Ralph R Johncox - The County and the Kaiser

Private First Class, Co A, 108th Infantry, 27th Division.

Died September 29, 1918, of wounds received in action near Hindenburg Line east of Ronssoy, France. Age 22.

Town: Batavia/Alexander

Burial: Somme American Cemetery, Plot D Row 6 Grave 8, Bony, France

Ralph Riley Johncox was born on April 26, 1896. The Batavia Daily News article announcing his death, published on the day the war ended, November 11, 1918, says that he was born in Corfu. However, all other sources, including his NYSS, draft registration card, Genesee County “Militia Enrollment” listing, and 74th Infantry enlistment card, give Darien Center as his birthplace. Regardless, he was a lifelong Genesee County resident. County Lists 1 and 4 give Ralph Johncox’s town as Batavia, and the November 11, 1918 Batavia Daily News states that he “lived in Batavia for 12 years preceding his enlistment.” The 1900 US Census shows him at age 4 living in Darien with his parents (James and Sarah) and three siblings (brothers Thomas and Wilbur, sister Mary). The 1910 US Census shows the Johncox family, with the addition of another son, two-year-old Alton, living at 138 State Street in Batavia. (Alton died five years later, in 1915, of appendicitis.) The 1915 NY State Census lists Ralph Johncox at age 19 working for farmer Frank Silliman on Lewiston Road in Batavia.

Alexander, however, is given as Ralph Johncox’s town of residence on his draft registration card and the county “Militia Enrollment List,” as well as in Farm Journal Illustrated Directory of Genesee County (all three sources from 1917) and on County Lists 2 and 3 and the NY Roll of Honor. Apparently Johncox grew up in Batavia but at the time of his enlistment was living in Alexander, where according to his draft registration card he was working for farmer Richmond Dunlap.

Ralph Johncox enlisted in the New York National Guard’s 74th Regiment in Buffalo on July 16, 1917, just as all National Guard units were being called into federal service as a consequence of the nation’s declaration of war. On August 1 he was assigned to Company A, and at the end of September the 74th Regiment was sent to Camp Wadsworth, South Carolina, where it became part of the 27th Division’s 108th Infantry. The division shipped out for overseas duty in May, 1918, after nearly eight months of training. On May 10, 1918, Johncox’s Company A and the rest of the 108th Infantry’s 1st Battalion left the United States for France from Newport News, Virginia, aboard HMS Kurtz.

Private First Class Johncox was one of at least 192 men of the 108th Infantry who died on September 29, 1918, in fierce combat that helped break the strongest point of the infamous Hindenburg Line, a complex of defenses including 30-foot-deep concrete bunkers, the St. Quentin canal and tunnel, miles of hidden passageways, and fortified trench systems fronted by fields of heavy twisted barbed wire.

Assigned the task of mopping up concealed machine-gun nests and enemy troops, and fighting 50 to 100 yards behind the lead assault wave through thick smoke and fog, the 108th’s 1st Battalion, including Company A, faced devastating machine-gun and rifle fire from all directions and a deadly enemy artillery counterbarrage of gas and high-explosive shells.

Although Pfc. Johncox is recorded among those who “died of wounds” rather than “killed in action” on September 29, 1918, a document in his Burial Case File confirms that he received his wound on the same day he died: “ Ralph R. Johncox Co A 108 Inf Died Sept 29/18 from Wounds Received in Action – Roster has him WIA Sept 29/18.” This makes him one of seven Genesee County members of the 108th Infantry who were killed in the attack on the Hindenburg Line on September 29, 1918; two other county soldiers (one from the 108th Infantry, one from the 107th) would die later of wounds received in the battle that day.

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November 11, 1918 Batavia Daily News p7 c1

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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