Alvin York

 ( Official Website ) 

Under the command of Cpl. (Acting Sergeant) Bernard Early, four non-commissioned officers, including Acting Corporal York,Lee, 1985, 25–6 and thirteen privates were ordered to infiltrate the German lines to take out the machine guns. The group worked their way behind the Germans and overran the headquarters of a German unit, capturing a large group of German soldiers who were preparing a counter-attack against the U.S. troops. Early's men were contending with the prisoners when German machine gun fire suddenly peppered the area, killing six Americans and wounding three others. Several of the Americans returned fire while others guarded the prisoners. From his advantageous position, York fought the Germans. York recalled:

During the assault, a German officer led several Germans to the scene of the fighting and ran into York who shot several of them with his pistol.

Imperial German Army First Lieutenant Paul Jürgen Vollmer, commanding the 120th Reserve Infantry Regiment's 1st Battalion, emptied his pistol trying to kill York while he was contending with the machine guns. Failing to injure York, and seeing his mounting losses, he offered in English to surrender the unit to York who accepted.Lee, 1985, 32–6 At the end of the engagement, York and his seven men marched their German prisoners back to the American lines. Upon returning to his unit, York reported to his brigade commander, Brigadier General Julian Robert Lindsey, who remarked, "Well York, I hear you have captured the whole German army." York replied, "No sir. I got only 132."

York's actions silenced the German machine guns and were responsible for enabling the 328th Infantry to renew its attack to capture the Decauville Railroad.Mastriano, Douglas, Colonel, U.S. Army Brave Hearts under Red Skiesand Douglas Mastriano: "A Day for Heroes" , accessed September 21, 2010

In addition to his French medals, Italy awarded York the Croce al Merito di Guerra and Montenegro decorated him with its War Medal. New York Times: Sergeant York, War Hero, Dies", September 3, 1964, accessed September 20, 2010Lee, 1985, 39 He eventually received nearly 50 decorations. York's Medal of Honor citation reads:

In attempting to explain his actions during the 1919 investigation that resulted in the Medal of Honor, York told General Lindsey, "A higher power than man guided and watched over me and told me what to do." Lindsey replied, "York, you are right."

Biographer David D. Lee (2000) wrote:

York's heroism went unnoticed in the United States press, even in Tennessee, until the publication of the April 26, 1919, issue of the Saturday Evening Post, which had a circulation in excess of 2 million. In an article titled "The Second Elder Gives Battle", journalist George Pattullo, who had learned of York's story while touring battlefields earlier in the year, laid out the themes that have dominated York's story ever since: the mountaineer, his religious faith and skill with firearms, patriotic, plainspoken and unsophisticated, an uneducated man who "seems to do everything correctly by intuition."Lee, 1985, 53–5 In response, the Tennessee Society, a group of Tennesseans living in New York City, arranged celebrations to greet York upon his return to the United States, including a 5-day furlough to allow for visits to New York City and Washington, D.C. York arrived in Hoboken, New Jersey, on May 22, stayed at the Waldorf Astoria, and attended a formal banquet in his honor. He toured the subway system in a special car before continuing to Washington, where the House of Representatives gave him a standing ovation and he met Secretary of War Newton D. Baker and the President's secretary Joe Tumulty, as President Woodrow Wilson was still in Paris.Lee, 185, 58–60

York proceeded to Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, where he was discharged from the service, and then to Tennessee for more celebrations. He had been home for barely a week when, on June 7, 1919, York and Gracie Loretta Williams were married by Tennessee Governor Albert H. Roberts in Pall Mall. More celebrations followed the wedding, including a week-long trip to Nashville where York accepted a special medal awarded by the state.Lee, 185, 60–62

York refused many offers to profit from his fame, including thousands of dollars offered for appearances, product endorsements, newspaper articles, and movie rights to his life story. Instead, he lent his name to various charitable and civic causes.Lee, 1985, 62–4 To support economic development, he campaigned for the Tennessee government to build a road to service his native region, succeeding when a highway through the mountains was completed in the mid-1920s and named Alvin C. York Highway.Lee, 1985, 63–4, 74–5 The Nashville Rotary organized the purchase, by public subscription, of a farm, the one gift that York accepted. However, it was not the fully equipped farm he was promised, requiring York to borrow money to stock it. He subsequently lost money in the farming depression that followed the war. Then the Rotary was unable to continue the installment payments on the property, leaving York to pay them himself. In 1921, he had no option but to seek public help, resulting in an extended discussion of his finances in the press, some of it sharply critical. Debt in itself was a trial: "I could get used to most any kind of hardship, but I'm not fitted for the hardship of owing money." Only an appeal to Rotary Clubs nationwide and an account of York's plight in the New York World brought in the required contributions by Christmas 1921.Lee, 1985, 64, 71–4, quote 73;

In 1935, York, sensing the end of his time with the institute, began to work as a project superintendent with the Civilian Conservation Corps overseeing the creation of Cumberland Mountain State Park's Byrd Lake, one of the largest masonry projects the program ever undertook. York served as the park's superintendent until 1940.

