New Information about Harold D. Leddy

Bridge worked on by Harold D. Leddy's battalion, Nevers, France, from the National WW Museum and Memorial web site

Harold D. Leddy dog tags

Richard Gilliam contacted me and it turns out that his grandfather was in the same battalion in WW1 as mine, Harold D. Leddy.  Richard has done a lot of research on the battalion and the regiment.  He has graciously allowed me to post material from his letters to me.  My father, John B. Leddy, had told me that the regiment was all-black.  Gilliam's research contradicts this family story, although apparently after initial deployment in France there were in fact African Americans in the regiment.  

"According to a Regimental Roster, 23rd Engineers printed in 1920, there was a Harold D. Leddy of Company F living at 3020 Kansas Ave., Los Angeles, Cal. listed. My grandfather served in Company F, 23rd Engineers from Washington State where I live."

I was unaware of the 3020 Kansas Ave. address.  That address now sports a very modern looking grammar school.  Gilliam goes on in a later letter to say:

"The 23rd Engineer was an all white regiment consisting of technical Companies A thru L (4 battalions, 3 companies each), 10 Truck companies 1 thru 10 and 5 Wagon companies 1 thru 5. My grandfather and yours served in company F, 2nd Battalion which embarked Hoboken NJ for France aboard the USS George Washington on March 30, 1918 and arrived Brest on April 13, 1918. They debarked Brest, France aboard USS Plattsburg on June 7, 1919 and arrived Hoboken NJ on June 16, 1919. My grandfather received final pay and discharged at Camp Lewis, Tacoma, Washington on June 27, 1919.

   The 23rd Engineers in the early days of their arrival had no support regiments so most of the work done was with pick, shovel wheel barrels. Later on, they were supplemented by colored service regiments, Vietnamese, Chinese, French and POWs. The technical, Truck and Wagon companies were spread throughout France not only building, repairing, maintaining roads but building bridges, barracks, rail roads, work and storage buildings, dams and other miscellaneous jobs as required.

   I have to say that I learned quite a bit about grandfathers regiment and history. I started with just his dog tags and a few stories that my father told me. Grandpa passed away in 1941 when my father was 15. Father claims that his death was early due to grandfather's exposure to gas at the forward zone. I believe that I found supporting documentation for that in my research."

My grandfather also suffered from exposure to gas throughout his life.  Mr. Gilliam also provided me with a copy of the two page Company F's commanding officers Experience report.  From that I determined that in April 1918 the Company was working on the bridge in Nevers, France, on the Loire.  This corresponds to the photograph at the beginning of this post.  The construction of the bridge is further described in the Historical Report of the Chief Engineer, Including All Operations of the Engineer Department, American Expeditionary Forces, 1917-1919
United States. Army. American Expeditionary Forces. Engineer Dept, January 1, 1919, U.S. Government Printing Office, pp. 283-4  which is available through Google Books here   It was the longest bridge which the Engineers of the American force built in France.

Mr. Gilliam also sent me the ship manifest port of embarkation Hoboken, NY  which shows Harold's residence as 18 East Colorado.  This was right next to Perkins and Leddy's Furnishings at 16 East Colorado.   [Could he just have been using the store address as his home address?]

I also learned from Mr. Gilliam that on Oct. 28, 1918 a cloudy and cold day, Company F moved into the northern French town of Charpentry.  They were shelled and several were wounded.  This was reported in a history of Company A.  Also, earlier, back in the U.S. on Jan 9 it was very cold and Company F arrived in Laurel [Deleware?] and moved into the mill there.    This information can be found here.   You have to search under "F." 

Wikipedia informs us that "At the beginning of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive (26 September – 11 November 1918), the 79th US Infantry Division captured Charpentry"  

Also there was a publication of Company F in which Harold D. Leddy is listed as a member.  The Squeek, 1930.   His address there is 181 N. Lake Ave., Pasadena.  This area is no longer residential.

World War 1 Letter by Harold Leddy

This letter is written on a collection of 24 "cartes postales detachables" from Le Mont-Dore.  [A similar collection is described in this way Dos: / divisé - Circulé: non - Année: 1900 ? à voir les attelages hippomobiles - Editeur: / Numéro: mieux que toute description ces photos donnent toutes informations.]  There is no date on the letter although it is probably either 1918 or 1919.   The feel of the letter is late in the war or postwar.  It says they arrived on Sept. 17.  Armistice was Nov. 11, 1918.   I ran across one source that says that U.S. Military were sent to Mont Dore there after being gassed for recovery.  My grandfather was gassed during WW1.  He never mentions this injury in the letter, but I suspect that this would have been censored.  The baths were known for helping with pulmonary problems.

