Trinity and World War I, Part 1: Early Bantams Decide

Donald M. Bishop ’67

Alum Contributor

In September, I attended the “First Illumination” of the National World War I Memorial in Washington, a short distance from the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue. The entire Memorial includes a pool and a fountain, trees and landscaping, a statue of General John J. Pershing and memorial inscriptions, but the powerful centerpiece is a long wall of bronze figures entitled “A Soldier’s Story,” sculpted by Sabin Howard. Of the 38 figures most are doughboys, with some nurses among them. The two ends of the long wall show one soldier leaving – and at the end, returning – home.

It’s now been 106 years since the end of the “Great War,” and we can add to the dedication of the memorial by recalling the Trinity students and alumni who participated in the struggle from 1914 to 1918. The United States formally entered the war on April 6, 1917, but some Trinity men were already in the fight, and some were preparing to do so. This first article recalls those forerunners.

Some Who Joined the War Early

Brooke Bonnel had graduated in 1912, and he was selling stocks on Wall Street in the then-famous brokerage firm of Hornblower, Weeks. He left the firm, traveled to France and joined the French Foreign Legion. Fighting in Champagne in early 1915, German machine gun fire nearly severed his leg at the hip. He used two rifles as crutches to make his way to an aid station and the leg was amputated. He left the French Army wearing the Médaille Militaire and the Croix de Guerre (War Cross) recognizing his bravery in action. (He would return to France to drive for the American Red Cross later.)

When the war began in Europe, Charles Hurd Howell of the Class of 1912 (pictured, left) was a Rhodes Scholar studying at Oxford. He left to join the Royal Flying Corps. A pilot, he joined the defense of England against German air raids and supported the Somme drive of 1916. He was “mentioned in despatches” for “splendid service during the war.”

Robert Glenney of the Class of 1904 was born in Ireland, but his family immigrated to the U.S., and he attended Manchester High School in Connecticut before entering Trinity. He left the College early for railroad work in South Africa. When the war began, he enlisted in the 5th Regiment of the South African Infantry Brigade. Sergeant Glenney died of wounds in the Third Battle of Ypres on Sept. 23, 1917. He walked “neath the elms,” and is buried at the Nine Elms Military Cemetery in Belgium.

Samuel N. Watson, Class of 1882, had served as a chaplain in the Iowa National Guard after he graduated from Trinity and was ordained in the Episcopal Church. By 1914 he was the new rector of Holy Trinity Church in Paris. Helping Americans stranded in Paris became a larger mission, organizing the American Ambulance Committee and the American Relief Clearing House.

Ambulance Drivers

Many Trinity men eager to join the war were wary that serving under a foreign flag might jeopardize their citizenship under the law of that time, so they were reluctant to join the French, British or Canadian forces. They instead became ambulance drivers for the Red Cross, the American Field Service, or other organizations (Ernest Hemingway, Walt Disney, John Dos Passos and e. e. cummings were ambulance drivers as well). This was hazardous work, which involved driving to the front lines over blasted roads crowded with men, horses, vehicles, downed telephone lines and unexploded ordnance, sometimes under fire. They picked up wounded soldiers and took them to casualty clearing stations and hospitals.

Edward N. Scott of the Class of 1889 (pictured, right), then in his 50s, left Switzerland for France in 1915. He drove his own car for six months as a member of the American Volunteer Motor Ambulance Corps – including the battle of Champagne in 1915.

John H. Townsend, Jr. of the Class of 1916, a member of the Bible and Mission Study Committee of Trinity’s YMCA, drove ambulances for the French and then the American Red Cross for three years. 

Archer Platt Sayres of the Class of 1913 traveled to Canada before the U.S. entered the war and served in France with the 10th Canadian Field Ambulance Company. Trinity’s Honor Rolls list at least 21 alumni who drove ambulances; there were surely more.

Deciding Early: the Plattsburg Camps

As the war began in 1914, most Americans favored neutrality and non-involvement in the European war. In 1916, Woodrow Wilson was re-elected; his campaign slogan was “He Kept Us Out of War.” Many sensed the U.S. would be drawn in and, viewing the numbers of troops mobilized by the warring powers, knew that the U.S. was woefully unprepared. The warring nations each had millions of soldiers – British (3.8 million), French (2.8 million) and German (6.6 million). The authorized strength of the U.S. Army in 1914 was less than 100,000 troops, and if federalized the National Guard could add another 112,000.

Among the ardent voices for “preparedness” were former President Theodore Roosevelt and former Army Chief of Staff Leonard Wood. They were leaders in the “Preparedness Movement,” which in turn fostered a “Plattsburg Movement” of privately funded summer military training camps, some for students and some for “business men.” The largest was in Plattsburg, NY. In 1915 and 1916, some forty thousand men, Trinity alumni among them, took time off from their occupations for military training that could qualify them for reserve commissions. These Trinity men count among those who “decided early.” In 1917 most would be called up in the tumultuous expansion of the U.S. Army. 

The Large Contributions of a Small College

A few months before the war began in Europe, 43 members of the Class of 1914 received degrees in course. The “guns of August” thundered just before the 78 new students in the Class of 1918 donned their freshman beanies. In 1915, there were about 2000 living alumni. The Honor Rolls published after the war record that alumni who served in uniform numbered 527, and 110 more supported the war in various ways. Carved on a wall in the Trinity Chapel are the names of 20 who gave their lives; articles that follow will tell many of their stories. 

This article is the first part of an ongoing series, with new installments releasing on Sundays. For part two, click here.