OUR HEROES DON'T ALWAYS COME HOME, PART I: Remembering Russell W. Silverthorn

16 July 2018

Erie, Pennsylvania

A few years ago, I made a new friend through membership in DAR. We discovered a common bond when she told me she had two great uncles in the 28^th Division, 112^th Infantry, too. My Uncle Roy Hall was in the 28^th Division/112^th Infantry.

Ann’s great uncles were brothers who were in the Pennsylvania National Guard Unit, the 112^th, which originated during the American Civil War.

The unit was mustered into active service on 16 July 1917, exactly 101 years ago today, for service in World War I. On 11 October 1917 the 112th Infantry Regiment became part of the 28th Infantry Division. The 112th was the first war-strength National Guard regiment in the United States. It reached France in May 1918 and  went onto the line on 4 July 1918, in the Second Battle of the Marne.

From that day on, the names Fismes, Fismette, Fond de Mezieres, and Argonne would never be forgotten. The second battalions Companies G and H lost a combined total of 200 men out of 230 when they were cut off at Fismette and fended off a frontal attack on their position by a thousand German soldiers. As James A. Murrin said in his introduction to his book, With the 112^th in France, A Doughboy’s Story of the War, “It’s men were no different from thousands of others who claimed allegiance to the 112^th, who trained with it at Camp Hancock and who fought with it from Marne to the Vesle, through the Argonne and on the Thiaucourt sector, [and who] believe it to be worthy of a place in history.” James Murrin was in the 112^th Infantry and wrote this book in 1919.

According to Murrin, “…the 28^th Division stands fourth on the final Army casualty list and first on the roster of the National Guard Regiments participating in front-line engagements is eloquent proof that the Keystone organization was in the forefront of the battle.”  Indeed they were. Further Murrin states, “Nearly four thousand of those boys lie ‘somewhere in France,’ sleeping the last long sleep, and eleven thousand others are on the list of wounded, the majority of them back in the States."

Ann’s uncle, Russell Worth Silverthorn, was one of those casualties, losing his life at the “Tragedy of Fismette.”  Russell’s brother, Lee James Silverthorn, was injured by mustard gas a month before Russell died.

In a more recent discovery, Ann learned that she also had a great uncle, Josef Wäschle, a German soldier, who was killed, presumably by a French sharpshooter, and was buried near Reims, France.  Ann, a writer, penned a very poignant essay on her website, WWI, A Perspective on the Concept of “Enemy.” 

Here is a link to her site:

http://annsilverthorn.com/index.php/5185/wwi-a-perspective-on-the-concept-of-enemy/

As I mentioned before this journey has taken me in many directions and next I will write of another connection I made with a new Texas friend whose great uncle was also in the 28^th Division, 112^th Infantry.