page_title: Curtis Redden
section_title: World War I
hierarchical_section_title: Curtis Redden / World War I
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of Curtis Redden
context_page_description: Curtis Gerald "Cap" Redden was an American football player. He was the starting left end for the University of Michigan's football team from 1901 to 1904. He played for Michigan's "Point-a-Minute" teams and was unanimously selected as an All-Western player in 1903. Redden died of pneumonia while serving in the U.S. Army in Germany at the end of World War I.
context_section_description: Redden enlisted in the U.S. Army during World War I.  He served as a lieutenant colonel of the 149th Field Artillery with the Rainbow Division in France.  His unit was among the first to leave for France.  In April 1918, newspapers published a letter from Redden to a friend back home describing the Illinois artillery unit's "baptism of fire."  He described the heavy shelling the unit withstood
  And so it went from day to day, but oftimes the nights were very bad.  At night, when the infantry launched its raids, or the enemy his, or the infantry became nervous and called for help, the guns stamped like stallions and snorted their breaths of fire.  The blackness of the night became a series of dots and dashes, until the world resembled a vast radio station, spelling hell, hell, and hell again. To this must be added the shriek of shells, the whistle of fragments, the automatic hammer effect of the machine gun, the rattle of the rifle fire, the rockets and star shells out over No Man's land—all combined to make the night weird, hideous, fascinating, sublime.
  In November 1918, Redden was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel and assumed command of the 149th Field Artillery Regiment.
  Redden survived the many battles in which his unit fought only to come down with pneumonia after the army of occupation began its march into Germany.  Redden died of pneumonia in January 1919 at a hospital in Koblenz, Germany.  Redden had been in command of the artillery unit since October 1918.  Redden was buried in Germany on a slope near the point where the Rhine and Moselle Rivers meet.  Newspapers described his funeral as follows
  With an escort of more than 600 enlisted men besides the officers of the 149th and 67th artillery brigade, of which the regiment was a part, the cortege passed through Coblenz with Redden's horse, 'Sergeant,' taking the place of honor immediately behind the gun carriage bearing the flag-draped casket.  In line with the custom of military funerals, the dead officer's boots were in the stirrups, with the toes pointing to the rear.  At the grave three volleys were fired by an infantry squad and a bugler sounded the plantive notes of 'taps.'
  Redden has since been reburied in Spring Hill Cemetery in Danville, Vermilion County, Illinois, USA.
  In 1921, one of the columns in Memorial Stadium at the University of Illinois was dedicated to Redden.  The funds to purchase the column were donated by friends of Redden from his days at Michigan and by the men who served with him in the 149th Field Artillery.  The column was dedicated at a ceremony prior the 1921 Michigan-Illinois game.  The Michigan Alumnus magazine in November 1921 reported: "This column will stand for all time to perpetuate the memory of Colonel Redden and as a bond of union between the two great universities."
caption: Curtis Redden cropped from 1903 Michigan football team photograph
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