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A History of Pittsburg and Western Pennsylvania Troops in the War
By John V. Hanlon (Copyright 1919 by The Pittsburg Press)
Chapter XIX
(The Pittsburg Press, Sunday, May 25, 1919, page 82)
Names in this chapter: Rodman, ZurHorst, Candler, Broido, Herring, Huff,
Moseley, Doyle, Webber, McKahan, Lovitz, Hays, Perritt, Ford, Sherrard,
Williamson, Bayard, Barger, Dickey, Fryor , Lynch, Nicholls, Baker, Walley,
Wright, Younkins, DeHart, Morren, Hastings, Miller, Collins, Metz, Neal,
Colwell, Wagner, Jacobs, D’Zmura, Snowden, Maits, Frodey, Fredette, Cashman,
Fisk, Robinson, Permar, Sieber, Simpson, Ray, McCague, Schleiter, Heard,
Council, McConnell, Baier, Fly, Atkinson, Apinter, Wilcox, Kelly, Bulon, Aaron,
Reynolds, Chandler, Arbuthnot, De Lozier, Bennett, Strasser, Mulherron, Rowland,
Wilcox, Lawton, Dowland
BASE HOSPITAL UNIT NO. 27, WHICH PERFORMED SUCH EXCELLENT WORK IN FRANCE IN
CARING FOR OUR WOUNDED TROOPS, WAS A PITTSBURG ORGANIZATION. THE STORY OF THE
HOSPITAL AND ITS ACTIVITIES FORMS ONE OF THE INTERESTING PARTS OF THIS HISTORY,
AND IT IS TOLD BY ONE WHO WAS WITH THE UNIT.
Note: The following history of Base Hospital No. 27 was written by Max. E.
Hannum, sergeant first class, who was attached to the unit and who is a member
of the staff of THE PRESS.
The University of Pittsburg Base Hospital Unit 27 was
organized in response to Surgeon General Gorgas’ request that large medical
schools and hospitals throughout the country prepare to supply commissioned and
enlisted personnel for the medical service. The medical department of the army
evidently anticipated the actual declaration of war by some time and thereby
avoided considerable confusion in the quick mobilization of medical units. When
war broke out those medical schools which were connected with universities were
urged not only to supply the necessary commissioned personnel of surgeons and
physicians, but to also recruit enlisted men from the university students and
graduate nurses from the neighboring hospitals. The American Red Cross was to
furnish the original equipment for these units and to keep in close touch with
their needs throughout the way.
A gift of $25,000 by Mrs. H.L. Collins, of Sewickley,
was the foundation upon which the Pitt unit was built. Realizing that the
University of Pittsburg provided a rich field in which to recruit a splendid
organization, the government offered reserve medical corps commissions to 25
professors and instructors in the medical school of the university. Dr. Robert
T. Miller, professor of surgery at the university and surgeon for the Mercy
hospital, was made director of the unit with the rank of major. Dean Thomas S.
Arbuthnot, of the university medical school, also accepted a major’s commission.
The names of the other officer, with their original
ranks, follows:
Majors J. D. Heard and H. G. Schleiter, Captains. S.S.
Smith, E.J. McCague, W.B.G. Ray, J.R. Simpson, P.R. Sieber, H.H. Permar and E. W
Zurhorst, First Lieutenants J. W. Robinson, L.A. Fisk, B.Z Cashman, J. W
Fredette, R.J. Frodey, C.B. Maits, R. R. Snowden, A.P. D’Zmura, F. M. Jacobs, J.
H. Wagner, A. H. Colwell, Max Neal and H. C. Metz.
Lt. Col. T. S. Arbuthnot
RECRUITING OF UNIT
With all the commissions accepted, the recruiting of enlisted personnel began
early in May, 1917. The unit was originally organized to care for a 500-bed
hospital, which, according to the army tables of organization, required 153
enlisted men. Appeals were made to the university students and men from all
departments flocked to the recruiting stations, with headquarters at the
university and the Eighteenth regiment armory. Contrary to general expectations,
the physical requirement were rigid, and, many university men being rejected,
the ranks were filled up by non-university and other college men from the
Pittsburg district, lured by the prospect of getting overseas soon. Enlisted up
to its full strength, the hospital was distinctly a Pittsburg district
organization. Pittsburg and its immediate suburbs furnished the larger
proportion of the men. Jeannette, Greensburg, Punxsutawney, DuBois, Beaver,
Youngstown, Butler and other towns were represented. Men who through athletic
and other ability had become not only famous at the university, but also well
known in Pittsburg, were numerous in the enlisted ranks. Such men as “Andy”
Hastings, “Jim” Morrow, “Jimmie” De Hart, the Younkins brothers, who helped to
make the football history at W. & J.; Heister Painter, a former Penn State
center; Orson Wilcox, later fatally stabbed by an Apache in France; Leon Kelly,
and others whose names and faces are known to many people around Pittsburg, were
among the first to sign their enlistment papers.
The nurses, headed by Miss Blanche Rulon, of the Pittsburg Eye and Ear hospital,
were drawn from practically every Pittsburgh hospital, those trained at the
Mercy hospital being in a majority. The complement of nurses was 65, and many
more responded to the call.
Maj. Royal Reynolds, an officer of the Regular Army Medical corps, was
designated as commanding officer by the war department and ordered to Pittsburg.
He arrived in the middle of summer, and establishing his headquarters with the
Red Cross in the Chamber of Commerce building, supervised the purchase of
equipment and final preparations for mobilization. Capt. W. D. Chandler, of
Washington, D.C., was ordered to Pittsburg as quartermaster.
The entire personnel was enlisted and ready for instant call by the middle of
June. However, it was not until Aug. 18 that the government was ready and able
to order the unit to active service and assemble it in a mobilization and
training camp. It was then instructed to proceed to Allentown, Pa., where the
training camp for medical units was located, and to arrive there Aug. 22, 1917.
Members of the unit were apprised of the orders by telephone and telegraph and
ordered to report to Red Cross headquarters. Departure plans were outlined and
the men received their first army orders when they were told to be at Red Cross
headquarters on Monday, Aug. 21, at 6:30 p.m. Base Hospital 27 was now in active
service, governed entirely by army staff orders.
