The sun., 1919-08-18
QUINN SLEW 8 FOES
IN HIS DEATH FIGHT
Mystery of Lost Battalion
Hero's Fate Solved Long
After His Last Stand.
TOMB BUILT BY NATURE
308th Seeks Mother of Brave
Youth, but No Trace of Her
Has Been Found.

George W. Quinn was a private in
Company d Of the 3osth Infantry. and
during some of the heaviest fighting in
the Argonne Forest last September he
was attached to headquarters of the
Second Battalion OF that regiment as
runner-probably as dangerous and difi-
cult work as a soldier u ever called
upon to do and job that requires a
real soldier.
Quinn was with the Second Battalion
when It became lost in the Argonne.
and when the Germans had filtered
through the American lines-or rather
where the American lines would have
been II the units OF the Lost Battal-
IONS TANKS had kept pace with that
OUTFIT and reached their objectives-and
were around and behind and in front OF
Col. whittlesey's famous outfit.
Quinn was one of the three runners
who set out with Lieut.. Arthur Nc
Keogh to make a last desperate effort
to get into communication and establish
liasion with regimental and divisional
headquarters. The four mon fought their
way through the forest for a day and a
night, and on the second night Lieut..
McKeogh gave each Of the three rum
ners a code message for divisional head
quarters and sent them out on his
TANKS, each runner having his orders
to let nothing keep him from reaching
headquarters. Then Lieut. McKeogh
pushed on alone, with the same idea in
mind and with the hope that at least one
of the four would get through and give
Gen. Alexander some information con-
corning the Lost Battalion"
Lieut. McKeogh was wounded while
fighting his way back to the American
lines, but eventually he and all the
other runners with the exception Of
Quinn reached divisional headquarters.
After the division came up Quinn's off,
GERS sent searching parties out to look
for him, and many of the missing SOL
diers friends went into the forest and
along the path that Quinn was supposed
to have taken. on their own account, be-
cause Quinn was real American SOL
der and they did not want him to lie
unburied in the shell holes Of the Ar
gonne. But they were never able to
find any trace of him to all appearances
the man had vanished, and many Ger
man prisoners were questioned and all
the German prison camps searched after
the armistice. but to no result.
1t seemed that the manner In which
Quinn met death was never going to be
known. and his officers and friends in
the regiment had given up all hope. But
finally Capt. Jack A. McGrady. Company
E. so5th Pioneer Infantry, led a detach-
ment of his men through the battlefelds
of the Argonne, cleaning up after the
infantry and lying in shell hole almost
buried by the vines and underbrush
which had grown up and over 1t In the
months they found the body of Quinn.
Understandable, but identified by the
Identification tag which he wore about
his wrist and which bore Quinn's serial
number-16S0033. And lying on three
sides OF Quinn's grave were the bodies OF
three German soldiers. evidence OF the
fight that the runner had made before
the Germans killed him.
Capt McGrady wrote to Lieut. Nc
Keogh about finding Quinn's body and
OF the manner in which the soldier had
died, and Lieut. McKeogh and the 30sth
Infantry Association took up the matter
Of finding the soldiers mother and tell
ing her not only how her son had died
but also that his insurance Of $4,000
was waiting for her to collect. And
then they came face to face with a mys-
terry that has been as hard for them to
solve as was the mystery of the runners
death.
They have been unable to find any trace
OF MTS. tyulTIl. fteT 1TbL IN
lieved to be Caroline. and the address
given by Quinn on his service record il
Charlotte, y. Y. Both Lieut.. McKeogf
and Capt L. S. Breckenridge ask any
one knowing of Mrs. Quinn to notify hel
/ to communicate with the 30sth Infantr,
Association at the Seventy-seventh Divi
| sion Club, 435 Lafayette street.
| Psalm for the Unafraid.
| Lieut.. McKeogh and the two othe
| runners who made the hazardous jour
ney through the nests of Germans Il
safety have been decorated and cite
for their bravery, and now that Quinn
death has been established steps hav
been taken to have a posthumous awar
of a Distinguished Service Cross. whic
will be given to his mother as the mex
of kin. And in memory of a brave ma
and a good soldier who did a dangerou
job for long time and did II as an Amer
lean soldier. should have done 1t, Lieu
McKeogh has written a poem, dedicate
to Quinn. which appeared in last week
issue of the Saturday Evening Post,
few Of the verses follow:
They didn't give Quinn the D. S. c..
| For they didn't know how he died
But three still forms around him sprAwle
| They could have testified:
| They could have told before he was cold
II he hadn't plugged their hide.
No one was there when the thing was don
Deep in the .Argonne glade.
| No one but Quinn and the three in era
| Ana there the four have stayed.
| Where the night winds hush through Il
Il soughing brush
Is psalm for the Unsfraid.
The captain had found him measured o
With his fallen foemen three,
Had found the message-the torchi y
1-'~--~-'bdyI--
That he bore for you and me;
, IT was turned away for that certain d.
When the trails eternity.
No. they didn't give Quinn the d. s.
The tomb wherein he's laid.
Was fashioned for all the ages from Goo
Blessed sun and shade,
And the night winds hush through I
soughing brush
Is a psalm for the Unafraid.