[Baltimore Sun] Retro Baltimore: How ‘Baltimore’s Own’ helped end World War I
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The office clerks, shipyard workers and bankers were known as “Baltimore’s Own.” This was shorthand for a World War I Army regiment composed of 3,667 men mostly from Baltimore City and Baltimore County who took a highly fortified French hill and helped turn the course of that conflict. That siege of Montfaucon, a butte about 175 miles east of Paris, was a decisive engagement in a war that claimed 8.5 million military lives.
The unit was officially the 313th Regiment of the 79th Division. They were not seasoned warriors. Most had left their railroad or office jobs to sign up for military service two months after the war was declared.
One hundred-six years ago, in the fall of 1918, they were shot at, hit by exploding shells or poisoned by gas. More than a third of their numbers were counted as casualties. Some 416 died of wounds or disease.
A new book tells their story from the time these men boarded trains for what was then called Camp Meade in Anne Arundel County, were hastily trained and sailed to France aboard the steamship Leviathan on July 8, 1918. They disembarked in Brest, France, and rode rail boxcars, known as 40 and 8 — 40 men and eight horses to the military front. Some had been in uniform for as little as three months.
Many members of the 313th were drawn from the old 10th Ward (near Greenmount Cemetery), Highlandtown and Canton. Several sets of brothers enlisted simultaneously.
Mike Martin, a former Catonsville resident, tells his story in “Baltimore’s Own: Courage, Controversy and the Crucial Role of the 313th Regiment to end World War I,” a highly detailed account he published this year.
Martin, who taught at Lansdowne High School and is a former Arbutus and Catonsville Times reporter, came upon his “Baltimore’s Own” story on a leafy Edridge Way off Edmondson Avenue.
His childhood home backed up to that of a bookkeeper, William Grant. Grant was in his early 90s when he asked Martin for help with some materials stored in the attic of his brick rancher. Martin recalls how he pulled a cord to release a ladder and when he climbed under the roof, he found a War War I uniform, a dented helmet and a box of letters that became the basis of his new book.
Grant, who in 1918 lived in the village of Granite, wrote to his parents, who saved the letters. There were also notes from friends. Grant, who was getting ready to move into the Heartlands in Howard County, gave Martin the letters.
“I thought maybe one day I’ll do something with them,” Martin said
Martin then began looking at newspapers. The Sun and the old Baltimore American covered the story detailed in the letters. The siege of Montfaucon by Baltimore men who could have been your neighbor was huge news in 1918 and 1919.
On Sept. 26, 1918, in northeast France, the American Army began the offensive that would ultimately end World War I and send ripples across 20th-century history. (Staff file)
The attack to take Montfaucon began Sept. 26, 1918. Army officials wanted the hill to be taken the first day; it took the 313th two days. Rain hampered the arrival of artillery backup. A fog associated with the weather made German poison gas more effective. Grant, who wrote the letters, was a medic and had plenty to do.
After the hill’s capture, the 313th found out why it was so heavily defended by the German Army. It had secreted a tall, high-powered telescope within an old tower. The scope gave a huge tactical advantage.
Robert Armstrong, a Sun copy editor, was killed by an exploding shell as he and fellow editor William Conway carried the telescope and maps to Army intelligence.
The last man to die in World War I was Henry Gunther, a bank teller, who was living with his parents at 3011 Eastern Ave. facing Patterson Park. A member of the 313th, at midmorning on Nov. 11, 1918, Gunther and his company were at a village, Ville-devant-Chaumont, surrounded by dense fog. He was killed by a German machine gunner just before the Armistice was announced and fighting ceased. He is buried at Most Holy Redeemer Cemetery in Northeast Baltimore.
The last of the 313th to die of injuries sustained in the conflict was Harvey C. Sniffen, on March 21, 1919. He survived the fighting and returned to Baltimore with his injuries. He died at the Fort McHenry Army Hospital during surgery for a war-related wound.
The Evening Sun from Sept. 28, 1918
The 313th Regiment sailed back to Newport News, Virginia, on May 29, 1919. A second ship carried Baltimore’s Own to Pratt and Light streets where thousands lined up to welcome them back home as heroes. As the ship reached its dock, it passed a factory where a huge sign proclaimed, “Welcome home our heroes of Montfaucon.”
Local recognition of the Montfaucon butte eroded. A stately war memorial was erected in France near the battle site in 1937. The name is preserved in the Montfaucon Post of the American Legion in Southeast Baltimore.
Have a news tip? Contact Jacques Kelly at jkelly@baltsun.com or 410-624-9797.
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