York's speeches attracted the attention of President Roosevelt, who frequently quoted York, particularly a passage from York's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier speech:

During World War II, York attempted to re-enlist in the Army.David E. Lee, Sergeant York: An American Hero (Lexington, 1985). However, at fifty-four years of age, overweight, near-Diabetes, and with evidence of arthritis, he was denied enlistment as a combat soldier. Instead, he was commissioned as a major in the Army Signal Corps and he toured training camps and participated in bond drives in support of the war effort, usually paying his own travel expenses. Gen. Matthew Ridgway later recalled that York "created in the minds of farm boys and clerks ... the conviction that an aggressive soldier, well-trained and well-armed, can fight his way out of any situation." He also raised funds for war-related charities, including the Red Cross. He served on his county draft board and, when literacy requirements forced the rejection of large numbers of Fentress County men, he offered to lead a battalion of illiterates himself, saying they were "crack shots".Lee, 1985, 116–20 Although York served during the war as a Signal Corps major and as a colonel with the 7th Regiment of the Tennessee State Guard,Barry M. Stentiford, The American Home Guard: The State Militia in the Twentieth Century (Texas A & M University Press, 2002), 94 ; available online, accessed September 20, 2010 newspapers continued to refer to him as "Sergeant York".

York cooperated with journalists in telling his life story twice in the 1920s. He allowed Nashville-born freelance journalist Sam Cowan to see his diary and submitted to interviews. The resulting 1922 biography focused on York's Appalachian background, describing his upbringing among the "purest Anglo-Saxons to be found today", emphasizing popular stereotypes without bringing the man to life.Lee, 1985, 93–4 New York Times: "Tennessee's War Hero", July 16, 1922, accessed September 20, 2010. Review of (). Called "worthwhile", adding "careful restraint is one of its charms", and objecting "The attempt to picture him as tearfully prayerful as he fought against merciless butchers for his own life and the lives of his American comrades verges on to mawkish twaddle." A few years later, York contacted a publisher about an edition of his war diary, but the publisher wanted additional material to flesh out the story. Then Tom Skeyhill, an Australian-born veteran of the Gallipoli campaign, New York Times: "Tom Skeyhill, Author, Dies in Plane Crash", May 23, 1932, accessed September 20, 2010, calls Skeyhill the author of York's "official biography." visited York in Tennessee and the two became friends. On York's behalf, Skeyhill wrote an "autobiography" in the first person and was credited as the editor of Sergeant York: His Own Life Story and War Diary. With a preface by Newton D. Baker, Secretary of War in World War I, it presented a one-dimensional York supplemented with tales of life in the Tennessee mountains.Lee, 1985, 94–5 Reviews noted that York only promoted his life story in the interest of funding educational programs: "Perhaps York's bearing after his famous exploit in the Argonne best reveals his native greatness. ... He will not exploit himself except for his own people. All of which gives his book an appeal beyond its contents." New York Times: S. T. Williamson, "Sergeant York Tells His Own Story", December 23, 1928, accessed September 20, 2010, review of Sergeant York: His Own Life Story and War Diary, edited by Tom Skeyhill (NY: Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1928). On Williamson see New York Times: "Samuel T. Williamson, 70, Dies", June 19, 1962, accessed September 20, 2010. Skeyhill wrote a version for children Sergeant York: Last of the Long Hunters (John C. Winston Company, 1930)

The mountaineer persona Cowan and Skeyhill promoted reflected York's own beliefs. In a speech at the 1939 New York World's Fair, he said:

For many years, York employed a secretary, Arthur S. Bushing, who wrote the lectures and speeches York delivered. Bushing prepared York's correspondence as well. Like the works of Cowan and Skeyhill, words commonly ascribed to York, though doubtless representing his thinking, were often composed by professional writers.Lee, 1985, xi–xii York had refused several times to authorize a film version of his life story.Lee, 1985, 101–2 Finally, in 1940, as York was looking to finance an interdenominational Bible school, he yielded to a persistent Hollywood producer and negotiated the contract himself.Lee, 1985, 102–4 In 1941 the movie Sergeant York, directed by Howard Hawks with Gary Cooper in the title role, told about his life and Medal of Honor action.The story that York insisted on Gary Cooper in the title role derives from the fact that producer Jesse L. Lasky, who wanted Cooper for the role, recruited Cooper by writing a plea that he accept the role and then signing York's name to the telegram. Lee, 1985, 105ff. The screenplay included much fictitious material, though it was based on York's Diary.Lee, 1985, 114 The marketing of the film included a visit by York to the White House, where President Franklin D. Roosevelt praised the film.Lee, 1985, 110 Some of the response to the film divided along political lines, with advocates of preparedness and aid to the United Kingdom enthusiastic ("Hollywood's first solid contribution to the national defense", said Time magazine) and isolationists calling it "propaganda" for the administration.Lee, 1985, 110–1 It received 11 Academy Award nominations and won two, including the Academy Award for Best Actor for Cooper. It was the highest-grossing picture of 1941. York's earnings from the film, about $150,000 in the first two years as well as later royalties, resulted in a decade-long battle with the Internal Revenue Service.Lee, 1985, 128–9 York eventually built part of his planned Bible school, which hosted 100 students until the late 1950s.Lee, 1985, 113, 128

