Captain George A. Wold
1st Lt. Henry S. Schermerhorn
1st Lt. Arthur L. La Rocque
1st Lt. Winston W. Little
2nd Lt. Earle C. Herrick
2nd Lt. Andrew M. Avery
1st Sgt. John L. Setzer, Battery C 1st Sgt.
When the 56th Artillery Returned on 5 January 1919 from Brest, France only one officer and 208 enlisted men returned with the Battery on the USS South Dakota. Below is a list of the men in charge of Battery C when they went aboard the USS South Dakota on 5 January 1919:
Captain, Harry C. Carpenter, Battery Commander
1st. Sgt. Westley Stewart, Battery 1st Sgt
As dawn broke on the morning of August 22, 1918 Battery C, 56th Artillery, Sergeant Clitus Swann and crew of Gun No. 1, opened the barrage. Firing of both Batteries C and D were directed on targets assigned by Regimental Post Command. In general targets consisted of fire on cross-roads, bridges, ammunition dumps, troop movements and rest areas. During this period the Battalion suffered a great many casualties from enemy shell fire. 1st Lieutenant Oscar H. Cowan of Battery D and three enlisted men of Battery D died from the effects of shell fragment wounds received. The Germans were now committed to the defensive, the offensive having passed to the Allies.
On September 8, 1918 the whole 56th Artillery regiment positioned themselves for the next battle and on September 26, they opened fire, which was the first day of the Meuse-Argonne offensive. They again focused on bridges and ammunition dumps, and they also had targets such as large enemy convoys, and rest areas. The three battalions remained on the line in this offensive until the armistice on November 11, 1918. The regiment fired up to the last hour before the armistice and it was recorded that Battery C fired the last round of the war at exactly 11 AM on the morning of the 11 November, 1918.
Battery C Muster
As I find information on Battery C 56th Artillery men I will list them here in this section. If you had a family member in Battery C, 56th Artillery, C.A.C., please contact me and I will add them to this web page.Corporal, Oliver Lucas
He was the son of Joseph and Nancy Lucas; born October 6, 1894, Bracken County, KY. Was employed in Connersville, Ind. when he enlisted in U.S. Regular Army, September 20, 1916. Sent to Columbus Barracks, Ohio and then transferred to Ft. Wright, NY where he was assigned to Battery C, 56th Artillery, Coast Artillery Corps. Transferred to Long Island Sound and promounted to Corporal he assigned to the 1st Company, Coast Artillery Corps. Cpl. Lucas died of nephritis on March 20, 1918, Long Island, N. Y. His body was taken back home and he was buried in Brookville, KY.
Pvt. 1cl Wallace L. Benner, 623892
Wallace Love Benner was born on 23 December 1893 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania to Henry W. and Elizabeth Benner. He was known as “Wallie” in the family and was a tall man who was medium build with blue eyes and brown hair. When Wallie was out of school he took a job with the Bethlehem Steel Company as a general foreman in one of their rolling mills and at the time he was single. He still lived at home with his parents at 18 North 1st Ave in Bethlehem, PA. When the war in Europe broke out Wallie went to his draft board in Lehigh, PA and registered on June 5, 1917, as he was required to do.
Wallie ended up being assigned to the Coast Artillery Corps and in the newly formed 56th Artillery. Wallie was given his round aluminum dog tags with his service number of 623892 and was given the rank of Private and sailed to Europe with the 56th Artillery on the HMS Olympic. During the months in France as the 56th Artillery took part in many battles on the front lines, Wallie was advanced in grade to Private First Class. He survived the war and wrote his parents several letters home to tell the family of the things that were going on “over there” in France.
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On one such occasion on October 12, 1918, Pvt. 1cl Benner wanting to write to the family found himself without any available paper on which to write. So he used what he could find and this was a piece of fabric from a downed German Airplane (shown on the left). Battery C had only been in these new positions for about two days and the Battery was sheltered in the woods and in old buildings, dugouts and shelter tents around the village of Cheppy. They had arrived here at Cheppy at 10 in the morning on October 10 and during the following two days the Battery was in constant action. Wallie having found the downed airplane tore off bits of its fabric and from the relative safety of the new position began to write to the family back home.
Transcribed here just as he wrote, are the contents of this writing: |