BG John Charles Steck

BG John Charles Steck was born 7 Sep 1911 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He was the youngest of 9 children born to August Rhinaul and Bertha F. (Melick) Steck. His father, as well as many others in his family, was a Lutheran minister. John attended Carlisle High School. His mother died in 1928. John graduated from Gettysburg College in 1934 with a Bachelor of Science degree. He intially went to work for the state of Pennsylvania highways department as a laboratory assistant with a salary of $1140 a year.

John was drafted in June 1941. Being a college graduate probably helped his selection as an officer candidate and he was sent to OCS. Assigned to the 42nd Infantry Division as it was reconstituted. Commanding E Company 242nd Infantry then CPT Steck was serving in the 42nd Infantry Division 7th Army under General Alexander Patch when he performed the actions for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross as well as the Bronze Star Medal with oak leaf cluster. The qualifying events probably took place near Hatten, France in the 42nds resistance to the German Operation Nordwind. 

Worked as reporter for Farmville Herald before becoming news manager. Elected to Prince Edward County's board of supervisors in 1958, he served as the chair of that body for the 4 years prior to his death. President Farmville Chamber of Commerce. COL Steck attended the Command and General Staff College in 1963. COL Steck took command of 2nd Brigade 29th Infantry Division in 1964 and commanded the unit until 1967.

BG Steck  was still working when he died of cancer on 28 Jun 1977. He was interred in Westview Cemetery in Farmville, Virginia.

LTC Geyser White Pulliam

LTC Geyser White "Guy" Pulliam, b. 19 Apr 1892 - d. 19 Jan 1952, son of George Washington and Nancy Ann (Cabler) Pulliam of Danville, VA. Geyser was a mechanic in C Company 116th Infantry at Camp McClellan in 1917, moved to the Army Air Corps and made a career of it eventually rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. His eldest son Carnett Washington Pulliam (by his first wife, Anne Clyde Gardner) rose to the rank of Master Sergeant in the Army. His daughter, Margaret Louanne Pulliam was a First Lieutenant nurse in the Korean War and his second son Guy Eric Pulliam was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force when killed in an A7 crash at Nellis AFB. LTC Pulliam is buried in the Fort Bragg Main Post Cemetery, Fort Bragg, NC.

SGT Peter William Smallwood

courtesy of JMB

SGT Peter William Smallwood was born 19 Nov 1922 in Weyers Cave, Virginia. He was the 6th child of Robert Franklin and Edna Christine (Hagedorn) Smallwood.  Peter was the first of the couple's 8 children to survive to the age of 18. His father was a farm laborer and the family lived for many years in the Weyers Cave area. His mother, Edna, died in 1930 and his father remarried in 1932. His only older surviving sibling, Hobart, died of typhoid fever that same year. At the time of the 1940 census, Peter was farming for and living with Mr. H. F. Meyer near Weyers Cave. He sometimes found work in Lancaster, Pennsylvania area and in 1942 was working at the Armstrong Linoleum plant there. While there he met and in 1943 married Violet Waid who was already the mother of one daughter who he apparently adopted. Whether he married before or after he was drafted is unclear.

Peter was drafted in April 1943. After his basic military training he was sent to England in July 1943 and assigned to F Company 116th Infantry. He then trained with the unit for the amphibious landing that was a planned element of the invasion and liberation of Nazi occupied France. PFC Smallwood took part in that landing serving with his unit until wounded on D+1, 7 Jun 1944, and evacuated to  hospital. He was dropped from unit rolls and never returned to any 116th Infantry unit.

However, the military life must have appealed because Peter stayed in service when he could have accepted a discharge. His father died in May 1946 at the age of 56 after a long illness. This was soon followed by another tragedy. Brother, Roy Samuel Smallwood, was still serving in the Navy and presumably home on leave when he was in an automobile accident on US Route 250 east of Staunton, Virginia and killed. Roy had served aboard the USS Intrepid (CV-11) at the Battle of Leyte Gulf but was stationed at the Philadelphia Navy Yard at the time of his death. When Roy died, Peter was a T3. In 1947 his step-mother died at age 35 of tuberculosis.

Peter and Violet had a daughter in 1949 but the marriage must have already been in trouble because when he applied for his Pennsylvania Veteran's bonus in 1950 they were already divorced. Peter married again in May 1953, this time to Eleanor Louise "Betty" Tankersley Brown of Staunton, Virginia. He was still serving in the Army, more than 10-years after being drafted. However, fate intervened and the marriage was not to last.

SGT Smallwood died 20 years ago today while stationed at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. He was on a log cutting detail when he made the ill-advised decision to ride the log carriage from which he fell into the spinning sawmill blade and was killed.

Peter now rests forever in Thornrose Cemetery in Staunton, Virginia alongside his 2nd wife, Betty.

