Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-12-01
WORLD WAR HERO
JUMPS INTO OCEAN

NEW YORK, Nov. 29.-Secret
brooding over the horrors of his ex-
periences in the war, from which he
emerged one of Americas greatest
individual heroes, was ascribed to-
day by friends and relatives of Lieu
tenant Colonel Charles w. Whittle-
sey as the cause of his taking his
life Sunday while on the way to Ha-
vana.
Leaving several letters, presum-
ably explaining his act, the COM
mander Of the ''1ost battalion" dis
appeared from the steamship Toloa
twenty-four hours out of New York.
His intimate friends had no idea
he was making an ocean voyage.
Members of his family and bust
ness associates We're incredulouS at
first when a wireless dispatch re-
ported him missing. But as evidence
accumulated, they reluctantly came
TO the conclusion that the missing
man was Colonel Whittlesey. And
then they recalled incidents which,
pieced together in the light of his
tragic death, might have been recog-
nized as indications that his spirit
was shaken by recurrent memories
of his brothers in arms who had
died before his eyes in France.
The last blow. they said, more try
ing than the rest, was in Washing
ton a fortnight ago when he took
part in the funeral services for
Americas unknown soldier. He re-
turned from the capital more de-
pressed than before, the haunting
visions clearer than ever, bearing
him down. There he had met hun
dreds of former friends and had
marked anew the gaps in the ranks
of the men he loved.
Told No One of Trip
His mind stopped" was the ex-
PLANTATION of Robert Forsyth Little,
of the law firm of White & Case,
with which Colonel Whittlesey had
been associated for about a year.
"It had all it could bear, remarkable
mind though it was. I don't think
there is a man in the country VINO
had the trying experience Colonel
Whittlesey has had in the past two
years.
HE was the hero who was always
accessible to those who thought he
could help them. The disabled. the
jobless, the friendless, the widows
of the war-all of them-were on
his mind constantly. For the last
two years there has scarcely been
an hour when the grief and horror
of the war was not brought wildly
and specifically before him."
Colonel Whittlesey had told no
one, apparently, that he was going
to Havana. When he left his office
Friday afternoon, it was with some
CHEEKY remark regarding the Army
Navy football game, which he in
tended to see.
At his boarding house on East
Forty-fourth street, he told friends
he was going ito be by myself-to
rest" when he left Saturday morn
ing with a travelling bag. He was
in the habit of taking weekend trips
and his going was unmarked by any
unusual circumstances.
Colonel Whittlesey's uncle, c. w.
Whittlesey, of New York, agreed
with his nephew's legal associates
that he had come back from Airing
ton with the recollections induced
by the memorial services weighing
heavily on his mind.
Won Congressional Medal
Colonel Whittlesey's name leaped
into worldwide prominence over
night through his retort to the Ger
man officer who called on him to
surrender after he was surrounded
in the Argonne.
For four days and nights his COM
mand, the First battalion, 30Sth in
fantry, Seventy-seventh division, had
lain under fire, cut off from aid,
without food or. water. All but
eighty-seven men had been killed or
wounded.
Embodied, and under the protec-
ton of a white flag, German SOL
der stumbled into the American
strong point.
Surrender" he cried. Gin the name
Of humanity" and he told how from
the German trenches, the agonized
cries of the American wounded could
be heard.
"You go to hellr' Colonel Whittle-
sey replied.
A few hours later American re-
serves attacked all along the line.
the Germans were pushed back and
the little band of survivors saved.
On his return to the United States
he was voted the congressional med
al of honor, the most coveted Amer
lean decoration for heroism, and a
few months after the armistice, the
German officer who called on him to
surrender made public statement
extolling the courage and logged de-
termination of his former foe.
Letter to Friend
"1 shall not return"
These words ended letter from
Colonel Whitt1esey to his business
partner here
In the cabin of Colonel Whit
tlesey a number of letters were dis
covered addressed to friends and
business associates in New York
and Pittsfield. Mass, with request
that they be sent by wireless. The
one received by Robert S. Little, Of
Colonel Whittlesey's law firm here.
dealt with routing business affairs
but concluded with the words: 81
shall not return"
John B. Pruyn, a friend of Colonel
Whittlesey, received letter from
him asking him to notify the Whit
t1esey family.