the
American Expeditionary Forces, General John J. Pershing. He was also awarded
the Croix de Guerre, the Medaille Militaire and the Legion of Honor by the
French Republic and the Croce al Meriot di Guerra from Italy as well as a War
Medal from Montenegro. During the investigation into the events of the battle
General Lindsey asked Sergeant York what made him change his mind and do what
he did that day on the battlefield. York told him, “A higher power than man
guided and watched over me and told me what to do.” General Lindsey agreed with
him.
Sergeant York’s Medal of Honor citation reads: After his
platoon suffered heavy casualties and 3 other non-commissioned officers had
become casualties, Cpl. York assumed command. Fearlessly leading seven men, he
charged with great daring a machine gun nest which was pouring deadly and
incessant fire upon his platoon. In this heroic feat the machine gun nest was
taken, together with 4 officers and 128 men and several guns.
Back home his heroism went unnoticed until April 16, 1919
when journalist, George Patullo wrote in the Saturday Evening Post an article titled “The Second Elder Gives
Battle.” It was when Mr. Patullo was touring the battlefields earlier in the
year that he learned of the heroism of York. He laid out a story about York’s
life before and during his service to our country saying “he was an uneducated
man who seems to do everything correctly by intuition.” The circulation of this
edition of the Saturday Evening Post was
in excess of 2 million copies.
Upon hearing the story a group living in New York City, the
Tennessee Society, arranged for celebrations to greet Sergeant York when he
returned to the United States. He arrived in Hoboken, NJ. On May 22 and stayed
at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City and attended a formal banquet in his
honor. He toured the subway system in a special car then continued to
Washington D.C. and stood before the House of Representatives to a standing
ovation. President Wilson was in Paris so Sergeant York met with Newton D.
Baker the Secretary of War and Joe Tumulty the President’s secretary.
He was discharged from the Army out of Fort Oglethorpe,
George and made his way home to Tennessee and more celebrations. He was barely
home a week when he married Gracie Loretta Williams on June 7, 1919. Yet the
story is not as happily ever after as the movie portrays, York refused to
profit from his actions during the war and rejected requests for endorsements
and movie rights to his life story. He did however, join in a lot of civic
organizations in which he lent his name to. The Nashville Rotary purchased a
400 acre farm and gifted it to York but it was not fully equipped as he had
been promised leaving York to have to borrow money in order to stock it. With
the farming depression that followed the war York lost money in this venture
and the Rotary was now unable to continue with the installment payments on the
property so York had to pay them himself. Christmas 1921 an appeal to the
Rotary Clubs nationwide about what York was going through, brought in the
required contributions he would need to keep his farm.
He wanted to join in the battle during WWII but he was now
54 years old, overweight and boarding diabetic so he was denied enlistment as a
combat soldier but he was commissioned as a major in the Army Signal Corps. He
toured training camps and participated in bond drives to support the war effort
usually paying his own travel expenses.
His autobiography was written by Tom Skeyhill on York’s
behalf in the first person and was credited as the editor of Sergeant York: His Own Life Story and War
Diary. York gave lectures and speeches over the years but they were written
by his secretary Arthur Bushing.
Over the years he refused several times to give permission
to have his life story turned into a movie. Finally in 1940 York was looking to
finance an interdenominational Bible School so he gave permission for the movie
which in the first two years earned him $ 150,000 with more royalties to come
in the future and a battle with the IRS. York did eventually have his Bible
School which hosted 100 students until the late 1950’s.
Sergeant York suffered a stroke in 1948 and over the years
more strokes and pneumonia followed. He became confined to bed in 1954 and hospitalized
several times in his last two years of life. On September 2, 1964 in a Veterans
Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, Sergeant York passed away from a cerebral hemorrhage.
He left behind his wife Gracie, six sons and two daughters. His children’s
names were Alvin Cullum Jr, George Edward Buxton, Woodrow Wilson, San Houston,
Andrew Jackson, Betsy Ross, Mary Alice, and Thomas Jefferson York. Alvin York
is buried at Wolf River Cemetery in Pall Mall. His youngest son Thomas
Jefferson York was killed in the line of duty on May 7, 1972 while serving as a
constable in Tennessee.
Before her death in 1984 Gracie York sold off most of the
York farm to the State of Tennessee which is now opened to visitors as the Sgt.
Alvin C. York State Historic Park.
By the end of World War I Sgt. Alvin C. York had earned more
than 50 medals. In an address he made at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on
Memorial Day 1941 he said that “veterans understood that liberty and freedom
are so very precious that you do not fight and win them once and stop.” He said,
“They are prizes awarded only to those peoples who fight to win them and then
keep fighting eternally to hold onto them.” Always blunt York said, “I think
any man who talks against the interests of his own country ought to be arrested
and put in jail, not excepting senators and colonels.”
Thank you Sgt. Alvin York for all you have done for our
country on and off the battlefield.
May God Bless America and please everyone take a moment this
Memorial Day and remember our fallen.
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