Great-grandfather, Richard James Johnson, enlisted in Company H, Virginia 7th Cavalry Regiment on 25 Mar 1862, mustered out on 21 Jun 1862. Transferred to Company C, Virginia 17th Cavalry Battalion on 21 Jun 1862. Mustered out on 05 Feb 1863. Transferred to Company C, Virginia 11th Cavalry Regiment on 05 Feb 1863.

BG Arthur Taylor Sheppe

BG Arthur Taylor Sheppe was born 2 Oct 1924 in Enfield, North Carolina. He was the youngest of 5 and 2nd son of Edwin Samuels and Elizabeth Virginia (Williams) Sheppe. His father supported his family as a superintendent of public schools in North Carolina, principal in Covington, Virginia, owner/editor of the Highland Recorder in Monterey, Virginia and taught at R.E. Lee High School in Staunton, Virginia and was editor of the Staunton News Leader. He was also the author or textbooks used in Virginia public schools. One might think that there were high expectations for Arthur. His sisters Dorothy and Ruth died young.

Arthur attended Staunton Military Academy (class of 1922), Emory University in 1923-1924 and the University of Pennsylvania in 1925-1926. Arthur and Ruby Hazel Blair were married on 16 Oct 1937.

Arthur enlisted in L Company 116th Infantry of the Virginia National Guard in 1920 and rose to rank of SGT before being commissioned as a 2LT in 1928. He was promoted to 1LT in 1933 and to CPT in 1935. He was commanding L Company 116th Infantry when the unit was federalized/called to active duty on 3 Feb 1941. CPT Sheppe was promoted to MAJ in May 1941 commanding 3rd Battalion 116th Infantry and to LTC in November 1942 and was then made Executive Officer of the 175th Infantry Regiment with which unit LTC Sheppe went ashore at Omaha Beach on 7 Jun 1944. He replaced COL Warfield (who was killed) as commander of 2nd Battalion 115th Infantry on 12 Jun 1944 and commanded the battalion throughh to Saint-Lo. He was then reassigned to command 3rd Battalion 115th Infantry for a short time before again becoming Executive Officer of the 175th where he was serving at the time Brest was captured. Commissioned as a COL in the Regular Army in 1946 he commanded a regiment at Fort McClellan in Anniston, Alabama. He resigned after 3 months to return to civilian life.  His awards during the war included the Silver Star and Bronze Star Medal with 3 oak leaf clusters. Virginia's Governor Battle asked him to return to service in 1947 to reorganize the 116th Infantry and he commanded the regiment until forced by a heart attack to retire in 1952. It was at that time that he was promoted to BG.

President of Gus Dull Transfer Company, ran for Staunton City Council in 1948, was manager of the Stillwater Worsted Mill near Craigsville, Virginia and participated in several community organizations. He was a member of Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion, Staunton Rotary Club, Circus Saints & Sinners and Country Club of Staunton.

After retirement, he worked as Veterans Claims Agent for the Veterans Administration. He was living at 1625 North Augusta Street in Staunton in 1974. BG Sheppe died at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia on 3 Jun 1974 and was interred at Thornrose Cemetery in Staunton, Virginia. 

LTC Harold Andrew Cassell

LTC Harold Andrew Cassell was born 18 Apr 1908 in Ceres, Virginia. He was the 6th of 8 children born to James Franklin and his second wife Mary Emily (Spangler) Cassel. His father had 8 children by his first wife as well and supported his large family by farming and blacksmithing in Bland County, Virginia. After 7 years of public school education, Harold left school and went to work, probably to help support his family including his aging father. His father died in March 1930 at the age of 80.

By that time Harold was working at Garst Brothers Dairy in Roanoke, Virginia. Harold married Mary Katherine Goggin on 17 Sep 1930 in Roanoke where they lived. Although he was 21 he was still living in his now widowed mother's household. In order to supplement his income Harold had enlisted in the Virginia Army National Guard on 18 Aug 1925. He rose through the ranks being promoted from PVT to PFC to CPL to SGT to 1SG and then MSG before being commissioned a 2LT on 15 Mar 1938 and being federally recognized at that rank on 28 Jan 1939. He was serving in Service Company 116thh Infantry at that time. The couple had a son in 1940. Harold was now manager of the dairy and doing very well owned the family home at 302 Guilford Avenue which was valued at $4000 and reported a 1939 income of $1540.

2LT Cassell was mobilized with his National Guard unit on 3 Feb 1941 and went with that unit to Fort George Meade, Maryland. He received a reserve commission as LTC on 5 Dec 1943 although he was not promoted to CPT with federal recognition until 18 Apr 1943. He was federally recognized as a LTC on 29 Jun 1950. After having served as regiment executive officer LTC Cassell took command of the 116th in November 1944 before command of the unit was given to LTC Sidney Bingham in early December 1945.