Capt. T. L. Boots
A special train carried the officers and men to the concentration camp, but the
nurses were sent directly to Ellis Island, New York, to be held there until the
officers and men should be ordered to embark for foreign service. Arriving at
Allentown early in the morning of Aug. 22, the men, after drawing clothing and
equipment, began their work of preparation. The commanding officer and the top
sergeant were the only men of previous military experience, and it must have
been discouraging to them to have to whip into shape this rather motley band in
a few short weeks. A remark of Sergt. Ross D. Strock’s at this time to the
commanding officer: “Sir, the damned college boys will never make soldier,” was
afterward referred to one private by another during the Argonne offensive after
60 sleepless hours of unloading trains and carrying stretchers. “No.” said he.,
“they didn’t make soldiers of us, but we haven’t rivaled Rip Van Winkle that
last month, either.”
TRAINING PERIOD
Drills, hikes, daily instruction in first aid and general hospital work, and
working details gradually hardened the civilian muscles, browned the pale faces
and educated the minds and hands for future work. The principles of discipline
which were as necessary in the medical corps as in any line company were also
inculcated in them.
Six weeks were spent in the vicinity of Allentown before embarkation orders were
received. They arrived while the men were encamped near Easton, Pa., training,
under field conditions, for the contingency of being split up into several field
hospitals, which was the prevalent rumor at that time. The orders directed Base
Hospital 27 to move to Hoboken, N.J., and to report to the embarkation officer,
Aug. 27. Camp was broken in half an hour and the unit moved back to Allentown.
At midnight, Aug. 26, the unit marched out of camp, through the quiet streets of
Allentown, and boarded a special train. As the sound of 175 pairs of feet
striking the pavement in rhythm reached the people in the houses lining the
streets, windows were thrown open, lights flashed, and the retiring townsfolk
called out “Goodbye and good luck.” Few troops had moved out of camp, and there
was little doubt in the minds of the residents of Allentown as to the final
destination of these men.
By 10 a.m., Aug. 27, officers, nurses and men were aboard the English Black Star
liner, “Lapland,” with the One Hundred and Third infantry regiment and other
units of the Twenty-sixth division. At 2 p.m. of the same day, the liner put out
of New York harbor, all soldiers being ordered below decks. The anxiety of the
men that they would not reach Europe before the war was finished had now
disappeared.
Maj. T. R. Simson
At this time, Halifax, Nova Scotia, was a congregating point for vessels making
the transatlantic trip, and the “Lapland” met the 10 vessels which were to
accompany her there Aug. 29. The trip across the Atlantic consisted of the
zig-zagging and back-sailing tactics which characterized navigation after the
increased activity of the submarines. Convoyed the entire journey by the British
cruiser, “Columbella,” the fleet was met 600 miles from the English coast by 8
destroyers, 4 of them flying the American flag. The same evening, in the heart
of the danger zone, the fleet experienced its first difficulties. The mine
sweeper of the “Lapland” became disengaged, necessitating a stop of several
hours, and a small freighter, unable to equal the increased speed of the convoy
in the submarine zone, fell far behind. The fleet stopped. The limping and
unprotected freighter had been torpedoed and sunk. The destroyers were too late.
Consequently only 10 instead of 11 steamers docked at Liverpool on the morning
of Sept. 10. The trip across had taken 13 days.
CAMP AT SOUTHAMPTON
On the evening of Sept. 10, Base Hospital 27 and the One Hundred and Third and
One Hundred and Fourth infantry regiments were in camp at Southampton, England,
awaiting their turn to slip across the channel into France. For a week they
remained at Southampton in the rain and mud, which are the only memories the men
of the corps have of their stay in England. They voyage across the English
channel was made without mishap, and on the morning of Sept. 17, the
organization was located in Rest Camp 1, Le Havre, France. After a day in this
camp, the unit entrained for its final destination, which became generally known
at this time as Angers, in the Department of Maine -et-Loire. The picturesque
cities of Rouen Alencon, LeMans and La Fleche through which the train passed in
succession attracted great attention, both for the historical anecdotes
connected with them and the quaint style of the architecture and lay-out.
Arriving in Angers the afternoon of Sept. 19, the nurses were detrained and
taken to the hospital site in cabs and the men and officers marched there, the
first body of American soldiers to parade in the town. The French, always a
curious people, flock quickly to the streets along the line of march.
ARRIVAL AT ANGERS
It could easily be seen that Angers was a city of some size and consequence. By
inquiry, it was learned that the pre-war population was 60,000, increased since
the war to over 100,000 by the influx of refugees. The streets were well laid
out, but narrow and closely crowded to the sidewalks by plain, stone buildings.
There were trolley lines, and the sight of the first trolley car, smaller by far
than the ordinary American summer car, brought an involuntary laugh from the
men. The people were decently clothed and seemed to be well-fed. There was an
extreme death of young men among the crowds lining the curbs, and those who were
in sight were evidently wounded and discharged soldiers, many of them with empty
coat sleeves or wooden legs.
Lt. T. O. Heald
Great interest was evidenced upon approaching the hospital site, the future home
of the men for, they knew not how many, months or years. A large stone and
concrete building surrounded on all sided by high stone walls and sitting in the
center of a spacious plot of ground could be seen as the column passed two
sailors guarding the great gates. Naval Base Hospital 1 was stationed
temporarily at Angers. The building was an old French monasterial school, but
since the way, had been used for various purposes by the French, serving as
French Hospital 57 just before being turned over to the American government. The
officers eagerly planning the future, remarked that there was sufficient land
around the main building upon which to construct many frame annexes. Extension
and enlargement was in the mind of each of them before they were settled in the
quarters. After almost a month of steady traveling, covering over 3,000 miles,
the men were anxious to get settled down and to begin the work of constructing,
repairing a modern American facility.
