Percy Luttrell - The County and the Kaiser

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

Died of pneumonia and wounds in a hospital at Rouen, France, November 4, 1918. Age 28.

Town: LeRoy

Burial: Somme American Cemetery, Plot A Row 9 Grave 13, Bony, France

Percy Luttrell was born in LeRoy (Genesee County), New York, and lived there all his life before entering the service in 1917. There are inconsistencies regarding Luttrell’s birth date and, accordingly, his age when he died. The 1917 “Militia Enrollment List” and 1900 US Census say Luttrell was born in 1894, but his 74th Infantry Enlistment Card clearly states his birth date as September 21, 1890. This agrees with the ages given for Percy on the 1892 NY (1 year old), 1910 US (19 years old), and 1915 NY (24 years old) censuses, all taken prior to his birth month of September in those years. The 1905 NY Census, taken in June, gives his age as 13, which would mean his birth year was 1891 and his age when he died 27. Likewise, announcements of his death in the November 27, 1918 LeRoy Gazette-News and the November 29, 1918 Batavia Daily News say that Luttrell was “born in LeRoy 27 years ago.” Nonetheless, the preponderance of documents indicate that he was born in September, 1890, and that he was therefore 28 years old when he died in November 1918.

Percy was the next-to-youngest child of carpenter George Luttrell, Sr., and wife Anna nee Tully Luttrell. The 1892 NY Census shows Percy at age 1, living in LeRoy with his parents and six siblings (sister Caroline, or Carrie, the oldest; brothers Fred, Robert, Edward, George Jr., and Ralph). The 1900 US Census shows the family at 29 Gilbert Street in LeRoy with an additional daughter, Mary, and without Carrie, who was married to Archibald Criger of LeRoy in 1899. Percy’s mother, Anna, died in 1906 (see the November 7, 1906 LeRoy Gazette-News), after which the Luttrells apparently lived with Percy’s sister, Carrie, and her husband on Myrtle Street in LeRoy. In a document in Private Luttrell’s Burial Case File, his father notes that Percy’s sister Carrie “acted as his mother.” The 1910 US Census shows the Crigers and Lutrells at 100 Myrtle Street, while the 1915 NY Census shows them at 93 Myrtle Street, the same residence listed for Percy on 1917’s Genesee County “Militia Enrollment List” and on his 74th Infantry Enlistment Card. On September 1, 1915, less than three months after the 1915 NY Census was taken, Percy’s 18-year-old sister, Mary, and two other area teens were killed in an auto accident.

Percy Luttrell enlisted in the 74th Regiment of the New York National Guard in Buffalo on June 19, 1917. Less than a month later, on July 15, all state National Guard units were called into federal service. Luttrell was assigned to the 74th’s Company A in August, and at the end of September the 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. Luttrell’s Company A left the United States for France on May 10, 1918, aboard HMS Kurtz.

Some reports, including his casualty listing in History of the 27th Division Volume 2, say only that Private Luttrell died of pneumonia. His death announcement in the November 27, 1918 LeRoy Gazette-News says his death was “ resulting from pneumonia and shell shock.” However, the NY Roll of Honor, the November 29, 1918 Batavia Daily News, and most subsequent articles say that he died of pneumonia and wounds. This is most likely to be accurate. In a letter to Private Luttrell’s father published in the December 4, 1918 LeRoy Gazette-News, Army chaplain P.A. Smith, who was with Luttrell when he died at a hospital in Rouen, France, writes that he passed away “as the result of a wound in the leg, and bronchial pneumonia.” Furthermore, most documents in Luttrell’s Burial Case File give his cause of death as “pneumonia and gunshot wound.”

It’s unclear when Luttrell received his wound. Except for a few relatively brief rest periods, the 27th Division was in almost constant combat from late July 1918 through the end of September, when it was relieved just after the fierce fighting at the Hindenburg Line on September 29 and 30. Luttrell reportedly had survived all that. The November 21, 1918 Wyoming County Times says (presumably based on reports from brothers Robert and Ralph, who lived in Warsaw) that “he went through the Hindenburg Line with his company without a scratch, and was one of three that was able to respond to roll call of his whole company.” This suggests that Luttrell was wounded during the 27th Division’s later, final actions before the end of the war. On October 11, 1918, the 27th Division moved back to the front lines, and on October 17 through 19 attacked German defenses at the Selle River near St. Souplet, with the 108th Infantry leading the assault and Luttrell’s battalion in front. The 27th Division was relieved on October 20 and saw no more action before the Armistice. According to chaplain P.A. Smith’s letter, Luttrell had been in the Rouen hospital (about 150 miles from St. Souplet) “fully a week” when he died on November 4. The war ended one week later.

In 1936 in his honor, twenty-five LeRoy area veterans formed the Percy A Luttrell Post No. 355, Veterans of Foreign Wars. The organization was active through the early 1970s.

– – – – –

—— [CLICK ON DOCUMENTS TO OPEN FULL VIEW IN SEPARATE TAB] ——

November 27, 1918 LeRoy Gazette-News p1 c4 & p8 c4

– – – – –

December 4, 1918 LeRoy Gazette-News p1 c4

– – – – –

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

– – – – –

Identity Tags (front and back views) in Percy Luttrell Burial Case File, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92, National Archives – St. Louis, Missouri