On 6 Jun 1944, D-Day, LTC Cassell was serving as the 116th's Executive Officer. He replaced the wounded LTC Tom Dallas as commander of 1st Battalion 116th Infantry on 5 Aug 1944 near Vire, France. On 10 Nov 1944 he assumed command of the regiment from COL Dwyer who was being transferred. He relinquished command to LTC Sidney Bingham at the beginning of December 1945 but would again command the regiment during its duties in the occupation of Germany after May 1945 and was still commanding the unit when it demobilized at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey in 1946. LTC Cassell was one of he only 50 men who had mobilized with the unit in February 1941 who were still with the regiment 5-years later. LTC Cassell was then assigned to the Fort Leavenworth where he and Mary would have a 2nd child, a daughter, in April 1949. After being reassigned in 1949 the family lived in Anne Arundel, Maryland. As a LTC, Harold was paid about $5600 in 1949. Then he had an assignment in Japan and in the Republic of Korea before returning to Fort Benning and Columbus, Georgia where he commanded the 1st Battalion of the School Brigade at the Infantry School there until 1957. LTC Cassell then served a tour  in Tuscaloosa, Alabama where he was Chief of the Tuscaloosa Military Sub-district. He was then assigned as commander of the Western Area Command, an Army Reserve unit. LTC Cassell retired from the Army on 30 Jun 1961 and lived in Columbus, Georgia.

LTC Cassell died 22 Jan 1974 in Columbus, Georgia. He rests forever in the Fort Moore Main Post Cemetery at Fort Benning, Georgia. His awards include the Silver Star, 3 Bronze Stars (BSM with 3 OLC) and the Army Commendation Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster.

COL Robert Franklin Leedy

COL Robert Franklin Leedy was born 28 Jul 1863 at Leedy's Pump in Rockingham County, Virginia. He was the third of six children of John Brower and second wife Sarah Ann (Mauck) Leedy. The couple had lost their first two children in childbirth. Robert also had a half-sister, the daughter of his father's first wife Lydia Margaret (McCreary) who had died in 1856. His father supported his family by farming. Robert was educated in local schools as was common at that time and continued in farming until he was about 22 years old when he left home. He then spent the next three years in mining and railroading. He married Emma Catherine Keister in 1890 and the couple would have seven children by 1915. Moving to Basic City, Virginia, Robert began to study law and work for local lawyers and then to study in the law school of the University of Virginia. He was admitted to the bar in 1893. Although twice elected mayor of Basic City in this time period, after becoming a lawyer he resigned from the office and moved to Luray, Virginia where he practiced law in partnership and alone. Robert was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1914 and held the seat for two terms. 

The law and politics were not Robert's only interests. He joined the state militia, now National Guard, and was elected Captain of the Page Rifles later C Company 2nd Virginia Regiment. He rose in rank in the regiment becoming the commander and a Colonel in August of 1905. The regiment was called up for duty on the Mexican border in 1916 and COL Leedy commanded the unit there for nine months. Shortly after returning home, the unit was recalled for duty in the first World War and sent to the newly established Camp McClellan near Anniston, Alabama where it was combined with other Virginia regiments to form the 116th Infantry Regiment. Intending to continue command, COL Leedy was found to be medically unfit for duty and relieved of command. 

Returning home in March 1918 Robert ran for the state senate and was elected as a Democrat representing Page, Warren and Clark counties. In office he supported the National Guard but opposed both prohibition and women's suffrage. The family suffered a tragedy when, in November 1918, Robert's eldest child, Nina Coleman Leedy, succumbed to pneumonia. He then unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1920 and declined to run again in 1922. 

Robert became ill in December 1923, developed pneumonia and died on 12 Jan 1924. He was buried in Green Hill Cemetery in Luray, Virginia.

Robert Leedy was a member of several masonic organizations and of the American Legion.

His father served in several units (CSA) in the Civil War ultimately being promoted to COL. Great-grandfather Conrad Harnsberger served in CPT Thomas Buck's Company 8th Virginia Regiment in the Revolution and as a COL in the war of 1812 dying of yellow fever in Norfolk in 1814 and was a founder of Elkton, Virginia. Great, great-grandfather Wilson Cary Nicholas was a former Governor of Virginia (1814-1816) and Nicholas county, Virginia (now West Virginia) was named for him. Great, great-grandfather CPT Richard Stites was commanding a company in Hunt's Battalion when wounded on Long Island later dying of his wound(s) on 16 Sep 1776. His great, great, great-grandfather was President Thomas Jefferson.

BG George Washington Ball Jr.

BG George Washington Ball Jr. was born 16 Feb 1881 in Iowa City, Iowa. He was the firstborn son of George Washington and Estella Esther (Walter) Ball. His father was prominent local attorney, former State Senator for Iowa County and a Mayor of Iowa City.

