World War I began June 28, 1914, and ended on Armistice Day, Nov., 11, 1918, at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.
By the end of the war four major powers -- the German, Russian, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires -- ceased to exist.
The United States had been outraged by the sinking of the Lusitania, a British ocean liner sailing from New York to Liverpool, on May 7, 1915, which killed 1,198 people, including 128 Americans.
The Germans curtailed their U-boat (submarine) warfare for two years, but the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare, together with the Zimmerman Telegram, a message from Germany proposing that Mexico make war against the U.S., finally pushed U.S. public opinion over the tipping point, and war was declared April 6, 1917.
Quincy lost a number of residents in the war. Brig. Gen. Henry Root Hill was killed Oct. 16, 1918, in France, near Verdun, and is memorialized with a drinking fountain at the History Museum at Fourth and Maine streets.
Pvt. William C. Siepker was killed Oct. 8, 1918, near the village of St. Etienne, in the south of France.
Another Quincy resident, Lt. Joseph W. Emery Jr., was killed July 18, 1918, near Vierzy, France, about 10 miles from Soissons, on the River Marne. He was 21 years old.
Joseph Emery was born Jan. 12, 1896, in Quincy, the son of Joseph W. Emery Sr., and May Newcomb. The Emerys lived at 1677 Maine. Joseph Emery's father was president and treasurer of the Channon-Emery Stove Co.
One grandfather, Samuel Hopkins Emery, was pastor of the First Union Congregational Church and a founder of the Quincy Historical Society.
The other grandfather, Richard Newcomb, was president of the Quincy Paper Co., built the mansion at 16th and Maine that now is the Quincy Museum and was the majority owner in the Newcomb Hotel at Fourth and Maine.
After graduating from Quincy High School, Joseph Emery attended Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., where he was a star halfback on the football team. He was a senior at Dartmouth when he applied for admission to the officers' reserve corps training camp and reported for duty May 14, 1917. He wrote to his parents that "this is the greatest thing that has ever happened in the world and a man can't afford to be out of it." In June he was given a day to go to back to Hanover and receive his diploma. He received his commission as a second lieutenant Aug. 15, 1917.
On Sept. 6 Emery sailed for France on the transport Pocahontas, arriving at St. Nazaire on Sept. 20. His unit, the 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Division, American Expeditionary Forces, took over the regimental sector between Verdun and St. Mihiel, where he spent seven weeks in trench warfare.
In a letter to his father, written July 3, 1918, he gave a vivid description of the battle of Vaux. "Waiting for the zero hour was something like waiting for the Princeton game to start, except that we kept busy all the time.
"Just at 6 everybody went over the top at once. It was beautiful, just like a maneuver, and I doubt if they ever did so well in a maneuver. A long line of men five yards apart marching ahead like a wave. No rush -- 100 yards each two minutes was the schedule. One man would get a yard ahead and would slow up for the rest of them just as cool as ice. Shells bursting all around and nobody seemed to pay any attention to them."
On July 20, First Lt. C.O. Mattfeldt, 9th Infantry, wrote the official report: "When the zero hour arrived 4:35 A.M. July 18, 1918, all stepped forward and charged the Boche. The artillery noise was deafening, tanks darting here and there closely followed our lines. Soon prisoners arrived, and they were immediately sent out to bring in the wounded. They seemed most willing to do that. They were frightened beyond description.
Lts. Swett and Pope were wounded, Lt. Emery was killed. Lt. Leland C. Stevenson who was Materiel Officer was wounded."
Emery was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross with this citation: "Joseph W. Emery, Jr., first lieutenant, 9th Infantry. For extraordinary heroism in action near Vierzy, France, July 18, 1918. While attached to the regimental post of command in the rear, Lieut. Emery voluntarily joined the assaulting battalion as a platoon leader in a company which was short of officers. When desperate hostile resistance was encountered at the outset of the attack and all the other officers of the company became casualties, he took command of the company and courageously led his men in overcoming enemy machine-gun nests. While rushing an enemy position at the head of his men this gallant officer was killed."
Emery is buried in Oisne-Aisne Cemetery in France.
Back in Quincy, little was known of how Emery died, or of the engagement that proved to be his last. However, many letters were later received by his parents from his fellow officers speaking of him in the highest terms as an officer and a man, and saying that he was beloved by officers and men alike.
Emery's heroism came at a critical time. The Germans had commenced a spring offensive in March 1918, hoping to break through before the U.S. Army was able to take to the French battlefields in full force. Battles at Belleau Wood, Vaux, Montdidier-Noyon, Cantigny, Chateau-Thierry and Soissons followed.
On July 15, the Germans launched the last phase of their offensive, the Second Battle of the Marne; had they broken through, Paris could not have been saved. German Chancellor Hertling later confessed that "at the beginning of July 1918 I was convinced ... that before the first of September our adversaries would send us peace proposals. ... That was on the 15th. On the 18th even the most optimistic among us knew that all was lost. The history of the world was played out in three days."
Robert Cook recently retired as a member of the Illinois Appellate Court. He is a member of the historical society.
Sources:
Clark, Eugene F., ed. War Record of Dartmouth College 1917-1918. Hanover, NH: The Trustees, 1922. 2nd-division.com/_div.images/men/emery.joseph/emery.dartmouth.2.jpg
Cook, Robert. "William C. Siepker: A Marine Remembered," Quincy Herald-Whig, March 17, 2013.
Drescher, Joseph H., Lt. Col. USMCR (ret) 2nd Division Second to None. Emery, Joseph W. Jr. (First Lt.) -- DSC Vierzy; SSC, Chateau Thierry. K. I. A. 7-18-18 2nd-division.com/_div.men/emery.joseph.htm
Eliot, S., Henry S. Commager and William E.L. Morison. "The Growth of the American Republic," Volunte 2, fifth edition, pp. 583-585. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969.
"Lieut. Emery Gives Up Life For Country." Quincy Daily Journal, Aug. 26, 1918.
Mattfeldt, C.O. 1st Lieut., 9th Infantry. Records of the Second Division (Regular) Vol. 7; "Operation Reports-War Diaries-Patrol Reports," Second Division Historical Section, the Army War College, Washington, D.C., 2nd-division.com/_div.men/emery.joseph.htm.
The Great War: Battles of the Western Front 1914-1918. "German Offensives to Break the Deadlock." greatwar.co.uk/battles/#germanspringoffensives