Dear Folks: 

This resort is about twenty minutes ride on the train. (fare 10 centimes or 2 cents] from La Bourboule.  It is larger, and much older:  the waters were known even to the Romans who built the first bath houses some relics of which still are to be seen.  We passed a lot of time in Mont Dore and took in all its side trips. There is an incline railway to the top of Capucin, but it rained the day we had planned on going up.  There is a cafe and skating rink on the top.  The season at both resorts closed on the 15th of Sept. two days after our arrival but there were still quite a few French tourists, mostly Parisians, who treated us very well.  The bath houses are, of course, the centers of attraction - and this one is more beautiful than our Congressional Library - wonderful tile and mosaic colorings.  It was built in 1875.  The outfits are very funny - we sat around waiting to be massaged in just such a costume.  As I have told you, they drink the waters, inhale it, gargle it, soak in it, get rubbed under it, and carry it around.  Most of the people we met spoke our language, better or worse, which was a great help.  We adopted a French soldier, convalescing, and took him around three different days.  Also made the acquaintance of a very fine lady whose family has a vast property close to Spain.  Her fiance was killed in Dec. 1914 - and she has been managing her father's ranch, factory, winery and properties.  She invited me there for the next furlough and promised to write every week.  Now I'll have to study up on French grammar, for she doesn't know a word of English.
     Next to the bath house in importance comes the casino.  It is complete in every detail, a large theater which now has movie shows.  The baccarat [....] where the wealth of France changed hands before the war, a cafe, library, writing rooms, smoking rooms, and an immense concert room where one drinks four-bits worth of liquor during each  [..]  the band plays.  
    The chain of mountains are a part of the Pyrenees system, and Mt. Sancy is the highest mountain in France outside of the Alps. From its summit one can look out over seven departments, see eleven lakes and, when its very clear, can see the alps and Mt. Blanc.  We climbed Sancy with a party of civilians, four of whom were ladies.  A sudden storm overtook us about half way up, and when we reached the cabin near the top we were wet to the skin. The place was full of French officers, their wives and others who nursed us like children.  We all sat around the fire dressed in shawls, overcoats and other pieces of borrowed clothing while our clothes were being dried.  There was on fellow with me who had a splendid Irish tenor voice, so we gave them our [....] of songs and the French girls led by an opera singer, responded with French popular songs.  It was a time that none of us will forget.  The sun came out, it looking a tho the storm was over.  So we started back - only to be drenched again before reaching the bottom.  
     Another day we took a longer, tho not so difficult a hike to de Guery and the two Roches.  At the inns along the way one can get fine homemade cheese and butter, creamy milk and good hot chocolate - the prices are all high - we sometimes spent fifteen or twenty dollars on one trip for refreshments lunches and souvenirs. The Y.M.C.A. organizes hikes and carriage trips, but we do not like their system.  The fifteen girl assistants at Le Bourboule are not all representative of our best American ladies though some are very splendid.  Mrs. Theo. Roosevelt Jr.  [Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt (1861 -1948) was the second wife of President Theodore Roosevelt, and visited France in 1919 to attend to the burial of her son who died in the war] is in charge, and tho I did not talk and dance with her the boys who did said she is very fine.  For my part, I only liked the grey-haired motherly ladies who treated all alike and who worked hard to make us feel at home, rather than the worn out beauties who seemed to have come over for a vacation.  The men are all very fine fellows, tho their system could be improved on.  My chief cause for dislike was when they announced a dance - of course there being several hundred soldiers in town we all looked around for some nice girl to take.  I was lucky and made my date with a wonderful little girl - at the last minute the Y decided not to allow us to bring girls - so we were all disappointed, and fifteen Y. girls danced with the few boobs who took no offence and went without their friends.  

Intended to write until all the cards were filled but must stop here. 

Harold

Added later: 

Jan. 28, 1919

Found this at the bottom of my barracks bag, so will send it home.

H.


I found the following account of Mont-Dore by another soldier "Late in September Pink Wohlford and I had another "permission," and under regulations were pushed off to a new U.S. Leave Area at La Bourboule, a resort in Auvergne. Arriving in the rain, we found the place almost entirely closed for the winter. Most of the restaurants, hotels and cafés were shut and practically all the shops. The result was that there was nothing to do after we had made the excursions to Mont Dore and seen the snow-capped Puy du Dôme. All we could find to occupy our time was to hang around the Casino in the hands of the YMCA with no gambling allowed."

Also, this might be interesting:  Harpedanne de Belleville H-R.  Les sequelles respiratoires des intoxications par les gaz de combat et leur traitement au Mont-Doré

Bordeaux, 1919