Herman Davis’ service to the nation
Herman Davis went from deep poverty in a remote corner of Arkansas and became the most decorated Arkansan of World War I.
He was born just outside what is now Manila in Mississippi County in 1888. The family lived in a small shack outside the town near Big Lake and ran a small store. They were desperately poor. Davis had to quit school after fourth grade in order to go to work to help the family, mostly as a hunter, and developed a reputation in the community as an expert shot, which would serve him in the war.
When World War I erupted in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson urged the nation to remain neutral. However, the horrors of the war were far removed from Davis’ struggles to scratch out a living with a wife and young daughter. By 1917, continuing German provocations drove the U.S. into the war and a draft was unveiled for only the second time in American history. Davis was called up, and at 5’3”, he barely qualified for the Army.
Davis was sent to France with the other members of the American Expeditionary Force in June 1918. He was a modest soldier and won the respect of his company for his integrity, daring and marksmanship. On one occasion, he took out five German troops at a thousand yards with his bolt-action rifle, a distance Davis reportedly dismissed as “good shooting distance.”
On October 10, 1918, Davis single-handedly charged into a German machine gun nest, capturing the gun and killing the German gun crew. For this act, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, an award second only to the Congressional Medal of Honor. The French awarded him their two highest awards, the Military Medal and the Croix de Guerre.
In the predawn hours of November 11, 1918, Allied and German generals agreed to a cease-fire that would go into effect at 11 that morning, ending the Great War once and for all. The armistice would hold, and the diplomats and politicians would go about the business of trying to repair the damage the war had caused, and millions of veterans slowly returned home.
Of the nearly 200,000 Arkansas men who registered for the wartime draft, some 71,000 served. But 2,183 of those men died, half from diseases picked up in camps.
Davis would make it back to Arkansas by summer 1919 and remarry soon afterward. He would observe the first Armistice Day on November 11, 1919, after President Wilson proclaimed it a national holiday and the nation paused to remember the sacrifices and service of American troops in the war.
Across the nation, memorials were being planned and built to honor the Doughboys and for individual heroes of the war. At the same time, Britain, Canada, Australia and other Allies would call the day Remembrance Day.
But Davis was content to work at the Big Lake Hunting Club. He would not talk about his experiences, and stored his medals in his tackle box. When Gen. John J. Pershing, widely respected among the troops, was asked by the War Department to publish a list of the most distinguished soldiers of the war, Davis was included. Word leaked out around Manila, and Davis slowly acknowledged his exploits during the war.
Poison gas had been widely used by the Germans during the war, killing tens of thousands. Many more were injured, including Davis. Not long after his return from France, Davis developed a crippling case of tuberculosis, caused by the gas. He could not afford a doctor, and what veterans
services were available were too expensive. He found some manual labor jobs in the swamps, which only worsened his health.
Area veterans tried to help him with his money situation by arranging paid speeches, but Davis refused. Finally, in October 1922, his friends put together the $48 needed to take him to the veterans hospital in Memphis and have him admitted. They petitioned the government for the $1,800 in back pay owed to him. Davis’s health collapsed, and he died on January 5, 1923. Two weeks later, his back pay arrived.
Arkansans raised $5,000 to build a memorial to him, also raising money for his family. Dedicated in 1925 as Herman Davis State Park, the memorial still stands in
Manila.
Dr. Ken Bridges is a professor of history and geography at South Arkansas Community College in El Dorado and a resident historian for the South Arkansas Historical Preservation Society. Bridges can be reached by email at kbridges@ southark.edu.