Duty, Honor, Privilege : New York's Silk Stocking Regiment and the Breaking of the Hindenberg Line

by Harris, Stephen L.

• ISBN13: 9781574882018
• ISBN10: 1574882015
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-06-01
• Publisher: Potomac Books Inc

Summary

On September 29, 1918, a regiment of volunteers from New York State, many of them rich boys from Manhattan, attacked the feared Hindenburg Line, one of the strongest defensive systems ever devised. At a frightful cost, suffering more killed on a single day than any other regiment in American history, they broke the enemy and helped conclude World War I.

Interweaving extracts from diaries, letters, and previously published accounts, Stephen Harris follows the "silk stocking soldiers" from their earnest excitement during the early days of war, through their desperation in the dreadful trenches of Europe, and finally to their hometown heroes' welcome, the largest parade in New York City history.

Author Biography

Stephen L. Harris is a freelance journalist and editor of the Journal of Olympic History. He lives in Weybridge, Vermont.

Table of Contents

List of Maps	ix
Preface	xi
Acknowledgments	xvii
Prologue A Big Game Can Be Played But Once	1	(12)
True Soldiers Every Man of Them	13	(20)
The Regiment...Has Always Done Its Duty, and It Always Will	33	(29)
The First and the Seventh and Nothing In-Between	62	(21)
The Most Marvelous, Miraculous and Impressive Thing I Ever Witnessed	83	(21)
I Can Only Say Good-bye---Good Luck---God Bless You	104	(23)
His Heart, I Know, Is Back in God's Country	127	(17)
I Want...to Keep These Fellows Over Here Cheerful	144	(23)
He Was Their Gunga Din	167	(13)
That Country Was Full of Gas and Dead Englishmen	180	(9)
You Are Being Fattened Up for the Next Killing, You Know	189	(20)
We Were Up Against the Line Itself	209	(16)
It Was an Awful Time	225	(12)
How in God's Name Can Anyone Live in This?	237	(31)
Lads Here, Lads There, Torn Almost Limb from Limb	268	(14)
The Best Names of the City of New York	282	(14)
We Keep Moving...Deeper...into the Darkness of This Dream	296	(14)
Hell Popped That Morning	310	(20)
Epilogue It's Over and Now I Know I'm Going to Live!	330	(9)
Notes	339	(16)
Selected Bibliography	355	(6)
Index	361