Remembering World War I hero Alvin C. York
Thursday marks the 100th anniversary of the day the United States joined its allies to fight in World War I.
The U.S. entered the war on April 6, 1917, after Germany made multiple unrestricted attacks on American and British ships. The U.S. Senate voted 82 to 6 to declare war on Germany two days earlier. The House of Representatives supported the decision in a landslide 373 to 50 vote.
Two months later, a 29-year-old pacifist Christian man from East Tennessee registered for the draft. The National Archives kept Alvin York's draft registration form. The 12th line on the form asked: "Do you claim exemption from draft (specify grounds?)"
York, a devoted churchgoer and Pall Mall resident, responded: "Yes. Don't want to fight."
Nevertheless, he was drafted five months later and denied exemption as a conscientious objector, though in his own diary recorded at the Sergeant York Patriotic Foundation in Pall Mall, York wrote he refused to sign several documents that would release him from military service.
York began his training at Camp Gordon in Georgia and went on to serve in the 82nd Infantry Division's 328th Infantry Regiment.
He wrote in his diaries that his company commander, Capt. Edward Courtney Bullock Danforth, and his battalion commander, Maj. Gonzalo "George" Edward Buxton, persuaded York to fight with several Biblical passages about morality in war.
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He served with his unit in the St. Mihiel offensive in northeastern France in September of 1918. The attack weakened German forces in northern France and set the stage for attacks in the Argonne forest and eventually Chatel-Chéhéry, where York, then a corporal, became a war hero.
On Oct. 8, his battalion moved to capture German positions near a railway. York's sergeant ordered him along with three other non-commissioned officers and thirteen privates to infiltrate the German lines and take out their machine guns.
They moved behind the Germans and overran their headquarters, capturing a group who were planning to attack American troops. Machine gun fire broke out as the American soldiers processed their new prisoners, killing six and wounding three. York took charge of the remaining seven soldiers to counter-attack.
York later recounted the events in his diary:
"You never heard such a racket in all of your life. I didn't have time to dodge behind a tree or dive into the brush ... As soon as the machine guns opened fire on me, I began to exchange shots with them. There were over thirty of them in continuous action, and all I could do was touch the Germans off just as fast as I could. I was sharp shooting ... All the time I kept yelling at them to come down. I didn't want to kill any more than I had to. But it was they or I. And I was giving them the best I had."
York ran out of rifle ammunition just as six German soldiers charged him with fixed bayonets, so he switched to his sidearm, an M1911 pistol, and shot each of them before they could reach him.
A monument to York in Pall Mall memorializes his heroism with a bronze plaque that reads: "Armed with his rifle and pistol, his courage and skill, one Tennessean silenced a German battalion of 35 machine guns, killed 25 enemy soldiers and captured 132."
He was subsequently promoted to sergeant and awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, which was later upgraded to the Medal of Honor, the highest and most prestigious personal American military decoration.
He received more than 50 decorations for his service in Chatel-Chéhéry, including three from France, one from Italy and one from Montenegro.
After leaving the service, York returned to celebrations in Tennessee and soon married Gracie Loretta Williams in a ceremony performed by the governor at the time, Albert Roberts.
The Knoxville News Sentinel, beginning in the 1920s, depicts the quieter life York chose when he came back home:
He refused most offers for appearances and the use of his image in advertisements, but he did join several charities and civic causes, like campaigning for a road to be built in his hometown, now called the Alvin C. York Highway.
The Nashville Rotary Club gave York a farm to live and work on, though it caused him a great deal of financial hardship later in life when he could not afford the payments and taxes on it to keep it up.
He had already formed the Alvin C. York Foundation to increase education opportunities in rural Tennessee by providing a new vocational school called the York Agricultural Institute. The Great Depression took its toll on the school's funding, however, and York mortgaged his farm to make up the difference.
The rotary club and the national public caught wind of his troubles, and presented a $25,000 check to the IRS on York's behalf.
York eventually left the Institute but continued to donate when he started working as the superintendent of the Civilian Conservation Corps.
He reportedly attempted to re-enlist in the Army during World War II, but was denied for his age and declining health. Instead, he found ways to support the war effort by participating in bond drives and visiting training camps to meet and cheer on American troops.
York died at age 76 on Sept. 2, 1964, after battling several illnesses that eventually left him in a coma. He is buried in Pall Mall, the town he loved. His wife, Gracie, died 20 years later on Sept. 27, 1984.
The two had eight children, several named named after figures from American history, including Samuel Houston York, Betsy Ross York Lowery, and Woodrow Wilson York who went on to become join the military like his father. Thomas Jefferson York became a Fentress County constable and died in the line of duty in 1972.
Andrew Jackson York grew up to be a park ranger and gave many tours at the state historic park named after his father.
Their daughter, Mary Alice York Franklin, was named after both her grandmothers, and one of their sons, Alvin Cullum York Jr., was named after York.
George Edward Buxton York, named after York's battalion commander during World War I, followed his father's devout faith and became a clergyman in Nashville.
York's legacy lives on in other ways in East Tennessee.
His beloved farm is a state historic site and the Alvin C. York Institute is still a functioning school today. During his time at the Civilian Conservation Corps, he oversaw the creation of Cumberland Mountain State Park's Byrd Lake that is still in place today.
A statue of him stands in Nashville on the Capitol lawn, and a national guard armory and veterans hospital bear his name in tribute to his military service.
Take a walk through Alvin C. York's life:
Alvin C. York: Archive photos
1987 News-Sentinel story: "Sergeant York still a symbol of heroism"
1957 News-Sentinel story: "York hopes tax claims will just fade away "
1964 News-Sentinel story: Sgt. Alvin York, War Hero, Dies
1988 News-Sentinel story: Alvin York: Photo stolen but war hero remembered
1983 News-Sentinel story: Sgt. York's Widow Back Reagan Action
1987 News-Sentinel story: Sgt. Alvin York honored in French village
1959 News Sentinel story: War Machine Needs Foot Soldiers