“During the St. Mihiel operation … near Fay-en-Haye, Lieutenant Poser assisted in
carrying a sergeant of Company D, 26th Engineers, wounded by shell fire, from out of the
danger zone under heavy shell fire at imminent risk of his life, his action beyond regular duties
inspiring others to follow.”
And First Lieutenant Aleck Hutchinson, M. C., who took off his gas mask in an area
where gas persisted in order that he could work more rapidly in the first aid station. Privates
Eddy, Stack, Woods and Stewart of the medical detachment were among those mentioned for
their work during those days. Lieutenant Morris Finkleman, M. C., had been killed on the
afternoon of September 14 when he left shelter to aid a wounded man, and Captain, then First
Lieutenant, James C. Hall, M. C., won the undying admiration of the men by dressing wounded
under heavy fire at about the same time. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
“Lieutenant Lee V. Hunnicut was acting battalion supply officer for the third battalion,”
that officer’s citation by General O’Neil, then division commander, reads, “and due to his
untiring efforts the men of his battalion were kept supplied with food and water threw out the
period of the most severe fighting. This work necessitated his working day and night, and
traveling over roads that were constantly swept by heavy shell fire. This near Pay-en-Haye, 12th
of September, 1918.”
The work of the signal platoon of Headquarters company never flagged for a moment in
spite of the long jumps forward, and those men belong in the same category adds Sergeant
William G. Payne and his pioneer platoon of the same company, who went over the top the first
morning of the drive with rifles slung across their shoulders and wire cutters in their hands, a
good hundred yards ahead of the infantry on their end of the line.
And the machine gun company lived up to every requirement of the regimental and
subordinate commanders, crowding the front lines where brushes with the enemy were most
frequent.
A special paragraph must be devoted to Corporal Louis H. Votaw of Company B, the
first man in the regiment to be recommended for the Distinguished Service Cross. He was
wounded the first minute after he went over the top on the morning of September 12 and
persistently refused to go back to the first aid station. It was only after he had staggered onto the
objective with the first wave that he could be prevailed upon to have his wounds treated.
In the offensive the regiment captured forty-nine prisoners, representing three regiments,
a great number of machine guns and large quantities of stores and ammunition of all kinds.
Despite the great opposition encountered at times during the advance the casualties for
the regiment as a whole were kept down to slightly more than fifteen per cent of the force
engaged.
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