But an immediate [unreadable] was not to be the home of all the men for not two
weeks after the arrival at Angers, orders for 30 men to proceed to Base Hospital
101, a regular army hospital, stationed at St. Nazaire, one of the ports or
debarkation, were received. Medical work in connection with debarkation of
troops was becoming so heavy that assistance was necessary at 101. Thirty men
were chosen, rolled up their packs and left Angers Nov. 10, not to return for
eight months. The men were sorry to see the unit breaking up and realized that
the departure of the 30 meant more work for those who remained. However they
knew the cases which forced the separation and appreciated the difficulties of
the then small A.E.F medical corps. They also envied the departing men their
opportunity of gaining valuable experience.
Settled down in a location which offered great possibilities for the
construction and operation of a great hospital, the other men immediately set
themselves to the preparatory work of construction. In the unit were men of
practically every profession and trade. An enlisted man of Base Hospital 27 had
the plans of all the additional wards and annexes completed by the time the
construction detachment of engineers was on hand. An expert electrical engineer
arranged and installed all the complicated lighting and electrical appliances.
With the arrival of a detachment of the Five Hundred and Third engineers, the
real work of construction began and the work progressed so rapidly and the
facilities were so excellent, that notification was received from the office of
the chief surgeon that henceforth Base Hospital 27 would be constructed and
operated on a thousand bed capacity basis. Within a month this capacity was
increased to 1,500. The original equipment of the hospital was inadequate by far
to provide for these increases, so carload after carload of additional medical
supplied, beds, instruments and appliances of all kinds, were rushed to Angers.
THE FIRST PATIENTS
Long before the additions were complete, patients began to arrive at the
hospital in the main building, which had been equipped immediately upon arrival
of the unit and stood ready for just such eventualities. Men suffering from
mumps, measles, pneumonia and minor injuries, to the number of several hundred,
were soon congregated in the hospital. With the first trench raids, minor
engagements or gas attacks sustained by the then small American Expeditionary
Forces, victims of actual fighting came in in small numbers and were viewed with
great interest by the Pittsburgers who several months before were several
thousand miles from the battle front.
Chapter XIX (cont.)
(The Pittsburg Press, Sunday, June 1, 1919, page 86)
BASE HOSPITAL UNIT, NO. 27, RECEIVED ITS FIRST PATIENTS WHEN THE TWENTY-SIXTH
DIVISION SUSTAINED THE FIRST GERMAN ATTACK IN FORCE IN THE TOUL SECTOR. THE
HOSPITAL RAPIDLY GREW IN SIZE AND THE PITTSBURGERS PERFORMED THE WORK OF TWO
UNITS MOST OF THE TIME. SOME OF THE PERSONNEL WAS DETACHED AND SENT TO THE
FRONT, WHERE THERE WAS A CRYING NEED FOR MEDICAL ASSISTANCE.
A French railway system passed within half a mile of the hospital and a spur of
track was laid from it into the hospital grounds, thus assuring rail
communications between the receiving ward of Base Hospital 27 and any part of
the front. Supplies were brought in on this branch by the car-load, thus doing
away with the necessity of truckage from the French terminal in the center of
the town to the hospital.
When the Twenty-sixth division sustained the first German attack in force at
Seichprey and Xivray in the Toul sector, the men of the hospital received first
inklings as to what their future work would be like. One day the news of the
heroic stance of the New England regiments reached Angers and the next the human
wreckage of the battlefield began to arrive at the hospital. The casualties of
these first engagements were light compared to later ones and those apportioned
to Base Hospital 27 were easily accommodated. The first stretcher case to be
carried in was recognized as a fellow passenger on the Lapland. Men who bore the
brunt of the attack had crossed the Atlantic with the Pittsburgers. Many
acquaintances made on the boat were renewed at bedsides in the hospital.
By this time the hospital grounds resembled a small city. Orders were received
the import of which were to increase the capacity indefinitely. As soon as one
frame structure was complete, work was commenced on another. Accommodations for
more than 3,000 patients were soon to be ready. A plea was made to headquarters
for additional enlisted personnel, but medical corps men were scarce and
additions to the Angers hospital were not made for some time.
FRENCH SYMPATHETIC
When the great German offensive started in March, 1918, and Gen. Pershing place
the entire A.E.F. at the disposal of the allies, Base Hospital 27 was ready to
do its part in caring for the wounded. As allied hospitals overflowed and meager
forces of Americans were placed at vital points in the straining lines, French,
British, Belgian, Portugese [sic] and Italian, in addition to American soldiers,
arrived for care in increasing numbers. Six nations might be represented in one
ward. As the hospital filled up, trips to the little cemetery reserved for
Americans at Angers, were almost daily. These military funerals gave a keen
insight into the character of the French people. As a band playing a dirge
proceeded the slowly moving ambulance, bearing an American who had made the
supreme sacrifice, and passed along the street to the cemetery, people of all
ranks and stations crowded the sidewalks and paid their last respects to the
dead. French generals stood at rigid salute and drivers of rubbish carts halted
their teams and doffed their hats. During some 300 military funerals no Base
Hospital ever say a Frenchman standing covered. Of a very sympathetic
temperament, French women often wept. On Sundays the American cemetery was
crowded with French people who came to place flowers on the graves of the dead
American heroes.
When the American First division attacked and took Cantigny, almost all the
enlisted hospital corps men were in wards with influenza. With about 90 of them
incapacitated, the force was badly crippled. Consequently the unloading of the
first hospital train, which arrived about this time, proceeded with great
difficulty. Fortunately only slightly more than a hundred men were on this
train. The train pulled into the hospital grounds on the spur track and stopped
beside the receiving ward. Stretcher squads assisted the train personnel in
getting the men off. Each car of the train had 20 to 30 beds which could be
detached from the sides. If a wounded man was unable to be removed from his bed
to a stretcher, the entire bed was taken out. The men were placed, on the
stretcher or beds, on the floor of the receiving ward. Those whose clothing had
not been removed were undressed. Physicians passed rapidly down the line,
diagnosing each case. The men were then tagged and carried to a clerk who
assigned them to wards. As each man was assigned to a bed, the clerk checked it
off, thus preventing any overflow in a certain ward. Patients who could walk,
entered the receiving station through a separate entrance, removed their own
clothing, tossed it into a place provided for that purpose, passed rapidly
through a bath, were escorted to the assigning clerk, diagnosed and placed in a
ward. By this system, a trainload of patients could be unloaded and gotten to
bed in incredibly swift time. The discarded clothing was sorted. The serviceable
was renovated, pressed and placed in the quartermaster’s clothing room for
re-issue. Clothing was scarce in France at this time. The unserviceable was
carefully bundled and shipped to the American salvage depot. Despite the
scarcity of help the officers all expressed their satisfaction with the
detraining and subsequent activities, and were confident that in the future Base
Hospital 27 would be able to take care speedily of all the men shipped in.