A consistent Democrat – "I'm a Democrat first, last, and all the time",Lee, 1985, 120 he said – in January 1941 he praised President Roosevelt's support for the United Kingdom, and in an address at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Memorial Day of that year, he attacked isolationists and said that veterans understood that "liberty and freedom are so very precious that you do not fight and win them once and stop." They are "prizes awarded only to those peoples who fight to win them and then keep fighting eternally to hold them!"Lee, 1985, 109–10. FDR quoted York's speech at length in an address to the nation on November 11, 1941. See also Time: "Army & Navy and Civilian Defense: Old Soldiers", May 18, 1942, accessed September 14, 2010 At times he was blunt: "I think any man who talks against the interests of his own country ought to be arrested and put in jail, not excepting senators and colonels." Everyone knew that the colonel in question was Charles Lindbergh.Lee, 1985, 109

In the late 1940s he called for toughness in dealing with the Soviet Union and did not hesitate to recommend using the Nuclear weapon in a first strike, stating, "If they can't find anyone else to push the button, I will."Lee, 1985, 125 He questioned the failure of United Nations forces to use the atomic bomb in Korea. In the 1960s he criticized Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara's plans to reduce the ranks of the National Guard and reserves, saying, "Nothing would please Khrushchev better."Lee, 1985, 132

York had health problems throughout his life. He had gallbladder surgery in the late 1920s and had pneumonia in 1942. Described in 1919 as a "red-haired giant with the ruddy complexion of the outdoors" and "standing more than 6 feet ... and tipping the scale at more than 200 pounds", New York Times: "Sergt. York Home, His Girl Says 'Yes, June 1, 1919, accessed September 20, 2010 by 1945 he weighed 250 pounds and in 1948 he had a stroke. More strokes and another case of pneumonia followed, and he was confined to bed from 1954, further impaired by failing eyesight. He was hospitalized several times during his last two years.Lee, 1985, 127, 133–4 Time said he weighed 275 in 1941. York died at the Veterans Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, on September 2, 1964, of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 76. After a funeral service in his Jamestown church, with Gen. Matthew Ridgway representing President Lyndon Johnson,Lee, 1985, 134 York was buried at the Wolf River Cemetery in Pall Mall. His funeral sermon was delivered by Richard G. Humble, General Superintendent of the Churches of Christ in Christian Union. Humble also preached Mrs. York's funeral sermon in 1984.

York's record became the subject of controversy in Germany in 1928, after a Swedish journal published an article about York's exploits which some Germans felt impugned the honor of the German armed forces. In 1929, the Reichsarchiv investigated the claims made about York's battlefield exploits by reviewing military records and interviewing surviving German officers of the 2nd Württemberg Landwehr Division who had fought against York.Taylor V. Beattie with Ronald Bowman, "In Search of York: Man, Myth & Legend," Army History, Summer-Fall 2000 (PB-2B-0B-3 (No. 50)), [17] The German report, which was not published at the time, concluded that "York was a brave and fearless soldier" and that the official U.S. Army report on York's actions "corresponds with the facts," but also found that some of the details of York's first report from the battlefield had been "grossly exaggerated." In particular, the German investigators found that York's unit had likely captured fewer than 132 prisoners and 35 machine guns, as Germans records showed the loss of only 79 prisoners in the sector that day, and German officers reported there were less than 35 machine guns present. The German investigators shared their report with the U.S. Army, which did not take any action as the report confirmed York's role in valorously leading assaults on German positions and did not contradict any of the specific details of York's Medal of Honor citation.Typescript, "Testimony of German Officers and Men anent Sergeant York: A Translation of The Origin of War Legends, An Investigation of the Alleged Feat of Sgt York, October 8, 19J8," trans. F. W. Merten, p. II, copies in U.S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle Barracks, Pa., and in file 4658. box 40. Entry 310C. records ("Thomas File") of the Historical Section, Anny War College, RG 165. Available online at http://www.digitalhistoryarchive.com/free-items.html.

Another team led by Dr. Tom Nolan, head of the Sergeant York Project and a geographer at the R.O. Fullerton Laboratory for Spatial Technology at Middle Tennessee State University, placed the site 600 meters south of the location identified by Mastriano.University of South Caroline: James B. Legg, "Finding Sgt. York", 18–21 , accessed June 13, 2010Texas State University: Nolan, "Battlefield Landscapes" , accessed June 13, 2010 Nolan's research relied on contemporary army graves registration Forms, the 82nd Division's wartime history, and maps drawn by Colonel G. Edward Buxton Jr. and Captain Edward C. B. Danforth, both of whom walked the ground with York during the Medal of Honor investigation.