The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1920-03-02
HERO OF ARMY
WAS "LET DOWN.
Capt. De We're Harden, Wounded
in War, Is Now Ser
geant.
WAS FIRST OFFICER TO BE HIT
Long Service IN Army Leaves Him
With No other Career, So When
Discharge Comes He
Re-eniists.

New Y0rK.-The f1rSt American OIL
cor who was wounded in the war is
m officer no longer, though he is still
In the army. When wounded he was
first lieutenant and later he became
captain. Now he is sergeant, and
salutes second lleutenants. Those are
the ups and downs that have befallen
De We're Fl. Harden of Burlington, VT,
who is now at the new army signal
corps school at Little Silver. near Long
Branch. N. J.
Harden received the Croix de Guerre.
He served nearly year in France
with the famous First division. He
was in the first American attack at
Cantlgny and in the bloody and deci-
sive battle of Scissors. Now he is hack
practically where he started siyteen
years ago when he first enlisted Ia the
army
Sign Marks Place He Fell.
Unless q shell has blown it or souve-
mir hunters have torn it to pieces a
small sign still stands near the old
front-line trenches at Les Jumelles,
near Nancy, in Lorraine. 1t comment
crates the fact that there fell the
Premier Officer American Blesse" Oe-
tober %, 1917. The sign stands or
stood just outside the dugout that
Lieut.. Col. - then Major - Theodore
Roosevelt occupied when he was first
IN the trenches. Harden had just left
Roosevelt when shell exploded and a
fragment struck him in the knee. The
French commandant erected the sign
to commemorate the event. That was
about the last that was then heard OF
Harden.
Harden went to France with the
First division. the first troops TO land
there June %, 1917. He was then a
first lieutenant with the Second field
signal battalion. Soon after arriving
in France he was commissioned first
lieutenant-the reward of his long
service and good record in the regular
army. including service in Panama,
Alaska and on the Mexican border.
The First division had been in the
trenches only few days when Ha~-
den was wounded In his eagerness to
GET back to his outfit he left the hos
pital too soon. and as a result his
wound did not quite heal properly. He
cannot hike as he used to. Four or
five miles tire him out.
When the First division took over
the Toul sector the first trench sector
ever controlled by American troops,
Harden was there. gaining valuable ex-
perience as one of the first American
officers to handle independently the
signal system of a trench sector on
the western front.
When the Twenty-eighth artillery OF
the First division made the first Amer
lean attack and captured the village Of
Cantigny Harden's post was the OBJ
servation and telephone station whence
artillery support was directed during
the nine counter attacks the Germans
made in three days.
Fought Five Days and Niqhts.
Harden was attached to the Six
teenth infantry when the First divi-
sion, forming with the Second Ameri-
can and the famous French Moroccan
division the spearhead of the attack,
drove forward on July 10 south OF
Scissors In the first allied attack OF
the decisive campaign. For FIVE days
and nights the Sixteenth infantry
went through as close an approach to
hell as It's men and officers wanted to
see, then was relieved, covered with
glory and its mission accomplished.
Shortly afterward Harden was re-
turned to the United States as an in
structor. On reaching Camp Lewis In
Washington state he was promoted
captain and took command of G com
pany of the Two Hundred and Thir-
teenth field signal battalion OF the
Thirteenth division. He was the only
officer in the battalion who Ind served
overseas, so he took large part in
instructing the battalion.
Harden was then transferred to
Honolulu, where he commanded r COM
pany Of the Fifty-third telegraph bat
talon. He put 1t through stiff training
for the October maneuvers, in which.
according to citations, it Showed re-
markable proficiency"
Col. George E. Kumpe telegraphed
Washington asking that Harden be per
manently assigned to the western de
partment, but November IS orders
reached San Francisco for his dis
charge from the service.
Harden had served so long with the,
army that he had no other career. His
profession was that Of the soldier. For
three weeks he cast about for some.
opening in civilian life. He could find
none. Back to the army again"
seemed the only answer to his prob
lem. At the recruiting Office they told
him they would be glad to have him
back-as first sergeant