PERSONNEL INCREASED
About this time relief for the over-taxed personnel seemed to be at hand, for a
field hospital known as Unit K was ordered to Angers and arrived late in
February. The unit was composed of about 40 enlisted men in addition to about a
dozen medical officers. There was a sufficiency of work and they were all put to
tasks in the hospital. Their period of usefulness to Base 27 was not long
however, for on March 5 they departed for another station under orders from
headquarters.
The town of Angers began to fill up with Americans. A western engineer
organization, the One Hundred and Sixteenth, established a replacement depot in
town, and soon as many Americans as Frenchmen could be seen on the streets. With
caring for wounded from the front and sick from the surrounding areas, the
hospital was taxed to its capacity at this time. Angers was becoming almost an
American center with railroad yards, a large hospital, a replacement depot and
camp and truck trains passing through daily.
At this the time Pittsburg boys had their first opportunity to participate in a
review. Late in March decorations were bestowed on the French heroes in the
town. In company with a French regiment of infantry, the engineers and the
hospital men were formed in a large square in the town as the guard of honor at
the ceremony. Being their first affair of this kind, the Americans attended the
ceremony with great interest. Some 30 Frenchmen were decorated with the Croix de
guerre, the Military medal and the Medal of the Legion of Honor.
During all this time, the great German offensive was proceeding with dispatch
and signal success. The rapidly increasing American expeditionary forces was
being drawn more and more into action. With each additional sector taken over by
the United States troops, the demands upon the medical corps became heavier.
There were not enough medical men with the line troops, there was an
insufficiency of field dressing stations and the field hospitals were greatly
over-worked. Drafts upon the personnel of base hospitals had to made in order
that the front line work might be carried on. Base Hospital 27, like other
organization of its type, was called upon to prepare to furnish surgical teams
for duty at the front. Several of the surgeons received immediate departure
orders and left for the front. Their work, under the most trying conditions,
reflected great credit on the University of Pittsburg organization.
A little incident connected with the service at the front of one of the first
groups of surgeons to be dispatched shows that the nerve of the Pittsburg
surgeons was not only confined to the operating room and the dressing station.
Allied planes combating German planes behind the allied lines had forced one to
make a descent. Believing that he would be forced to alight, and knowing that he
was well behind the lines, the allied aviators did not follow the stricken
German to the ground. He alighted near a dressing station where the Pitt doctors
were working. As it happened, no body of armed troops was in that immediate
vicinity. The aviator stepped from his damaged place uninjured and armed. Lieut.
Col., then Maj. T. S. Arbuthnot, in peace times Dean of the University medical
school, though without arms, made the German his prisoner, thus making the
combat record of Base Hospital 27 up to this time the following: Kilometers
advanced under enemy fire: none; munition dumps destroyed, none; heavy guns
captured, none; small arms captured, one; prisoners captured, one; planes
captured, one.
Shortly afterward several more officers received orders to depart for various
field hospitals and field dressing stations. Some of these men served long and
arduously at the front, bringing great credit to their organization, their city
and their university. The officers were not alone in actual front line service,
for as soon as orders came in, nurses and enlisted me joined them. Maj. R.T.
Miller, the director of Base Hospital 27, with Lieut. B. Z. Cashman, Capt. J.W.
Robinson, Capt. W.B. Ray, Nurses Mary DeLozier and Marjorie Aaron, Sergt. First
Class Ross D. Strock and Sergts. P. R. Bennett and H. I. Strasser left for the
front about this time, and it was many months before the rest of the unit at
Angers had the opportunity of welcoming them back again. They were attached to
Mobile Hospital Unit No. 1. Their experiences while on this duty were varied
and, at times, exciting. Working at high speed constantly, their services to the
wounded doughboys and officers cannot be overestimated. They were attached to
the French forces, but soldiers of all the allies passed through their hands. In
such high regard were their services held by the French, that four of the team
were decorated with the French order of the Service de Sante, “for tireless work
and valiant service under shell fire.” Those decorated were Capt. Cashman,
Nurses Mary De Lozier and Marjorie Aaron and Sergt. Strock.
Calls for service in evacuation and field hospitals and front-line dressing
stations were always liable to come at unexpected times, so 10 teams of two
surgeons, two nurses and two men each were always held in readiness for these
emergencies.
While some of their comrades were experiencing life under actual fighting
conditions, the rest of the unit was busy rushing the Hospital construction work
to completion and organizing the departmental system for the rapidly approaching
time when Base Hospital 27 would be crowded and over-crowded with wounded from
the first big American action.
The motor transportation department in charge of Sergt. William J. Mulherron,
Pittsburg, resembled a modern garage in any American city. Many men had to be
assigned to Sergt. Mulherron in order to keep this department in a constant
state of high efficiency. Many more men had to be assigned to the quartermaster
and the medical supply department. It took many men to do the necessary work in
the general and registrar’s office. There had to be men on the various cleaning
and working details around the hospital. Most of the men were needed in the
wards with ward-masters and orderlies. The work was increasing and the hospital
was short-handed. Relief in a short time was promised by the Chief Surgeon.
LOST FIRST MAN
About this time Base Hospital 27 lost its first man. Never a large unit during
the months that elapsed since its call to service, its period of training, its
trip across and its preliminary work at Angers, the 153 men composing it had
every opportunity of getting well acquainted and of becoming very much attached
to each other. Consequently the first death in its ranks was quite a shock,
Harold Rowland, a sophomore at the university before his enlistment, a member of
the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, popular alike in civil life and the army,
contracted spinal meningitis and in a few week was dead. He was given a military
funeral and laid to rest in the little Angers cemetery beside some of the
pioneers of the first American engagements. The death of one of the
happy-go-lucky “gang” caused a void which it seemed could not be filled. More
deaths and separations came to the unit, but the shock of the first one always
lingered.
