Letters From War Wednesday: World War I – Virgil Winebrenner.

Hump day again, and time for our weekly feature, Letters From War Wednesdays.  The History Junkie just doesn’t see enough out there on WWI.  So let’s again take a look back at the Great War.

Merriam, Indiana soldier, Virgil Winebrenner enlisted in the U.S. Army in April 1916.  He was assigned to Company K, 18th Infantry.  The United States entered World War I a year later.  General John J. Pershing selected the country’s finest–the 16th, 18th, 26th and 28th Infantry Regiments to form the 1st Infantry Division.  The 1st ID would number as America’s initial entrant into combat.

Winebrenner wrote this September 1917 note to his parents from Hoboken, New Jersey, just prior to his departure overseas.  Heber was Virgil’s 11-year-old little brother.

Virgil Winebrenner - 1st ID - WW I

“… We arrived here last night and slept on the deck of the interned German liner, George Washington.  They have several German ships interned here including the large, Vaterland.

“I would have liked awful well to have come home when we came through Indiana, but it was impossible to do so.  I didn’t know what road we were going to take out of Chicago or I would have telegraphed to you and you easily could have been to Huntington to see me, for we visited there about an hour.

“… Ask Heber how he would like to go with me over to fight the Germans.”

A month later, in October 1917, the 1st Infantry Division hit the front lines.  They replaced beleaguered French troops along the Einville sector, near Luneville, France.  The first American casualties of World War I soon followed.

Within weeks, a fateful Western Union Telegram from the U.S. War Department arrived at the post office in Merriam.  As local grocer, Al McDaniel tried to locate Virgil’s parents, A.J. and Ella, word quickly leaked throughout town.  Younger brother, Heber first heard the awful news from childhood friends.  He at once thought of his mother.  “Oh boys, don’t tell Mama,” he begged.

The correspondence spoke squarely.  “Deeply regret to inform you that Corporal Virgil G. Winebrenner infantry is officially reported killed in action.”  Winebrenner was the second Hoosier killed in World War I, shot in the head while serving in the trenches of France.

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