USA TODAY International Edition
Follow the Unknown Soldier home
Author O’Donnell tells stories of Body Bearers
In an instant, an artillery shell could turn a robust American soldier into an unidentified mass of flesh and bone. By the end of the World War I, 2,148 American soldiers lay buried and unidentified in France.
Patrick O’Donnell’s new history “The Unknowns: The Untold Story of America’s Unknown Soldier and WWI’s Most Decorated Heroes Who Brought Him Home” (Atlantic Monthly Press, 361 pp., ★★★g) looks at the eight brave men who earned the honor of laying the nation’s first unknown soldier to rest back home. It’s a gripping read about a war many Americans know little about.
France started the move to create a tomb of the unknown soldier, O’Donnell writes, and President Woodrow Wilson signed a law shortly before he left office in March 1921. The ceremonial burial of the casket carrying that soldier would be on Nov. 11, 1921 — Veterans Day.
The actual Unknown Soldier was found among the 2,148 dead in France by a special team, and then the Body Bearers had the honor of carrying the casket in which the soldier was buried.
O’Donnell’s focus on the Body Bearers makes “The Unknowns” stand out from the usual war story. He shows how their exploits brought them to the notice of Gen. John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force.
They include 1st. Lt. Samuel Woodfill of the Army’s 5th Division, which fought in the poorly conceived Meuse-Argonne Offensive in October 1918, “some of the darkest” days in Army history, O’Donnell writes.
Woodfill, 34, inhaled a faceful of mustard agent from a German attack, which sucked the air from his lungs and impaired his vision. “Gasping for air, Woodfill crawled out of the shell hole and headed for the only bit of cover he could: ‘a clump of old thistle.’ ”
Then Woodfill took on a German machine gun nest, systematically killing six enemy soldiers as his unit charged forward. Two of his comrades were disintegrated by an exploding shell, leaving little more of them “than of a tomato when you throw it against a brick wall,” Woodfill said.
For his bravery, Woodfill would receive the Medal of Honor and be Pershing’s selection as the most outstanding soldier of the expeditionary force. He would help carry the Unknown Soldier to his grave at Arlington National Cemetery outside Washington, D.C.
Another indelible character is Navy Chief Gunner’s Mate James Delaney, who survived capture and a year in a German prison camp. Delaney, O’Donnell writes, “was inked with numerous tattoos, including a list of ships on which he had served.” Delaney emerged from prison an emaciated version of the sea dog who had entered the war.
At times “The Unknowns” can be confusing, as there are multiple characters to follow through multiple battles and locations. But few authors have the same kind of enthusiasm and gusto O’Donnell brings to his topic. His gift is taking the reader from the map room to the battlefield. It’s an exciting, often harrowing, trip worth taking.