By this time the grounds of the former Petite Seminaire de Mongazon d’Angers
were completely filled with buildings constructed by the Americans. The rise of
the great hospital can be compared to the mushroom growth of some Western towns.
The buildings were constructed in sections at a French factory in town, loaded
onto trucks, brought to the hospital and assembled on the foundations which the
engineers had already prepared. With all construction work nearing completion,
the capacity of the hospital was close to 4,000. It would have been manifestly
impossibly for 25 surgeons, 65 nurses and 153 enlisted men to run a hospital of
this size. Other hospitals in France were in the same predicament, actual
construction and adaption to present conditions far exceeding original plans and
specifications. Men for the medical service began to arrive in France about this
time, and as soon as they could be collected in a central place, were sent out
to assist the over-burdened original personnel of the various hospitals. In due
time Base Hospital 27 got its proportion of these men, but it was not until the
armistice was signed and the work slackened slightly that the personnel was ever
entirely adequate for the tasks at hand.
BARRACKS COMPLETED
New officers’, nurses’ and enlisted men’s quarters had been completed by this
time and were now occupied. The unit had previously been living in empty wards.
Situated in an isolated corner of the grounds they were well-constructed and
fairly comfortable.
Chapter XIX (cont.)
(The Pittsburg Press, Sunday, June 8, 1919, page 82)
MANY OF THE MEN ATTACHED TO BASE HOSPITAL NO. 27 APPLIED FOR AND RECEIVED
COMMISSIONS. THE HOSPITAL BUILDINGS WERE COMPLETED IN TIME TO RECEIVE THE
HUNDREDS OF WOUNDE DOUGHBOYS WHO COMMENCED TO COME IN FOLLOWING BELLEAU WOOD AND
THE FAMOU CHATEAU THIERRY. THEIR BROKEN AND TWISTED BODIES WERE CAREFULLY
CARRIED FROM THE HOSPITAL TRAIN TO THE WARDS AND ALL THAT MEDICAL SCIENCE AND
EXPERT NURSING COULD DO WAS DONE FOR THEM.
Storage sheds had been built for the supply department. A Y.M.C.A. building had
been constructed for patients and corps men. A Red Cross hut for the nurse was
in process of construction. Plans for a large Red Cross amusement hall and
auditorium were ready.
Technical and office organization was rapidly shaping up. The main department of
the hospital was divided into two branches, surgical and medical service. Under
these headings came all the surgeons, physicians, nurses and enlisted men doing
ward duty. There were three groups of offices, the general office, the
registrar’s office and the office of the supply department. The general office
presided over by the Adjutant, Lieut. S. S. Rodman, who enlisted with the unit
and received his commission before leaving the United States. All general
hospital business and all details relating to the personnel were handles through
this office. Capt. E.W. ZurHorst held the position of Registrar. He was the
commanding officer of all patients in Base Hospital 27. Patients were admitted
through the registrar, kept track of by the registrar and discharged by the
registrar. The work connected with admission slips, card indexes, reports and
discharge formalities were enormous and a large office force was required to
dispose of it. Accurate records and histories of every patient in Base Hospital
27 were accessible in his office. Capt. W. D. Candler was the quartermaster. His
duties were to feed, clothe and accumulate and dispense medical and general
supplies for the entire hospital and everyone connected with it. His office took
care of maintenance and repair work, purchased supplies, paid all the troops in
town, transacted business with the French, looked after any other odds and ends
of business which were not handled by another department and, until the advent
of the hastily organized motor transportation corps, had charge of all the
transportation. The work of his office also required a large force.
Convalescent Patients Passing Time on the Recreation Court.
SOUGHT COMMISSIONS
With the preliminary work of construction and organization nearing its
completion, the monotony began to pall on the enlisted men of Base Hospital 27
who had not been detached for service in other parts of France. The novelty of
the town and its inhabitants had passed away, and with so much occurring in
others parts of the country, it was not at all surprising that the men should
find their positions a little irksome. The greater part of the enlisted
personnel was made up of college men whose training and experience made them
good commission material. Consequently, it was not surprising that at this time,
many of the men should get out copies of army regulations and general orders and
circulars to learn how to apply for commissions in the various branches of the
A.E.F. The first men to actually receive commissions were Sergt. Louis Broido,
of Pittsburg, and Sergt. Charles P. Herring, of Derry. They were commissioned
second lieutenant in the Quartermaster corps after several months of study and
rigid examination at the service of supply headquarters in Tours. Sergt. Burrell
Huff, who afterwards died in the service, was detached to do liaison work in
Paris. He was commissioned a first lieutenant in the Sanitary corps shortly
afterward, and was placed in charge of evacuation of sick and wounded men at a
large regulating station in St. Dizier. His work here won him commendation from
his superior officers. In a responsible and nerve-racking position, the constant
strain of his work seriously undermined his constitution, and when he was
attacked with acute heart trouble, followed by influenza complicated with
pneumonia, he was unable to resist the diseases and died Jan. 12, 1919, after
months of faithful and brilliant service. Many high army officers of the allies
subsequently paid tribute to the character of Lieut. Huff’s work. He was the son
of the late Representative George F. Huff of Greensburg. He was awarded a medal
of honor by the French government for services rendered sick and wounded French
soldiers. Although he did not live to receive the medal, it and the certificate
accompanying it were sent to his mother, who treasures them among remembrances
of her son. Brig. Gen. George V. Moseley, assistant chief of staff of the
American Expeditionary Forces, said of Lieut. Huff: “During the St. Mihiel and
Argonne offensives he was largely responsible for the evacuation of our sick and
wounded by rail, and due primarily to his conscientious efforts and devotion to
duty, nearly 200,000 sick and wounded were safely transported from the front to
the hospitals in the rear without mishap. During times of stress this often
entailed day and night duty, and never did he fail to meet the demands the
service made upon him. Words can do little to lessen the pain and sense of loss
to his relatives, but the knowledge of the great and important work he
accomplished for his country will be a source of comfort and great pride to
them.” Maj. L. C. Doyle, writing of Lieut. Huff, said: “It was through his
conscientious application to his work that his health was undermined and his
resistance so weakened that his short illness proved fatal.” He was buried with
full military honors Jan. 15, 1919, and lies with 60 other Americans in a small
military cemetery on the banks of the Marne river.
