Charles E Votrie - The County and the Kaiser

Private First Class, Co B, 59th Infantry, 4th Division.

Killed in action near Bazoches, France, August 11, 1918. Age 31.

Town: Batavia

Burial: Oise-Aisne American Cemetery, Tablets of the Missing, Fere-en-Tardenois, France; also memorial stone in St. Joseph Cemetery, Section A, Batavia, Genesee County, New York

Charles Edward Votrie (misspelled Votry or Votery in several sources) was born in Batavia (Genesee County), New York, on April 28, 1887. He was one of two children (sister, Isabelle) of Joseph and Margaret Votrie. According to the September 26, 1918 Batavia Daily News, he attended Batavia’s Pringle Avenue School, and “all his life was spent here excepting two years in Binghamton” (Broome County, New York). The 1905 NY Census shows Charles at age 18 with his parents at 24 Ganson Avenue in Batavia—the same address given for Charles and his family in the 1910 US Census, and for his parents in the 1915 NY Census and 1917’s Farm Journal Illustrated Directory of Genesee County. Charles apparently was living in the Binghamton area by 1917, when he registered for the draft there on June 5, listing an Endicott (also Broome County) address and giving his occupation as electrician for the Aldridge Electric Company.

Although he registered for the draft in Broome County, Votrie may have moved back to Batavia by February 1918 when he was selected as a member of Genesee County’s fourth draft contingent. In a March 1, 1918 Batavia Daily News article concerning the draftees, he’s listed as “transferred from Binghamton.” In some cases, such transfers occurred when a registrant with one local board moved and asked to be placed under the jurisdiction of a closer local board.

Charles Votrie was among seven men in the fourth Genesee County draft contingent who chose to apply for induction directly into the infantry at Camp Greene, in Charlotte, North Carolina, home of the 4th Division. Of those seven who left Batavia for Camp Greene on March 4, 1918, three—Votrie, Patrick Molyneaux, and Albert Gelonek—died fighting with the 4th Division’s 59th Infantry.

Initial newspaper reports of Charles Votrie’s death, as well as Army casualty reports and several early documents in his Burial Case File, said that he had been killed in action on August 9, 1918. However, a later Burial Case File document, dated October 20, 1920, and addressed to the Quartermaster General from the War Department, Adjutant General’s Office, headed “Date of Death of Charles Votrie, #572,424,” states: “Upon investigation, it has been ascertained that the date of death of the above man heretofore communicated to you, is erroneous, and that he was killed in action August 11, 1918.” Subsequent official sources also give that date.

On August 11, 1918, the 4th Division’s troops had spent the previous 10 days fighting toward the Vesle River, where German forces held strong positions on the opposite side, and had crossed the river north of St. Thibaut and Ville Savoye, near Bazoches. The 59th Infantry held a line along a railroad on the north bank. The day, states The Fourth Division, “was characterized by heavy artillery firing on both sides, which lasted all day.” In a letter to Votrie’s mother printed in the August 19, 1919 Batavia Daily News, Earl P Hoffman, a company comrade, described Charles Votrie’s death: “We had taken everything before us in the face of stiff opposition and had dug in on the railroad that runs between Soissons and Rheims. That night late, hot coffee and food were to be brought to us . . . the food had just come up and 18 or twenty of the boys gathered around it . . . they were just beginning to serve it when a shell came over and landed in their midst. Your son was hit and died, as did two other of the boys.” A searcher’s report quotes Sergeant John P Murphy of Votrie’s company: “Killed Aug. 11/18. Pvt Votrie was instantly killed by shrapnel while drawing rations at about 7 P.M. on date mentioned.”

Numerous documents in Votrie’s Burial Case File relate to an extensive Army investigation launched in late 1920 when, while moving the dead from their original burial sites at the American Cemetery in Fismes, France, to the newly established Oise-Aisne American Cemetery, Pfc. Votrie’s body couldn’t be located. This information was given to Votrie’s mother in a letter dated February 15, 1929—more than eight years after the first discrepancies were noted. “It appears,” states the letter, “that the grave in question was marked to indicate the burials of your son and Private Robert Campbell, both members of Company B, 59th Infantry, but upon disinterment the body could not be identified as either of these soldiers. In view thereof, a thorough investigation has been made and it has not been possible to identify this body or to locate the graves of either your son, Private Campbell or other members of Company B, who were killed at the same time.”

Many of the documents pertaining to the investigation involve correspondence between the Army and various members of Votrie’s unit, as well as the chaplain who presided over Votrie’s burial. Their accounts of Votrie’s death varied, in both dates and circumstances. Most were similar to Hoffman’s and Murphy’s, saying that he’d been killed when a shell landed amidst several soldiers, while one stated that he’d been shot in the neck. More significantly, none provided useful information on Votrie’s burial. The investigation also included comparisons of Pfc. Votrie’s dental charts, which did not match the exhumed body, and excavation of battlefield burial sites near where Votrie fell, in hopes of finding his body there.

For a time, while the Army continued its investigation, the grave containing the body originally thought to have been Votrie’s was marked with his name at the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery. But when the investigation determined conclusively that the body in the grave was not Votrie’s, the headstone was changed to, “HERE RESTS IN HONORED GLORY AN AMERICAN SOLDIER KNOWN BUT TO GOD,” and Pfc. Charles E Votrie’s name was added to the cemetery’s Tablets of the Missing.

Note that a headstone for Charles E Votrie is listed in online transcriptions for St. Joseph Cemetery in Batavia, in the same plot as his mother Margaret and sister Isabelle. It is believed that this is a memorial stone.

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

September 26, 1918 Batavia Daily News p1 c6

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August 19, 1919 Batavia Daily News p7 c4

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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