Fred joined the 371st Infantry, part of the 93rd Division, in early 1918 after several months of training at Camp Jackson, SC.
Aboard the USS Madawaska, his unit arrived in France in April 1918.
The 93rd Division was composed of black troops, including the famous Harlem Hellfighters. The division was put under the command of the French.
Beginning September 26, Fred’s unit attacked heavily entrenched German troops as part of the Meuse-Argonne offensive. With 1.2 million troops engaged, it is the largest American military operation in history. By the armistice of November 11, 1918, 26,000 American troops had died in the offensive.
On September 26 Fred was killed in action just south of the French village of Monthois. He is buried in the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, alongside 14,000 other Americans killed in WWI, including Foster Stevens and Elam Summerlin of Wayne County.
Previous Wayne County WWI posts:
– Gaston Dortch
– King David Simmons
– Andrew Best
– Miles Faison Harris
– Charles Rom Hardesty
– Ezra Alphonso Mayo
– Grover Summerlin
– Camp Royster, Wayne County Fairground
– John Burt Exum
– Boys Battalion, 1905
– Remembering the Forgotten Dead of a Forgotten War
– North Carolina National Guard on the Border
– World War I & North Carolina: 30th Division, 119th Infantry
