Leonard C Snyder - The County and the Kaiser

Private, Co F, 4th Infantry, 3rd Division.

Died August 2, 1918 of wounds received in action near Le Charmel, France. Age 20.

Town: Batavia (also Erie County; see text)

Burial: Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, Plot C Row 38 Grave 20, Romagne, France

Leonard Cyrus Snyder was born in Batavia (Genesee County), New York, on June 15, 1898. He was the next-to-youngest child of Andrew M Snyder, a carpenter, and wife Elizabeth (Lizzie) Barbery Snyder. The 1900 US Census shows Leonard at age 2 living in Batavia with his parents and three older siblings (brothers Peter and Andrew; sister Katie). The 1910 US Census shows the family on Bank Street Road in Batavia, with an additional daughter, Elizabeth, the youngest. (Newspaper articles as early as 1903 and Burial Case File documents as late as 1932 give the Snyder household address more specifically as Vine & Bank Streets.) Only Leonard and his younger sister are listed with their parents on Bank Street Road in the 1915 NY State Census; Leonard’s occupation is given as “farm laborer.”

By the time 1917’s Farm Journal Illustrated Directory of Genesee County was compiled, only one child (presumably Elizabeth) was listed in the Snyder household. According to newspaper reports, Leonard had moved to Buffalo and was working at the Buffalo Steel Company just before enlisting in November, 1917; his NYSS correspondingly shows a Buffalo address. This explains why he is listed among Erie County soldiers in the New York Roll of Honor. On November 28, 1917, Snyder was sworn into the service at Columbus Barracks recruit depot, in Columbus, Ohio, where he was assigned to the 4th Infantry, 3rd Division. His unit left for overseas duty aboard the Great Northern on April 6, 1918, and arrived in France about ten days later.

At 8 a.m. on July 24, 1918, the sixth day of the Aisne-Marne Offensive and the day Private Snyder received his mortal wound, the 4th Infantry attacked northeast along the western slope of a ridge toward Le Charmel, with Snyder’s 2nd Battalion at the center of the assault wave. The troops suffered heavy casualties from artillery, machine-gun and sniper fire in bitter fighting before successfully taking the town on July 25.

In a searcher’s casualty report in the 3rd Division’s operations files, Corporal Miles Perry of Snyder’s Company F, 4th Infantry, states: “Pvt. Snyder was severely wounded in the neck by a Machine Gun bullet on the morning of July 24 1918 on the Marne front just before entering the town of La.Chamelle [sic]. He was later reported Died of Wounds in Hospital.” An added notation reads: “Died August 2, 1918 from wounds received in action July 24. (Record at Statistical Section, Hdqrs. 3d Div.)” One of three searchers’ reports in Snyder’s Burial Case File gives an identical account from Corporal Perry, while the two others attribute his wound to shrapnel rather than to machine-gun fire. All give the same date of death.

Private Leonard Snyder was originally buried at the American Cemetery at Contrexeville, a former summer health resort with numerous hotels that had been converted into base hospitals. In 1921, Private Snyder’s remains were permanently interred at the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery in Romagne, France.

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August 14, 1918 Batavia Daily News p1 c5

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August 17, 1918 Batavia Times p2 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

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Source: “Snyder, Leonard C” Casualty Report; Division 3, Box 83, Decimal 704; Records of Divisions, compiled 1917 – 1920 (ARC ID 301641); Record Group 120; National Archives at College Park, Maryland