The Base Hospital No. 27 Band. All Pittsburgers led by Chaplain J. R. Cox
MANY MEN PROMOTED
The success of these men encouraged the others. The A.E.F. artillery officers’
training school was but 18 miles northeast of Angers and had long been the goal
of ambitious would-be second lieutenants in that branch. The first Angers
hospital man to receive an appointment to the school was Private Ray Huff. The
course was of three months’ duration and in the duly allotted time, Huff
returned to Angers on a short leave, wearing the gold bars of a second
lieutenant in artillery. Private George R. Sherrerd, who had been in charge of
the work of installing the complicated electrical system in the hospital was
next to have the satisfaction of knowing that his work had been noticed and was
appreciated. He was examined for a commission in the corps of engineers, passes,
and was granted a second lieutenant’s rating. However his success did not stop
there for subsequently he was made a captain. One of his colleagues in the
hospital construction work. James Hays, Sewickley, was shortly afterward made a
second lieutenant of engineers. Meanwhile Privates George Perritt, Beaver Falls,
and Willard Ford, Homestead, the latter of whom was among the men detached to
St. Nazaire, were appointed to the Artillery Training school, graduated and
added two more to the list of ex-hospital commissioned men in the artillery
service.
At this time there was a pressing need for more commissioned men for duty at the
hospital. Consequently, the applications of Sergts. Bertram S. Webber, Roger B.
McKahan, And Edward I. Lovitz went in for commissions in the Sanitary corps.
Sergt. Webber was the first to receive his commission, a first lieutenancy in
the Sanitary corps. Eventually he became adjutant of Base Hospital 27. Soon
afterwards Sergt. McKahan’s commission arrived, and he was made mess officer of
the hospital, a position of no less importance and responsibility. Sergt.
Lovitz’s commission came next and he was made medical supply officer, his duties
being to collect, store, keep a record of, and dispense medical supplies. The
responsible positions relating to the business activities of the hospital, as
well as its medical work, were being handled by Pitt unit men, rather than by
imported outsiders. There was general satisfaction because of this. Subsequently
Sergts. Arleigh B. Williamson and John Garber and Civilian Employee Clifford A.
Bayard received commissions as second lieutenants in the Sanitary corps and were
added to this hospital staff of commissioned officers. Sergts. George R. Dickey
and John C. Fryor received second lieutenants commissions in the Quartermasters
corps. The signing of the armistice kept the following men from receiving their
commissions: Sergt. Thomas Lynch, Corp. Richard P. Nicholls, Privates Donald J.
Baker and William C. Walley, candidates at the Artillery Officers’ Training
school; Sergts. Archibald W. Wright and Ralph Lynch, candidates at the Infantry
Officers’ Training school; Sergt James M. Miller, candidate for the
Quartermaster corps; Sergts. Oliver A. Atkinson, Gerald B. Fly, Albert E. Baier,
William [unreadable], Paul C. McConnell, candidates at the Sanitary corps: Sergt
[unreadable] and Charles C. Council, candidates for the army service corps. It
was a tribute to the standard and ability of the men composing the Pitt unit
that so many of them should receive commissions and that so many more should
have the ambition to try to better their positions in the army. When the
armistice was signed there were very few men of the original unit who were not
making some attempt to obtain commissions in the various branches of the army.
We have now come to the time when the construction work of Base Hospital 27 was
entirely finished: when everything was in readiness for the vital part it was to
play in the efficient handling of our wounded soldiers. With its stately main
building surrounded by row upon row of wooden wards hastily but strongly flung
together by American engineers, its many storage buildings, its little railroad
system, its intricate layout of roads and passageways, it could be likened to a
small city; when it was filled to capacity, it was a small city, with 5,000
inhabitants. The speed of its construction and the neatness and orderliness of
its appearance were a constant source of wonderment to the local French people
who were almost as proud of it as the American army medical officers. As the
hospital stood there were more than 80 wards at an average capacity of about 60
beds. There was a series of isolation wards for the care of contagious diseases.
There was a spacious “E” shaped receiving ward. There were two barracks for the
officers, two for the enlisted men and one for the nurses. There was an
evacuation ward for patients about to be discharged. There was one large Red
Cross hut for the nurses and another for the men.
Panorama View of Base Hospital No. 27 as it Appeared When completed.
Chapter XIX (cont.)
(The Pittsburg Press, Sunday, June 15, 1919, page 86)
THE WORK OF THE PERSONNEL BASE HOSPITAL NO. 27 WAS ESPECIALLY STRENUOUS
FOLLOWING CHATEAU-THIERRY AND THE BATTLES WHICH RESULTED FROM THE DRIVE IN THE
SOISSONS-RHEIMS SALIENT. IT WAS AT THIS TIME THAT WOUNDED FROM PITTSBURG BEGAN
TO COME INTO THE HOSPITAL AND IT WAS A CASE OF WORK DAY AND NIGHT WITH VERY
LITTLE TIME FOR REST.
There was a roomy and will-equipped garage. There were separate kitchens and
mess halls for the nurses, the officers and the enlisted men. There were other
kitchens and mess halls for the patients. In the main building, besides many
large wards, there were the administration offices, the operating rooms, the
pharmacy and a large dining hall.
About this time, one of the enlisted men of the unit, Private Robert Titzell,
became very ill and suffered some temporary mental derangement. It was decided
by the authorities to send him back to the United States, as it was not possible
to give him proper care and attention in France. Consequently he was started for
home. Some weeks later the members of the unit were greatly shocked to hear that
he had fallen overboard on his homeward trip, and had not been picked up. He was
the second man Base Hospital 27 lost by death.
When the building work had been completed, the men were also trained to take
care of their respective cogs in the hospital machine. There was not a man who
did not understand what was required of him, and not one who would not be able
to do his individual part when the time came. Base Hospital 27 was ready to back
up the line troops when the Americans electrified the world at Chateau-Thierry,
Vaux, Belleau Wood, Soissons, Fismes and Fismette.
