On this Armistice Day, 2009, I would like to honor on my family history blog my maternal grandfather, John Henderson, a Marine Corps Veteran of WWI.
John Stanley Henderson, was born on 11 June 1900, the 8th in a family of 8 children. His mother, Martha A Elliott Henderson died when he was a small boy, and he was raised by his father, Thomas Henderson, and older siblings. At the mere age of 16, he enlisted in the U. S. Marine Corps having provided a false date of birth of 1898. He completed basic training at Paris Island, South Carolina, and was initially in service in and around Cuba on various ships.
On 2 April 1917, President Woodrow Wilson addressed a joint session of congress and asked for a declaration of war, reversing his prior stance of firm neutrality in the so-called “European” war. Although there were to be some days of debate to follow, congress issued the formal declaration of war only four days later on 6 April 1917. John Henderson, who was in foreign duty in Cuba at that time, was recalled with many other Marines already in service to Philadelphia and became part of the First American Expeditionary Force to France to assist the Allies in the struggle against the Central Powers. For the next two years, he served in the Second Division of the AEF along with the other members of the Fifth Marine Regiment. This regiment was to participate in some of the most famous conflicts of the World War in France, helping the French to turn the tide against the German opposition and ultimately lead to victory over the Central Powers.
Some of the most celebrated and bloody battles took place in the Chateau-Thierry sector where the famous Battle of the Belleau Wood was waged from 1-26 June, 1918. Marine Corps muster roles record that John S. Henderson was assigned to the 43d company (F) of the Fifth Marine Regiment on service in this sector.
One of the greatest of my family treasures is my grandfather's diary of his experiences in World War I. As part of my remembrance of him today, I include some excerpts from his diary from the days of his service in the Chateau-Thierry Sector in June 1918:
At four o'clock the next morning, we ate breakfast and proceeded to hike. We hiked all day till suppertime. We stopped long enough to eat supper and proceeded to hike all that night till four o'clock the next morning. We stopped, and as I had no blankets, I hunted a hay stack to sleep in. I slept till about noon that day. Got up and had breakfast and dinner together. That afternoon we proceeded to hike some more...
We are now getting up into the towns that the French have evacuated for fear of the German advance. We stopped that evening in a little town where they were bringing in many wounded soldiers...
We can now hear the big guns on the front trying to stop the German advance. Rested in this little village that night. The next day we discovered that we were too well a view of the German aeroplanes that were constantly flying over our head, so we left this place and hiked to a forest where we were not so easily seen. As I was eating my supper that evening, a German aeroplane came over and burned up our American observation balloon almost directly over our head.
That night, I was detailed on a ration party and went up to the front with a load of rations. On my way up, I saw a fellow going up also. He asked me, "Where in the Holy Hell are they taking us to?" I told him he didn't need to worry. He would be coming back in a few days. He said, "How? Dead?"....As we were coming back, the Germans got a line on us and began to send the G. S. Cans [chemical weapons ordinance] over at us. You should have seen us getting off that road...
The next day we proceeded to move on up to the front..I saw a German observation balloon shot down by a French plane in this place. There were ambulances carrying American wounded back in a stream from daylight till the next daylight. I was getting a cartload of water in a little deserted village, and a shell struck a building right across the street from me and killed the mule on the cart, but didn't touch me...
We were in these woods for ten days in all. We were relieved and went back to a little town 8 kilometers behind the line for a week. We entered the Chateau-Thierry Sector with two hundred and fifty men and came out with forty of our original two hundred and fifty.
By the end of the battle of the Belleau Wood, U.S. forces had suffered 9,777 casualties, of which 1,811 were fatal. Strategically, the action in the Chateau-Thierry Sector and the Belleau wood brought to an end the last major German offensive and was felt to be a major turning point in the war.
Although my grandfather did survive to return home from the war, many thousands of others did not. On this Veteran's Day, most properly recalled as the Armistice Day for World War I, we remember with gratitude the sacrifices of those many service men and women who placed themselves in harm's way.
I will pause today at 11AM to remember my grandfather at the time of the official declaration of the armistice 91 years ago. It was the 11th day of the 11th month at the 11th hour, 1918...
---------------------
---------------------
John Henderson died on 7 August, 1983 , and I am grateful to have known him for the first 19 years of my life. He is buried at Rushtown Cemetery in Scioto County, Ohio together with my grandmother, Margery Frances Cook Henderson, his wife of 58 years.
