Warren D Charles

Private, Co G, 7th Infantry, 3rd Division.

 Killed in action near Cierges (Meuse), France, October 11, 1918. Age 23.

Town:  Oakfield (also Cattaraugus County; see text)

Burial: Siloam Cemetery, Freedom, Cattaraugus County, New York

 

Warren Delvan Charles spent most of his life in Cattaraugus County, New York, but was living and working in Genesee County when he joined the service. He was born in Sandusky (Cattaraugus County) on March 16, 1895, the son of Buchanan J Charles. The 1900 US Census shows Warren at age 5 and his father and two siblings (Elizabeth, 11 and Clarence, 7) living in Freedom, New York. Buchanan is shown as a farmer, married for 13 years, but no wife/mother is listed. The 1905 NY and 1910 US censuses also show the Charles family living in Cattaraugus County, in Farmersville, with stepmother Mary E; in both of those censuses Warren’s father is listed as a storekeeper.

The 1915 NY State Census, however, shows Warren Charles living and working as a farm laborer in Oakfield (Genesee County), and Ellicottville Post articles from 1913 and 1914 also indicate he was working in Oakfield during that period. His NYSS, draft registration card, 1917’s Genesee County “Militia Enrollment List,” and the 1917 Farm Journal Directory of Genesee County also list an Oakfield residence for him.

Warren Charles left for Camp Dix, New Jersey, on September 26, 1917, as a member of Genesee County’s second draft contingent. Like most other members of the county’s first two contingents, he was initially assigned to Battery D of the 78th Division’s 307th Field Artillery. In December, 1917, he was transferred to the newly formed 3rd Division, based at Camp Greene in Charlotte, North Carolina, and assigned to the division’s 7th Infantry. His unit left Hoboken, New Jersey aboard the America on April 6, 1918, and arrived in France about ten days later.

Warren Charles survived the fighting in the Champagne-Marne sector in July 1918 that took the life of George K Botts, another Genesee County draftee who’d been transferred with Charles from Camp Dix to Company G of the 3rd Division’s 7th Infantry. Both had also seen action in mid-June at Belleau Wood.

On October 4, 1918, during the first phase of the Meuse-Argonne offensive, the 3rd Division attacked northward towards Romagne from the front line northwest of Montfaucon, between Nantillois and Cierges*, against strongly defended German positions. Nearly a week of heavy fighting later, the division had gained only a few kilometers. On October 10, the day before Warren was killed, Charles’s 2nd Battalion, 7th Infantry, in support of the division’s 30th Infantry, launched an assault at 9:45 p.m. from the northern edge of the Bois de Cunel, fighting at night across an open valley toward an enemy-held ridge beyond. They were stopped by enemy forces a couple of hours after midnight, but renewed the assault at 7:00 a.m. October 11, took the ridge by 8:30 a.m., and then joined troops of the 80th Division in an attack on Cunel farther north. Artillery, sniper, and machine-gun fire inflicted numerous casualties.

An undated death report in Private Charles’s Burial Case File, apparently based on company records, reads: “No eye witness present with company. Died at CIERGES France Dept of MEUSE, October 11, 1918 by reason of gun shot wounds. Buried at CIERGES France Dept MEUSE, Exact location of grave unknown. Informant Company Clerk. Go G 7th Infantry. Signed: Company Records.”

Correspondence in Private Charles’s Burial Case File between Warren Charles’s father and the War Department, starting in 1920, documents the father’s repeated inquiries as to the return of his son’s body, and the government’s unsuccessful efforts to locate the grave. Finally, a letter from the Quartermaster General’s office to Buchanan Charles dated December 15, 1925, more than seven years after the war’s end, announced that his son’s body had been found. Sadly, his father never received the news. Buchanan Charles had died two months earlier, on October 8.

Coordinates noted on disinterment documents in his Burial Case File place Warren Charles’s battlefield burial site about one kilometer due north of Cierges*.

Private Charles’s body was returned under military escort to the United States in 1926; a document in his Burial Case File confirms delivery to “undertaker” Henry D Baker (actually, Warren’s brother-in-law; husband of sister Elizabeth) at Farmersville, New York, on March 20 of that year. According to the January 7, 1926 Wyoming County Times, Warren Charles was to be buried beside the grave of his father. Their stones are located together, along with Mary E Charles’s, in the Siloam Cemetery in Freedom, New York.

