Episode 11: The Last Great War?

Though new to combat, then-Private First Class Alton Knappenberger proved to be a literal one-man army, but always emphasized how scared he was. After the action for which he received the Medal of Honor, Knappie sat down and cleaned his now-infamous Browning Automatic Rifle.

Unlike many Medal of Honor recipients, Knappie returned home from war and lived a long peaceful life, passing away at the age of 84.

Though he shunned the limelight in life, his family wanted to recognize his service and decided to not bury him in his native Pennsylvania, but instead at Arlington National Cemetery. Ironically, his funeral happened on the 64th anniversary of his actions in Italy for which he was decorated. Today, Staff Sergeant Alton Knappenberger rests in Section 59, Grave 3193.

Alton Knappenberger's official Medal of Honor citation reads:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty in action involving actual conflict with the enemy, on February 1, 1944, near Cisterna di Littoria, Italy. When a heavy German counterattack was launched against his battalion, Pfc. Knappenberger crawled to an exposed knoll and went into position with his automatic rifle. An enemy machinegun 85 yards away opened fire, and bullets struck within 6 inches of him. Rising to a kneeling position, Pfc. Knappenberger opened fire on the hostile crew, knocked out the gun, killed 2 members of the crew, and wounded the third. While he fired at this hostile position, 2 Germans crawled to a point within 20 yards of the knoll and threw potato-masher grenades at him, but Pfc. Knappenberger killed them both with 1 burst from his automatic rifle. Later, a second machinegun opened fire upon his exposed position from a distance of 100 yards, and this weapon also was silenced by his well-aimed shots. Shortly thereafter, an enemy 20mm. antiaircraft gun directed fire at him, and again Pfc. Knappenberger returned fire to wound 1 member of the hostile crew. Under tank and artillery shellfire, with shells bursting within 15 yards of him, he held his precarious position and fired at all enemy infantrymen armed with machine pistols and machine-guns which he could locate. When his ammunition supply became exhausted, he crawled 15 yards forward through steady machinegun fire, removed rifle clips from the belt of a casualty, returned to his position and resumed firing to repel an assaulting German platoon armed with automatic weapons. Finally, his ammunition supply being completely exhausted, he rejoined his company. Pfc. Knappenberger's intrepid action disrupted the enemy attack for over 2 hours.

Ignacy Jan Paderewski, the Polish pianist, composer, and later statesman, was the first prime minister of modern Poland and later became the president of Poland's government in exile during World War II, established in the United States. 

When he died in 1941, he was temporarily interred at Arlington under the USS Maine memorial. The plan was to repatriate him once the war was over, but he had to wait more than 50 years as Poland fell under the Soviet sphere of influence in post-WWII Europe. 

In 1963, President Kennedy lamented that Paderewski was still unable to be repatriated and placed a marker at Arlington that still honors the man today, nearly 30 years after he did return to Poland.

In 1992, after the fall of the Soviet Union, Paderewski's final wish of returning to Poland was realized when his ashes were placed in St. John's Cathedral in Warsaw. Today, his Steinway & Sons grand piano sits under his portrait at the Polish Embassy in Washington, DC

General John J. Pershing will get his own episode in the future so I won't put much about him here for now, but when I saw that while he may have been forgotten late in life because of the outbreak of World War II, thousands turned out for his funeral at Arlington in 1948.

Episode 10: Keeping Promises and Breaking Faith

When legislation was passed the renovate the Lee Mansion and return it to its appearance just before the Civil War, the remarkable memory of James Parks, a former slave, born on the plantation who had remained after emancipation to dig many of the early graves in the new national cemetery, helped identify the use of many rooms in the house and many outbuilding that had been on the grounds.

The Lee Mansion circa 1900

When Parks died in 1929, his last wish was to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery and his many friends in the Department of Defense helped him receive a special dispensation from the president. 

James Park

Shortly after his burial, the local Veterans of Foreign War post placed a special marker over his grave to ensure his legacy would not be forgotten.  