READY FOR AMERICANS
The Germans had made their great attack on the French position along the Chemin
des Dames. Outnumbered, the French had retreated over ground the Germans had not
trodden since 1914 until their backs were before the historic Marne. Excitement
ran high and despair was in the hearts of all the French people. The men at Base
Hospital 27 knew that American soldiers were on their way to assist the
hard-pressed French. Base Hospital 27 was prepared to receive a great influx of
patients. The equipment of the wards and the operating room was carefully
inspected and placed in the best possible order. All sick and wounded men who
were on a fair road to convalescence were sent out to replacement depots.
The First and Second divisions went into action around Chateau Thierry. A dash
of cold water on the spirit of a nation! Excitement did not run higher in the
French city of Angers on armistice day. Crowds thronged about the bulletin
boards of the newspapers. The one thought in the public mind of France was: “We
are saved. Have they not proven they can fight?” The famous remark of the
commander of the First division when his men were forced back on Jaulgonne:
“Retreat? Sir, the American flag has been forced to retire, and my men would not
understand did I not give the instructions which would tend to reverse
conditions. We shall attack immediately,” thrilled Angers days before it was
featured in American newspapers. Americans can realize the effect of such
dramatic events on the temperamental French. When the marines wrested Belleau
Wood from a greatly superior force of Germans and held their positions against
odds never equaled since Thermopylae; when they carved a pathway through Vaux;
when their comrades entered Chateau-Thierry, it would be useless to attempt to
describe the joy of the French nation. In their minds there was no doubt as to
the final outcome of the war, for were not 300,000 big, strapping Americans
landing on their shores every month?
WOUNDED MARINES ARRIVE
There was a peculiar contract between the wild abandon of the celebrating French
and the grim preparations that were going forward in the hospital. Those who had
paid the supreme sacrifice would never know that hundreds of millions of tongues
were shouting “heroes,” but there were other broken and twisted bodies to which
life still clung. For them such institutions as Base Hospital 27 existed. When
the news came that the first train load of wounded marines was approaching the
hospital, a great crown gathered around the receiving ward. As it pulled slowly
down the track with its suffering cargo, there was no hat throwing nor cheering.
These battered bodies were the ones that had barred the road to Paris. Their
work for the present was finished. The hospital men’s was just beginning.
You hear the phrase “Our cheerful wounded” until it means nothing to you. Could
you have seen the first train load of marines pulling into Base Hospital 27, you
would never again pass over that phrase casually. Not all the men on the train
were so badly hurt that they had to recline constantly. Here and there a
grinning head was thrust through a window, answering questions and dispensing
information without its being solicited. “Yes, most of us are marines. No these
are not all the wounded from the Chateau-Thierry action. We left some more at
another hospital up the road. Say, this is only the advance guard. You will have
the whole Fifth and Sixth marine corps down here in a few more days.”
Then the actual work of detraining began. It was almost a repetition of the
detraining at Cantigny. There were several hundred of wounded on the train, many
of them badly injured. Under such unfavorable conditions had the fighting been
pushed, that most of the men had received no previous medical attention. With
the clothing town, their bodies dirty, blood clotted on their faces, and here
and there a crude home-made bandage showing, they fully looked the part of
battle-strained heroes. The stretcher cases were placed in bed immediately. The
walking cases went through the showers first. Many were carried directly from
the train to the operating room. The surgeons and their assistants prepared for
a series of operations and dressing. The work of salvaging the most precious
waste of a modern battlefield was begun.
WOUNDED FROM PITTSBURG
Base Hospital 27 slipped into its new era smoothly. The surgeons worked day and
night as if they had done it always. Men who a few months before had been
getting to school or working in offices dressed wounds and assisted the surgeons
and nurses like experienced hospital apprentices. Eager for first-hand
information of the battle of Chateau-Thierry and other tales of the front, all
the men made friends with the wounded, visiting them, supplying them with
reading material and chatting with them by the hour when they were off duty. Not
a few of the wounded were from Pittsburg and vicinity, and more than once it
happened that a hospital man unawares carried in an old friend of his, only to
place him tenderly in a bed and hear him say, “Thanks, Ed,” or “How are you,
Joe?”
The world knows the story of the reduction of the Chateau-Thierry, Rheims,
Soissons salient, but in measuring the glory of the achievement and in praising
the prowess of the American arms, that part of the world which never saw a
hospital train picking its way carefully along the hastily constructed tracks in
the forward areas, with its lights extinguished as a precaution against hostile
planes, then gathering speed as it reaches a more solid roadbed in a less
dangerous zone, thread its way quickly and quietly to a hospital with its load
of patient, suffering ones – that part of the world can never realize the
aftermath of a great victory. Day after day the Americans and French pushed on
the sides and center of the sharp point in the lines, and day after day more
trains of wounded were rushed back to the hospitals.
The Twenty-eighth division went into action and soon many Western Pennsylvania
men were pouring into Angers, members of the old Eighteenth and the “Fighting
Tenth.” When the Vesle was finally reached and the last sharp struggles took
place around Fismes and Fismette the hospital was crowded and the personnel
thoroughly exhausted. Men had worked as they never had in their lives before.
Called out to unload trains or to leave for duty at the front at all hours of
the night, and keeping the hospital running in the day, taxed the woefully small
unit to its utmost. Not only was the personnel inadequate in numbers to care for
the patients properly, but bed space was becoming very scarce. So authority was
requested and received to open an annex to Base Hospital 27. After some search
and deliberation a building several miles distant and on the opposite of the
Maine river, known as the “Seminaire,” was chosen. This building had formerly
been occupied by a French school. Work to put it in order for hospital purposes
was immediately begun. Partitions had to be town out and beds and appliances
installed. Lieut. S. S. Rodman, adjutant of Base Hospital 27, as designated as
commanding officer of the annex and some men and nurses from the main hospital
were detached for service there. As the annex was intended primarily to house
convalescent patients, a large part of the necessary work could be done by them.
Lieut. Bertram S. Webber became adjutant of Base Hospital 27, succeeding Lieut.
