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Residence: Route 2 Corpus Christie (Neuces County)
Texas
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This statement of service card was sent to us by Rick Thorpe. He adds the following information:
PVT. ARTHUR E. GRANT
1ST DIVISION
26TH INFANTRY REGIMENT
3rd BATTALION
COMPANY K
Arthur E. Grant was born August 22, 1897, near Crofton, Christian County, Kentucky, and died July 20, 1918, near Soissons, France, during World War One. Arthur E. Grant was the son of Luther Ellis Grant and Linnie Alice Reynolds. Luther Ellis Grant and Linnie Alice Reynolds divorced by 1900 and Linnie Alice Reynolds remarried in 1903 to Thomas Calloway Marr and migrated about 1909 to Johnson County, Texas. Thomas Marr and Linnie Alice Reynolds had five children together – Joseph William, John C. “Duffy”, Jessie “Jack”, Thomas “Tom”, and Annie Laura Marr. The Marr family migrated about 1915 to Nueces County, Texas, and returned before 1920 to Johnson County, Texas. Arthur E. Grant married Grace Marie (unknown) sometime after arriving in Nueces County, Texas. Grace Marie Grant, in 1921, lived at Sinton, San Patricio, County, Texas. Arthur E. Grant enlisted in the United States Army (Regular Army) on May 26, 1916 at Kingsville, Kleberg County, Texas. Arthur E. Grant’s home address at the time of his enlistment was his parent’s address, Route 2, Corpus Christi, Nueces County, Texas. Arthur E. Grant was a Private, and served in the 26th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Battalion, Company K, from May 26, 1916 to July 26, 1917.Mexican Service Border Medal, World War I Victory Medal, Silver Star Medal, Purple Heart Medal, and French Croix DeGuerre Medal
From his enlistment until June 3, 1917, Pvt. Arthur E. Grant performed patrol duty along the Rio Grande River and towns and settlements adjacent to St. Louis and Brownsville railroad from San Antonio to Brownsville, Texas. Poncho Villa was conducting raids into the United States at this time. Upon orders to prepare for overseas duty the 26th Infantry Regiment was assembled and equipped at San Benito, Texas. The Regiment left San Benito, Texas, June 3, 1917 by train passing by St. Louis, Missouri and Dayton, Ohio, heading for New York for shipment overseas. The 26th Infantry Regiment sailed for overseas June 13, 1917, on board the steam transports “San Jacinto”, “Momus”, and “Lenape” and debarked at St. Nazaire, France, June 27, 1917. Crossing the Atlantic had a formation of sixteen troop ships (four abreast). There were two destroyers on each side of the formation, and two destroyers in the rear, and one cruiser at the front. Pvt. Arthur E. Grant was assigned to Headquarters Training, 1st Division to September 14, 1917, and afterwards, permanently assigned to the 1st Division, 26th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Battalion, Company K, AEF (American Expeditionary Forces) until July 20, 1918. Pvt. Arthur E. Grant served overseas from June 14, 1917 to July 20, 1918. Pvt. Arthur E. Grant was killed in action, south of Soissons, France, near the Soissons-Paris road, in the 2nd Battle of the Marne (July 18-22, 1918), on July 20, 1918. The 1st Division counter-attacked into the flank of a deep German penetration south of Soissons, France. The 26th Infantry Regiment fought for five days across wheat fields laced with barbed wire entanglements, raked by artillery, and swept by intense machine gun fire. The regimental commander, Colonel Hamilton Smith, and his executive officer were killed in action. All other field grade officers and most of the company officers and senior NCOs (non-commissioned officers) also became casualties. The battalions were commanded by junior captains, companies by NCOs, and remnants of platoons and squads by privates. Pvt. Arthur E. Grant was killed by concussion of a shell in the Soissons Offensive, near the Soissons-Paris road. He died immediately and was buried by a burial party on the field of battle, near the place of death. Pvt. Arthur E. Grant was later reburied on November 3, 1918 in an American cemetery, at Ploisy, in Aisne County, France, and was disinterred on January 12, 1922 and brought back to the United States. Pvt. Arthur Grant was in a small trench with Sergeant Oliver Vie, Corporal Gerald Deakins, and a man named Beck. Sergeant Oliver Vie ordered Pvt. Grant to advance to a shell hole and he had just left the trench when a three-inch shell hit at his feet and killed him. In a letter from eyewitness Corporal Gerald Deakins, Ft. Oglethorpe, Georgia, 1919, Pvt. Arthur E. Grant’s death occurred on July 19, although his tombstone and military documents has the date of death as July 20, 1918. Pvt. Arthur E. Grant was cited in General Orders No. 1, Headquarters, 1st Division, Camp Zachary Taylor, Kentucky, dated January 1, 1920, and was posthumously awarded the Silver Star for gallantry in action and especially meritorious service. Pvt. Arthur E. Grant also received the Mexican Border Service Medal, World War I Victory Medal, French Croix DeGuerre Medal and the Purple Heart Medal. Pvt. Arthur E. Grant was finally buried in March 1922, in Grandview Cemetery, Grandview, Johnson County, Texas, in the Marr family plot, next to his mother and stepfather, Linnie Alice Reynolds Grant Marr and Thomas Calloway Marr.
Sources: 26th Infantry Adjutant General’s Report, 1919; Arthur
E. Grant’s Military Statement of Service Card, Texas Military Museum, Austin,
Texas; Burial Case File for Private Arthur Grant, Washington, D.C. Archives;
Corporal Gerald Deakins letter, 1919, Ft. Oglethorpe, Georgia; Genealogist
– Rick W. Thorpe, Earlington, Hopkins County, Kentucky.