Jesse P. Brown Sr. World War One Journey
The documentation and photos
described below were taken from the archives of the National records (NARA),
the Armed Forces Personnel Records in St. Louis, and the archives of the US
Army 7th Infantry division library including a history of the 20th
Machine Gun Battalion.
There is also an excellent facebook page devoted to the 20th and I gained
much information from it.
Jesse reported for basic
infantry training on June 27, 1918. He received $88.90 in base pay plus $6.15
in travel pay. He was probably at Camp McArthur (named for Doug’s father) in
Waco TX.
His brother Lon enlisted at
the same time but was not in this unit.
After completion of basic training, Private Brown and
his battalion took a train to Erie Station in Cresskill NJ and arrived on July
25, 1918.
One of these guys is Private Jesse Brown! Low hat.
They were marched to Camp Merritt NJ to
in-process to their unit.
At Camp Merritt, Jesse was added to the unit’s roster.
I attached the whole roster to show that some soldier’s jobs were “horseshoer”,
and “saddler.”
On July 30, 1918, Jesse and his company marched
to Alpine landing and boarded the ferry to Hoboken NJ
Where’s Jess?
Jess and over 13,000 soldiers boarded
the USS Leviathan bound for Brest France
Passenger manifest of USS Leviathan
(Jess #133)
He departed Hoboken NJ on the USS
Leviathan on August 3, 1918 and arrived in Brest France on August 11, 1918.
Taken from a journal of a fellow soldier
on the voyage.
The weather was rough and they were in
constant fear of German U-boat attacks.
They did not get a destroyer convoy to
protect them until the end of the trip.
USS Leviathan
Note: The ship started life
as the German ship Vaterland but was seized from
Germany at the start of the war. It was used to transport troops back and forth
from Hoboken to Brest.
In September of 1918, a month
after Jess departed, there was an outbreak of Spanish Flu in Cresskill NJ. Camp Merritt was overwhelmed. 578 people
died, and the camp remained in quarantine for the rest of the war. Some
infected men managed to get on the USS Leviathan. 2000 got sick on the voyage to France and 80
troops died. Some of the infected soldiers were on the fourth tier of bunks.
The nurses could not climb up to treat them and the men were too sick to climb
down. Some died in their bunks that way. If only we had Fauci back then!
In 1919 (after the war was
over) there was a young US Navy crewmember on the Leviathan named Humphrey
Bogart. Jess took the SS Great Northern back home but the Leviathan was heading
back at the same time.
Jesse arrived in Brest to Camp Pontanezen
on August 11, 1918.
The 20th MGB took
a train from Brest to Pont St. Vincent and arrived at 0600 hrs on September 29th,
1918. They were then marched west in the pouring rain to nearby Lagney (near Toul, west of Nancy). The entire battalion remained at Lagney until 0800 on October 5, 1918, when they were
marched to Bois L’Eveque. On October 7, at 0230, they were woken up and
marched to Montauville (2km west of Pont-a-Mousson)
to relieve the 349th MGB of the 90th Division. On Oct 8,
the 7th ID picked up the combat duties in the Puvenelle
Sector.
Puvenelle
Sector today (using Preny and Jauly
as a reference)
They still find unexploded ordinance in this area!
On October 10, Jess and Company A took up a reserve
position in Jezainville.
On October 18, Co A moved from Jezainville
to the support position in Bois le Pretrte (just SE
of Vilcey-sur-trey).
On November1, CoA moves north into the outpost
position (the front lines) at Bois des Rappes.
On Nov. 4, CoA is relieved from the outpost position
and the next day move into support position in Bois Gerard & Bois d’Heiche.
On November 10, CoA moved to Bois St. Claude
Company A geared up to launch a massive offensive into
the town of Metz which was going to begin on November
11, 1918 at 2:00PM.
Jess was going to be the tip of the spear of probably
the deadliest battle of the war.
More likely than not, he would have been killed and
our Brown family would not exist.
However, at 1100 that day, the armistice was declared,
the guns went silent on the Western Front, and here we are.
Note: Most of the “Bois” locations are best seen on
the 7th ID map highlighted in yellow
War is Over!
The entire 20th
MGB was assembled at St Jean on November 15 and remained there until January
20, 1919. They were tasked with efforts to locate and bury the bodies of the
dead, salvage equipment, complete/update records. These duties continued until May 11, 1919,
when they were ordered to make preparations to return to the United States.
They departed by train through Neafchateau, Dijon,
Bourges, Tours, and Lemans. It was spring in central France and the soldiers
were enjoying life.
They arrived in Brest on June
7, 1919 to a much changed Camp Pontanezen
On June 11, 1919 at 6:00 PM, Jess
and Company A boarded the USS Great Northern.
The next day, the rest of the battalion boarded and they cast off for
home. Jess and his Company entered New
York harbor early in the morning of June 19, 1919 and docked in Hoboken
NJ. Can you imagine sailing by the
Statue of Liberty after all they had been through?
Jess # 131
From there it was back to
Camp Merritt, and a train to Camp Bowie (near Ft. Worth TX) where he was
honorably discharged from the US Army on June 27, 1919
Jess’s VA record