George Jr., graduated from the College of Law of the State University of Iowa and joined his father's practice. He also was head of Johnson County and Ball Abstract Companies. In June 1905 he married Maude Hester Young. The couple would have 3 children, the youngest of which died in 1921, age 6, of polio.

George enlisted in I Company 50th Iowa Volunteer Infantry on 9 Jul 1900. He received his commission as 2LT on 3 Apr 1901. He was promoted to 1LT on 22 Jun 1903. George was again promoted to CPT on 9 May 1904 and appointed Commander I Company 54th Infantry Regiment, Iowa National Guard (apparently reorganized from the 50th). He was promoted to LTC on 10 May 1914 and was the regiment Executive Officer when the 54th became the 1st Infantry Regiment on 4 Jul 1915. The unit was mustered into service at Camp Dodge on on 26 Jun 1916 and mustered out of service on 15 Jan 1917. However, the United States would soon be involved in the war in Europe. COL Ball sailed to France as commander of the 133rd Infantry Regiment a part of the 34th Division on 28 Oct 1918. COL Ball returned to the United States in July 1919. Promoted to BG, he was assigned to the 175th Brigade of the 34th Division retiring before 1924.

BG Ball died on 3 Jan 1924 as a result of an automobile accident in which he fractured his pelvis and which, in turn, resulted in pulmonary thrombosis. He was buried in Oakland Cemetery in Iowa City, Iowa.

BG Ball was a life member of the National Rifle Association of America. 

Great, great grandson of COL George Moffett, former commander of the Augusta County Regiment (an ancestral unit of the 116th Infantry Regiment). 3rd cousin once removed of former commander of the 116th Infantry Regiment, BG George Murrell Alexander.

COL George Wayne Anderson

COL George Wayne Anderson was born 10 Jul 1863 in Edgehill, Virginia in Albemarle county. He was the 2nd of the 5 children of Edward Clifford and Jane Margaret (Randolph) Anderson. His father was from Savannah, Georgia and at the time of George's birth his father was serving as a Major in the 7th Georgia Cavalry (CSA) ultimately rising to the rank of Colonel and commanding the regiment. His mother from Edgehill and was a granddaughter of Thomas Jefferson. After the war his father returned to the business of banking and served for a time as mayor of Savannah dying of yellow fever in 1876.

George educated in private schools before attending and graduating from the University of Virginia and the University School of Law in 1888. He moved to Richmond to practice law and lived there the rest of his life. George married Estelle Marguerite Burthe on 19 Dec 1889. The couple would have 3 children. He joined the Virginia militia (not yet the National Guard) in 1890 as a 2LT but was already a CPT in May 1891 commanding F Company 1st Virginia Regiment resigning in March 1895 as ordered by the Adjutant General of Virginia. However, by November of that year he was a LTC and in May 1898 became commander of the 1st Virginia Regiment as it mobilized for the Spanish-American War but did not receive a command in any of the 4 Virginia Regiments sent to Federal service. He became active in politics and was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1899 where he supported a constitutional convention. Promoted to Colonel and assigned as commander of th 70th Virginia Regiment in 1900, he would serve in that position until 1906 when he retired from military service. He was then elected to the state Senate in 1901. George was city attorney of Richmond, Virginia 1921-1922 when he died of cancer on 30 Dec of that year. He was buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.

Both sons served in the first World War. 1LT Edward Clifford Anderson served in the 6th Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Division and was awarded the Silver Star medal. CPT George Wayne Anderson Jr. was serving with the 313th Field Artillery 80th Division when he was killed in action on 1 Nov 1918.

George has his own Wikipedia page!

SGT Charles Douglas Reynolds

SGT Charles Douglas Reynolds, b. 20 Jul 1893 - d. 14 Jul 1962 (of cancer). Son of Thomas Jefferson and Mollie Bell (Setliff) Reynolds of Danville, VA, Charles was a member of C Company 116th Infantry. On the roster as a CPL in 1917, Charles also served during WWII beginning in 1942. He was married to Georgia (Hoy) Dean and helped to raise her children by her first husband while living in Harrisonburg. His father was a veteran of the Civil War and his brother, Robert Glenn Reynolds, was disabled in his service with 1st Virginia Infantry in Texas in 1917. SGT Reynolds is buried in the Staunton National Cemetery in Staunton, VA.

CPL Claiborne Keister Whitt

SGT Claiborne Keister Whitt, b. 13 Dec 1891 -d 30 May 1972. Son of George W and Gabriella B (Tye) Whitt of Halifax County, VA. Married Grace B Pettigrew with whom he had 4 children. On the roster of C Company 116th Infantry at Camp McClellan as Keister Whitt. He is buried at Highland Burial Park, Danville, VA.