Parks' marker from the VFW - not the most PC message today but it was a touching gesture at the time

Parks died less than two months before the start of the Great Depression, which, by 1932, had no end in sight. WWI veterans returning from Europe after the 1918 armistice received bonus vouchers to be paid (to those still alive) in 1945. That money was desperately needed now so 20,000 veterans and their families descended on Washington DC to demand payment.

The House of Representatives passed a bonus bill but it was defeated in the Senate and politicians in Washington figured the Bonus Army would accept defeat and return home. When they did not, the police tried unsuccessfully to disperse the crowd.

The clash began peacefully but eventually, bricks were thrown and shots rang out. Two veterans, William Hushka, a 35-year-old Latvian immigrant living in Chicago, and 38-year-old Eric Carlson from Oakland were killed and buried at Arlington National Cemetery shortly thereafter.

William Hushka (I was unable to find a picture of Eric Carlson)

Hushka is buried in Section 18, Grave 2262

Carlson is buried in Section 18, Grave 5217

After the police failed to disperse the crowd, President Hoover authorized the Army to move in. Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur personally lead the force of 200 cavalry troopers commanded by Major George Patton), 400 from Ft Myer into Washington DC, and five tanks (!) into Washington where they used tear gas to force the Bonus Army back to their Hooverville in Anacostia.

Ignoring orders to the contrary, MacArthur entered the Bonus Army encampment, gave the veterans and their families 20 minutes to evacuate, and burned it to the ground.

Government officials praised MacArthur's handling of the situation but when the general public learned what had happened, the outcry was quick and fierce. Less than four months later, Hoover was soundly defeated at the ballot box by Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Three days after Hoover's defeat, the permanent sarcophagus promised for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier 10 years earlier was finally dedicated but the local VFW disrupted the ceremony to protest the Hoover administration's attack against the Bonus Army.

The new sarcophagus was installed in early 1931 and carved in place in time for the November 11, 1931 dedication ceremony

The carvings included three figures representing Victory, Valor, and Peace, inverted laurel wreaths, and Doric columns

A simple epitaph was also inscribed: Here Rests In Honored Glory An American Soldier Known But To God

Episode 9: Known but to God

The Meuse-Argonne Cemetery is one of eight cemeteries in Europe dedicated as the final resting place of American service members killed in World War I. 

The three unknown soldiers not selected of transfer to Arlington National Cemetery's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier were placed in Block G, Row 1, Graves 1, 2, and 3 

Construction on the Tomb of the Unknown Monument at Arlington was completed in approximately six months and was ready for dedication on Armistice Day, November 11, 1921.

 The body of the Unknown Soldier was transported from France on the USS Olympia and arrived in Washington, DC on November 9, 1921.

The Unknown Soldier laid in state in the Capitol Rotunda on November 10, 1921, and was visited by 90,000 - 100,000 people at a rate of 100 per minute. President Warren G. Harding was one of the dignitaries who was able to visit on November 9th. 

A huge crowd turned out to watch the Unknown Soldier's final movement from the Capitol Building to Arlington National Cemetery.

 

As part of the burial ceremony, General Pershing tossed American dirt into the mausoleum, where the Unknown Soldier would rest on French soil brought over on the Olympia.

Several dignitaries from WWI allied nations attended the burial ceremony, including Chief Plenty Coups of the Crow Nation who placed his war bonnet onto the Unknown's Casket before it was lowered into the mausoleum.  

The original sarcophagus for the tomb, seen here on its first anniversary, November 11, 1922, was smaller than today's sarcophagus and was intended to be a temporary marker. It was eventually replaced by what is in the cemetery today in the 1930s... but we'll talk about that next week.

Episode 8: The Great City and the Great War

Pierre Charles L'Enfant was born August 2, 1754 to Pierre L'Enfant, a painter with a good reputation in the court of King Louis XV, and Marie Lhuillier, the daughter of a minor court official. He studied at the Royal Academy in the Louvre and the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture but left France to join the colonist in the American Revolution in 1777 at 23. Despite his aristocratic upbringing, he closely identified with the United States and went by Peter after arriving in America. 

