Greenwood daily commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1919-1926, 1920-02-21
HERO OF ARMY
WAS "LET DOWN"
Capt. De We're Harden, Wounded
in War, Is Now Ser
geant
WAS FIRST OFFICER TO Be NIT
Long Service In Army Leaves Him
With No Other Career, So When
Discharge Comes He
Re-enliSt8.

new 1OFK.-1no HTSI AucTlCdu ON
Ger Who was wounded in the war il
ar officer no longer. though he Is still
in the army. When wounded he was
q first lieutenant and later he became
a captain. Now he is a sergeant, and
salutes second li~eutenants. Those are
the ups and downs that have befallen
De We're II. 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 a year in France
with the famous First division. BE
was in the first American attack at
Cantigny and in the bloody and deci-
sive battle Of scissors. Now he is back
practically where he started sixteen
years ago when he first enlisted In the
army.
Sign Marks Place He Fell.
Unless q shell has blown it or souve-
mir hunters have torn 1t to pieces a
small sign still stands neal the old
front-line trenches at Les Jumelles,
neal Nancy, In Lorraine. It commem-
crates the fact that there fell the
premier Officer American Besse" Oc-
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 a 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 hen heard Of
Harden:
Harden went to France with the
First division, the first troops to land
there June 26, 1917. He was then a
first lieutenant with the Second field
signal battalion. Soon after arriving
In France he was commissioned a 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 a few days when Har-
den was wounded. In his eagerness to
get back to his outfit he left the hos
pital too soon, and as q result his
wound did not quite heal properly. He
cannot hike as he used to. Four OF
FIVE miles tire him out
When the First division took over
the foul 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
the western front.
When the Twenty-eighth artillery Of
the First division made b first Amer
lean attack and captured the village o.
Cantigny Harden's post vas the oh
servation and telephone station whencs
artillery support was directed during
the nine counter attacks the German.
made In three days.
Fought Five Days and Nights.
Harden was attached to the Six
teenth infantry when the First divi
sion, forming with the Second Ameri
can and the famous French MOroccal
division the spearhead of the attack
drove forward on July 10 south .
Scissors in the first allied attack o
the decisive campaign. For five day
and nights the Sixteenth infantr.
went through as close an approach 3
hell as its men and officers wanted +
see, then vas relieved, covered Wit
glory and its mission accomplished.
Shortly afterward Harden was re
turned to the United States as an IL
structor. On reaching Camp Lewis 4
Washington state he was prsnaote
captain and took command of G con
pany Of the Two Hundred and Thil
teenth field signal battalion of til
Thirteenth division. He was the onl
officer in the battalion who had serve
overseas. 50 he took q large part l
instructiAg the battalion.
Harden was then transferred
Honolulu, where he commanded e con
. pany Of the FIfty-third telegraph ba
: talon. He put it through stiff trainin
for the October maneuvers. In whic]
according to citations, 1t showed n
markable proficiency"
Col. George e. Kumpe telegraph
Washington asking that Harden be Pc
manently assigned to the western d.
partment, but November 18 order
reached San Francisco Tor his d.
charge from the service.
Harden had served so long with II
army that he had no other career 81
profession was that Of the soldier. n
three weeks he cast about for son
opening in civilian life. He could An
non Back to the army agar
seemed the only nswer to his pro-
lem. At the recruiting Office they to-
him they would be glad to have hi
hoch4c Arc< SorUo0nt