Wedding, James Ernest (abt 1886-1918)

WEDDING

Posted By: Debbie Greenfield (email)
Date: 12/12/2020 at 10:52:00

Daily Freeman Journal, Webster City, Iowa, Monday, March 11, 1918

FIRST WEBSTER CITY BOY KILLED IN FRANCE

SERG. JAMES ERNEST WEDDING KILLED IN BATTLE WITH GERMANS IN U.S. WAR SECTIOR

Adjutant General Sends Brief Message Notifying Parents Sergeant Wedding Was Killed in Action March 5 - Was With Famous Rainbow Division, Probably in Lorraine Sector

THE IOWA DEAD

SERGEANT JAMES ERNEST WEDDING, Webster City, Headquarters Company, One Hundred Sixty-Eighth Infantry

Grim realization that America is engaged in the world-wide war reached Webster City late Saturday night when a brief message from Adjutant General McCain of Washington, D.C., was delivered to Mr. and Mrs. James W. Wedding, announcing that their son, James Ernest, had been killed in action on one of the blood soaked battlefields of France. The message brought no details, only the meager announcement, though it contained the deep regrets of the government that another life had been sacrificed on the altar of the mad war god, to appease whose anger Europe has been made a veritable shambles. Twenty other Iowans - none from Hamilton County - were wounded in this engagement.

James Ernest Wedding was a member of the famous Rainbow division, to which eighty-nine members of the three military units recruited in Webster City had been transferred. In addition to these eighty-nine men, Lieut. G.O. Blake of this city was also transferred from the officers' training school at Fort Snelling.

The first increment of the Rainbow division landed on French soil Dec. 10, after a voyage fraught with much danger during which the transport bearing them was driven into Belfast, Ireland, by a fleet of submarines. The second increment reached French soil some three weeks later, having been detained at Camp Merritt, N.J. quarantined for measles. The latter division had the unique experience of having left Halifax, Nova Scotia, just three days prior to the awful explosion which wrecked that whole city and killed hundreds of people. The first division started twice, returning from their first attempt because of engine trouble which they experienced just as they reached the other edge of the submarine zone. They returned because the ship's officers feared to enter the danger zone with crippled engines.

Since reaching France, the Rainbow division has been undergoing intensive training in the trenches, until recently when it was assigned to an American sector on an active front.

James Ernest Wedding was killed in action March 5, probably in the Lorraine sector in the vicinity of St. Mihiel, which is southeast of Verdun, a fortress which will ever be immortalized in French history as the scene of a continuous siege of two years now at the hands of the German crown prince, Frederick William, probably the bloodiest siege in all the history of the world. The laconic message of the adjutant general announcing Sergeant Wedding's death is as follows:

Washington, D.C., March 9 - Deeply regret to inform you Sergeant J.E. Wedding killed in action March 5.
Adjutant General McCain

While the location in which Sergeant Wedding met his death is not known for a certainty, it was more than likely in the Lorraine sector, because American troops were there engaged with the Germans the night of March 4 and during the morning of the 5th. An official dispatch from the French war office said the Americans showed a "rare quality of courage, self-possession, and calm bravery, which won them the admiration of the neighboring French troops and the hearty congratulations of the French high command."

The Americans engaged were the latest to enter the trenches, going in to train with the French. First news of their presence on the battle line came in the French official statement of March 5, which told of their brave conduct in repulsing the Germans.

While the French dispatches mentioned the names of no particular division, they gave the following details of the fight in which the Americans, probably the Rainbow division - were engaged:

"After a very heavy artillery preparation, including shells of all calibers, which completely demolished the ground of the sector, a strong attack was made upon the positions occupied by the Americans. A few of the enemy succeeded in penetrating into a trench, but an energetic and severe counter attack threw them back in confusion.

"Meanwhile another section succeeded in cutting the barbed wire in front of the position where the fighting was going on, but they also were quickly dispersed by the precise firing from the rifles and machine guns.

"A third company finally succeeded in stealing their way into the lines and attempting a flanking attack, which was on the point of succeeding. Here the Americans gave proof of splendid energy and a morale beyond all praise. Almost entirely surrounded, they did not dream of surrendering, and their efforts to extricate themselves were so determined that they succeeded in displacing the enemy without leaving a single prisoner in his hands.

"Towards 4:30 in the morning an American patrol of four men and one sergeant encountered an army patrol that was cutting the barbed wire and which was composed of nine men. The American patrols threw themselves upon the adversaries, and after a furious combat succeeded in putting them to flight, bringing back with them two prisoners.

"In the attack and in the defense the American soldiers assumed the brilliant place which they intend to hold among the allies' armies."

Sergeant James Ernest Wedding was the third son of Mr. and Mrs. J.W. Wedding, who live at 1700 Superior street. The young man is survived by his parents, three brothers and two sisters. He was born in this city, attended the schools here and had always made this his home. He first joined Company C in 1908. He was in Texas with that organization when they first went there in June 1916 to guard the Mexican border. His time expired upon their return home and he re-enlisted just the day before the first contingent of troops from here left for Des Moines. He was drawn with the contingent from that company to be transferred to the old Third Iowa, which was assigned to the Rainbow division of the 168th Infantry.

Sergeant Wedding was 32 years of age and unmarried. He worked here for Albert Swanson, now deceased, in the cement contracting business.

He was a good soldier in all that this implies. Since having reached France, letters to his parents here brought the news that he had been assigned to an officers' training school and had been recommended for promotion to a commissioned office. He was a young man widely known and held the respect and high esteem of all his comrades and friends. Officers of Company C regarded him as an excellent soldier and it was while in Texas two years ago that he rose to the rank of sergeant. He was always diligent of his duty and set a high example, both as a man and as a soldier, for the men under him. He may easily have been the sergeant referred to in the French dispatch quoted, who, with four men, put to flight a German army patrol of nine men. Sergeant Wedding was made of the sort of stuff which goes into men of that kind. The details of his death however, will probably not be known in Webster City until some of his comrades - of whom there are a number of Webster City boys - write home to friends or to the stricken parents. The story given out by the French war office gave no details as to the number of men killed, though the very nature of the engagement indicates that men must have lost their lives during its progress.

Webster City will ever remember her first son who gave his life in the struggle to make the world safe for democracy. The sympathy of all goes out unstintedly to the sorrowing parents and other relatives. The death of this fine young man brings closer to home a realization of the worldwide war. The death in battle of Webster City's first soldier victim goes far to make more widespread the grim determination of loyal Americans in this community to stand firmly behind their soldier boys and to be of every possible help, in every conceivable way, to aid in the struggle to stamp out the last trace of kaiserism, the divine right of kings and all the other terms of imperialism expressed in the autocratic belief in the right of the few to rule the many - a belief that permeates German and Austrian royalty and that furnished the match which touched off the world holocaust in Europe four years ago in July.

When the news came Saturday night, Mrs. Wedding was prostrated with grief. All day yesterday she was in bed, under the care of a physician. Her health is none too good and the shock of the news of her son's death was more than she could bear. She is better today, however, and this morning was able to sit up a short time. The family all feel keenly the loss of this beloved son and brother and fine young man.

Marion Wedding, a brother, who had enlisted and was at Camp Cody, Deming, N.M., was recently discharged on account of a slight physical disability.

J.W. Wedding, the father, is a veteran of the civil war and a member of the local G.A.R. post.