Glen C Sprague - The County and the Kaiser

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

Killed in action near St. Souplet, France, October 17, 1918. Age 28.

Town: Batavia

Burial: Somme American Cemetery, Plot D Row 8 Grave 4, Bony, France

Glen Charles Sprague was born on July 22, 1890. The November 30, 1918 Batavia Daily News article announcing his death stated that he was born in Alexander, but his NYSS and his 74th Infantry enlistment card list his birthplace as Darien; both towns are in Genesee County, New York. Glen was the oldest of eight children of carpenter Charles A Sprague and wife, Anna J nee Grant Sprague. The family apparently moved frequently. The 1900 US Census shows Glen at age 9 living in Alexander with his parents and four siblings (brothers Roy, Chester and Floyd; sister Lily or Lilian). The family had moved to Batavia by the 1910 US Census, in which the Spragues and all eight children, including an additional daughter (Alice), and two more sons (Stanley and Clifford), are shown living at 19 Hart Street. The 1915 NY Census shows the Spragues at 44 Walnut Street in Batavia, with Glen, at age 24, working as a teamster. 1917’s Farm Journal Illustrated Directory of Genesee County also lists him as a teamster, and shows him boarding at 79 Main Street. The same address is given on Genesee County’s 1917 “Militia Enrollment List,” with “teaming” as Sprague’s occupation. Notices of Glen’s death in 1918 newspapers list his parents’ residence as 110 Jackson Street in Batavia.

Glen Sprague enlisted in the New York National Guard’s 74th Regiment in Buffalo on July 30, 1917, two weeks after all National Guard units had been called into federal service as the country mobilized for war. He was assigned to Company A, as were two of his brothers, Roy and Chester, who’d also enlisted in the 74th. 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. On May 10, 1918, 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.

Initial reports of Pfc. Sprague’s death, appearing in the November 30, 1918 Batavia Daily News and a week later in the Batavia Times, said that he had died October 17 of wounds sustained in the 27th Division’s massive attack on the Hindenburg Line on September 29—the same day’s fighting in which seven other Genesee County members of the 108th Infantry, including Ralph R Johncox, a cousin of the Sprague brothers, were killed. This turned out to be an error.

A document in Pfc. Sprague’s Burial Case File dated January 21, 1919 indicates further confusion, listing Glen Sprague’s date of death as September 29, 1918 and his cause of death as killed in action. The record was set straight more than a year later, as reflected in a Burial Case File copy of a letter from the Adjutant General of the Army to the Quartermaster General dated May 4, 1920. Headed by the subject line, “Date of death of Private 1st-class Glen C Sprague,” it reads, “Upon investigation, it has been ascertained that the date of death of the above man heretofore communicated to you, is erroneous, and that Private 1st-class Glen C. Sprague, #1,213,589, Company A, 108th Infantry, was killed in action October 17, 1918.” Subsequent documents in Sprague’s Burial Case File also give that date and cause of death.

Interestingly, Sprague’s NYSS states that he was killed in action on October 17, 1918, but adds “wounded Sept 29” in the space for “Other wounds or injuries received in action.” It’s likely that Pfc. Sprague was indeed wounded during the September 29, 1918 combat for the Hindenburg Line, but was among the few remaining troops—about a third of the division’s strength before the Hindenburg fighting—who were still able to fight two weeks later in what would become the division’s final days of battle before the war’s end.

For several days following the Hindenburg fighting, the battered 27th Division rested behind the lines while British forces and the American 30th Division pursued the Germans, who retreated about 15 miles eastward to the Selle River, in the vicinity of St. Souplet, and dug in to take a stand. Starting on October 6, the 27th Division moved by stages back to the front, where on October 12 it relieved the 30th Division at St. Souplet, and for several days held the line amid constant sniping and house-to-house patrol fighting. On October 15, the Americans, including the 30th Division, which had returned to the front on the right of the 27th Division, were ordered to prepare for an attack across the Selle.

At 5:20 a.m. on October 17, the day Pfc. Sprague was killed, the 108th Infantry’s 1st Battalion, including Sprague’s Company A, led the assault on the left half of the 27th Division’s sector, from the eastern edge of St. Souplet. In fog and smoke from a protective artillery barrage and a strong enemy counterbarrage, the 108th’s troops waded across the Selle River, which was three to four feet deep and 10 to 15 feet wide, and climbed up and over a steep bank toward the enemy’s lines against heavy machine-gun fire. A searcher’s report gives an account of Sprague’s death from fellow Company A member Corporal Arthur L Pope: “After crossing La Salle [sic] River and starting up the bank, he was shot through the stomach. Instant death. Oct. 17, 1918. St. Souplet.”

Private First Class Glen Charles Sprague was originally buried at the St. Souplet American Cemetery. In 1921, his remains were moved to their permanent resting place at the Somme American Cemetery at Bony, France.

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

November 30, 1918 Batavia Daily News p6 c5

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December 7, 1918 Batavia Times p2 c2

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October 17, 1922 Batavia Daily News p3 c3

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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