Rodman.
PLANS FOR CAMP
Plans were also gotten under way for a convalescent camp to be constructed near
the Seminaire. The three organizations were to be known and operated as Hospital
Centre, Angers. Maj. Reynolds, now promoted to be a lieutenant colonel,
commanding officer of Base Hospital 27, was to command the group.
Work at the annex progressed rapidly and soon it was ready to receive patients.
The convalescent camp sprang up rapidly also, It was composed entirely of tents
– 100 of them. Capt. A. A. Lawton was assigned to command the “Con Camp,” as it
was known to all, and it was necessary to furnish him with more of the fast
dwindling unit. Just when it seemed that the men could no longer keep the
hospitals running small additions of medical men would arrive and the crisis for
the present would be averted. The unit was also further relieved about this time
by the return of the 30 men who had been detached to St. Nazaire. They had seen
eight months of interesting service at the base port and brought back much
encouraging news concerning the rapid arrival of Americans in France.
Orson Wilcox
At the end of August probably the saddest event connected with the service of
Base Hospital 27 in France occurred. Leaves had been granted to many of the men,
the work had slackened perceptibly and everyone was in good spirits. Things
looked bright for an early ending to the war and Base Hospital 27 was
anticipating getting back to the States soon , perhaps by the 1st of January.
Breaking into the comparatively smooth life at the hospital at this time came
the untimely death of Orson Wilcox, one of the most promising athletes ever
matriculated at Pitt and one of the most popular men in the unit. Returning to
the hospital one evening he was waylaid by three French boys, who demanded
cigarets. Being a non-smoker, Wilcox was unable to comply with their demands.
They then attacked him with knives. Sergt. Elmer E. Rawdon, passing by at this
time, rushed to his assistance, but was immediately stabbed in the neck by one
of the boys. Meanwhile several other members of the unit came up and removed
Rawdon to the hospital. Just as more Base Hospital 27 men came up Wilcox was
seen to collapse on the ground. The boys got up and ran away. Wilcox was hurried
into the hospital, where it was ascertained that his death had been almost
instant. A search for the murderers was immediately instituted and one of the
boys was captured. He confessed, implicated the others, and they were
apprehended the following day. Just as Base Hospital 27 was leaving France
sentence was passed upon these boys. One of them was sentenced to hard labor for
life, another to hard labor for several years and the other was released. The
French system of hard labor is a very severe type of punishment.
The boys never recovered from the shock of “Willie’s” death. At Pitt he was
captain of the freshman football team, besides playing on the freshman
basketball and baseball teams. He was a member of Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. A
splendid type of clean young American manhood, with a happy disposition and an
even temper, a smile and a good work for every one and a willing, conscientious
worker, his memory will linger with the boys with whom he was associated as long
as they live.
MEN SENT TO FRONT
In the reduction of the St. Mihiel salient the first all-American engagement,
the casualties of the first American army were only around the 7,000 mark.
Consequently the strain upon the hospitals was not so great. The wounded were
distributed equally among the hospitals of the A.E.F and as the medical service
was reaching a high state of efficiency at this time, no trouble was experienced
in handling all the injured men. During the drive several surgical teams from
the hospital were at the front continuing their service there throughout the
Argonne offensive.
During the lull between the battles of St. Mihiel and the Argonne the activities
of the enlisted men of Base Hospital 27 while not on duty can be described.
Despite the fact that the men were forced to tie themselves down to their work
pretty closely there were many opportunities for amusement and relaxation.
Celebrations were in order upon the slightest provocation. They celebrated the
anniversary of the call to selective service, the anniversary of the departure
from the United States, the anniversary of the arrival in France, and sundry
birthday and other occasions. French restaurant and café keepers in the near
vicinity of the hospital became moderately wealthy through the tendency of the
Americans to celebrate. Each group of men had its favorite restaurant. None of
the men will forget “Mama’s,” “Lizzie’s,” or Gasmantle.” To celebrate the close
of the first year in this place the men had a picnic in the country. Through the
kindness of the hospital several trucks were placed at the disposal of the men
to convey them and the refreshments to the scene of the festivities.
CLUBHOUSE ERECTED
Through the efforts of Capt. P.R. Barley, Red Cross representative at Base
Hospital 27, a clubhouse was erected for the enlisted personnel. This was
tastily fitted out, and when work was finished the men would gather around a log
fire for a half hour’s chat before turning in.
The hospital had a crack baseball team, which met and defeated many other
American teams in the district.
But the climax of the amusement activities came with a farce football game
staged after the armistice was signed. Two teams had been chosen and, togged in
ludicrous outfits, they staged a side-splitting contest in the rain and mud of a
typical French fall day. The game was preceded by an orthodox parade, led by the
Base Hospital 27 band. Stretcher and ambulance squads were loud in their praise
of this event, which was gotten up mainly in the effort at diversion and
amusement for them.
Harold Rowland – Died of spinal meningitis
To return to the work, the hardest ordeal for all branches of the A.E.F. came
with the Battle of the Argonne. It is not necessary to tell how the doughboys
fought their way through almost impenetrable obstacles until they broke the back
of the German defense system and poured into Sedan just before the armistice was
signed. As a result of the stubborn fighting, hospital trains were worked
between the front and the hospitals night and day, and a steady stream of
wounded men, dirty, disheveled and suffering, thronged all the wards, corridors,
tents – in fact every place where a bed could be located. Except for redoubled
energy and many sleepless nights, there was nothing new in the activities of
Base Hospital 27 during the Argonne drive.
With the signing of the armistice, time began to drag for the Pittsburgers. But
it was not until early January, 1919, that word was received that the unit had
been ordered relieved. In a few weeks Base Hospital 85, previously located in
Paris, arrived in Angers, and took over the work of the hospital center. In a
month, Base Hospital 27 left Angers on its way to a base port and eventually the
United States. Tied up for a month at St. Nazaire awaiting transportation, it
was not until March 24 that the men saw America again after an absence of 18
months, during which they had cared for over 20,000 wounded soldiers and made an
enviable record among A.E.F. medical units. April 10, the men were mustered out
of the service, and the Base Hospital 27 existed only in history.
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