 

* Located in the Lorraine region of northern France, department of Meuse. Also known as Cierges-sous-Montfaucon. Another Cierges, in the Picardy region of northern France, department of Aisne, was also the scene of fighting in 1918.

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November 29, 1918 Cuba Patriot/Rushford Spectator p8 c5

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December 14, 1918 Batavia Daily News p7 c5

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January 7, 1926 Wyoming County Times p5 c2

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Source: New York Service Summary from Abstracts of World War I Military Service, 1917-1919, NY State Archives, Albany, New York

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Source: Burial Case Files, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92, National Archives — St Louis, Missouri

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Source: Burial Case Files, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92, National Archives — St Louis, Missouri

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Source: Burial Case Files, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92, National Archives — St Louis, Missouri

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Source: Burial Case Files, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92, National Archives — St Louis, Missouri

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Source: Burial Case Files, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92, National Archives — St Louis, Missouri

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Source: Burial Case Files, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92, National Archives — St Louis, Missouri

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Source: Burial Case Files, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92, National Archives — St Louis, Missouri

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Source: Burial Case Files, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92, National Archives — St Louis, Missouri

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Source: Burial Case Files, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92, National Archives — St Louis, Missouri

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Source: Burial Case Files, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92, National Archives — St Louis, Missouri

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Source: Burial Case Files, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92, National Archives — St Louis, Missouri

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Source: Burial Case Files, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92, National Archives — St Louis, Missouri

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Source: Burial Case Files, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92, National Archives — St Louis, Missouri

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 Warren D Charles headstone and memorial stone, Siloam Cemetery, Freedom,  Cattaraugus County, New York

GPS Coordinates: Lat 42° 26’ 33.72” N, Long 78° 24’ 5.719” W (DD: 42.4427, -78.401589)

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Warren G Charles Sources:

– All County Lists

– Jan 1, 1913 Ellicottville Post p5 c1

– Dec 23, 1914 Ellicottville Post p3 c3

– Nov 29, 1918 Cuba Patriot p8 c5

– Dec 14, 1918 BD p7 c5*

– Jan 7, 1926 Wyoming County Times p5 c2

– Jan 20, 1926 Perry Herald p7 c3

– “United States Census, 1900.” Online index and images, HeritageQuest.com. Entries for Buchanan Charles (head) and Warren Charles (son, age 5), citing Census Records, Freedom, Cattaraugus, New York; sheet number 13, line numbers 5 and 8, microfilm series T623, Roll 1010, page 203.

– “New York State Census, 1905.” Online index and images, FamilySearch.org. Entries for Bucanon Charles (head) and Warren Charles (age 10), citing Census Records, Farmersville, E. D. 01, Cattaraugus, New York; page number 8, line numbers 22 and 26.

– “United States Census, 1910.” Online index and images, HeritageQuest.com. Entries for Buchanan Charles (head) and Warren D Charles (son, age 15), citing Census Records, Farmersville, Cattaraugus, New York; sheet number 6B, line numbers 91 and 93, microfilm series T624, Roll 926, page 192.

– “New York State Census, 1915.” Online index and images, Ancestry.com. Entry for Warren Charles, age 20, citing Census Records, Oakfield, A.D. 01, E.D. 01, Genesee, New York; page number 38, line 34.

Farm Journal Illustrated Directory of Genesee County (1917), p 147

– “Militia Enrollment List” (Genesee County, 1917), p C8

– NYSS

Roll of Honor (NY State), p 64

World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 (Ancestry.com)

Brief Histories of Divisions, U.S. Army 1917-1918, p 8

3d Division, Summary of Operations in the World War, pp 57-58, 69-74

History of the Third Division United States Army in the World War, pp 25-28, 85-105

– BCF

– Email correspondence with Lorna Spencer, Town of Freedom historian, re location of Charles graves (May 11 and May 13, 2013); re Henry D Baker relationship (June 17, 2013)

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Click for Key to Source Abbreviations. See the Bibliography for complete title, author, and publisher information, with links to online access when available.