L'Enfant was commissioned a captain, was on Washington's staff during Valley Forge, was wounded at the Siege of Savannah in 1779, and recovered to became a prisoner of war when Charleston, South Carolina surrendered in May 1780. He was exchanged the following November and joined.  In May 1783, he was made a brevet major in recognition of his many contributions to the cause of colonial independence and was discharged when the Continental Army was disbanded in December 1783.

L'Enfant is closely tied with the design of Washington, DC and much of present-day DC can be seen in his 1791 design, though that was almost not the case due to the rapid expansion of the capital during the Civil War.

Much of L'Enfant's original features were resurrected in 1901 by the McMillan Plan, which saved L'Enfant from historic obscurity and ended to his remains being moved to Arlington when his tablet is able to look over the city he was not able to build.

Build just below the front stairs of the Jefferson Memorial, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Memorial Bridge, and other famous sites can be seen from the spot.

The top of L'Enfant's marker has an engraving of his plan for Washington and the words: ENGINEER - ARTIST - SOLDIER

First Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge was born February 8, 1882 and graduated second in the West Point class of 1903 (Douglas MacArthur was first). His fateful flight in 1908 was not his first time in a powered flying machine. Selfridge was enshrined in the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1965.

Orville Wright was at the controls of the Wright Flyer when when propeller snapped. He cut power hoping to be able to glide the plane safely to the ground when it suddenly fell from the sky and Thomas Selfridge became the first casualty of powered flight. The inquiry from the crash can be found here.

Thank you Doctrine Man!

 I was very excited when I saw that Steve Leonard - AKA Doctrine Man - plugged the podcast on his Facebook page today. Hopefully at least a few of his 173,000+ followers will be interested enough to give it a listen.

Episode 7: Arlington Enters the 20th Century AKA Fighting Joe Wheeler - Confederate General, American General

The USS Maine was commissioned in 1895, depending on which source you read, is described as an armored cruiser or a second-class battleship. Either way, she represented a leap forward in modern warship design based on the latest ship-building techniques coming out of Europe.

The Maine in Havana Harbor before the Explosion

On February 15, 1898, at 9:40 pm, a catastrophic explosion occurred on the Maine. At the time, the Spanish were implicated in the explosion. Over the years, there have been several other investigations and while the exact cause of the explosion is still debated, it is widely believed the Spanish had nothing to do with it. Regardless of the cause, the outcome remained the same: 266 of her crew of 355 were killed and two months later the United States was at war with Spain.

The Maine sunk in Havana Harbor

The mast from the Maine was recovered in 1915 and is now the centerpiece for the Maine Memorial in Arlington's Section 24. It was being renovated when I was last there to take pictures, so the third picture is from www.arlingtoncemetery.mil

Immediately after the explosion, 61-year-old Alabama Representative and former Confederate Lieutenant General Joseph "Fighting Joe" Wheeler offered his services to President McKinley and the US Army. Though McKinley, himself a Civil War veteran, tried to avoid war, he eventually accepted Wheeler help and appointed him one of only fifteen major generals in the US Army at the time.

Wheeler as a Confederate general in the 1860s

Wheeler (front) as a US major general in Tampa, FL in 1898 just before deploying to Spain with the staff of the 1st US Volunteer Regiment "Rough Riders" including its commander Colonel Leonard Wood (center) and executive officer Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt (right) 

After hostilities ended in Cuba, Wheeler sailed to the Philippines where he commanded the First Brigade in Arthur MacArthur's Second Division during the Philippine Insurrection until  January 1900. He then returned to the United States, was mustered out of the volunteer service, and commissioned a brigadier general in the regular army, reentering the service he had resigned from 39 years earlier. He went on to command the Department of the Lakes which oversaw military posts in the midwestern United States until his retirement on September 10, 1900.

After a long illness, Wheeler died in Brooklyn, NY on January 25, 1906, at the age of 69. Because of his service later in life, is one of the only Confederate officers buried in Arlington and maybe the only one outside of the later-established Confederate Section. This diminutive officer lies under one of the tallest obelisks in the cemetery in Section 2, Grave 1089.

Thank you Mountain Up!

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Yours truly rocking the Gen IV Mountain Up 10th Mountain Trucker Cap, which I purchased long before this podcast began