William Galloway
Killed in Action
by Bob Brail

     On June 5, 1917, as America prepared to do battle in what was eventually known as World War I, three young African-American brothers from Dalhoff, about five miles southwest of O'Fallon, registered for the draft. They were the sons of Edward and Phoebe Galloway, who lived just east of Hopewell Baptist Church on Highway N. The oldest was Moses Galloway, twenty-five years old, a single, illiterate laborer working on the Warner Moore farm near O'Fallon. The middle brother was Louis Galloway, twenty-three years old, a single farmer working on his own land. The youngest brother, William Galloway, was twenty-one years old and working as a laborer on the Thomas Slattery farm near O'Fallon. A few months after their father died, all three Galloway men enlisted in the army during the summer of 1918.

     Only one of the Galloway brothers would return from the war. Moses, whose unit was the 425th Reserve Labor Battalion, was honorably discharged, farmed in Callaway Township, died in 1978, and was buried at Jefferson Barracks. Louis, whose unit was Company L of the 806th Pioneer Infantry, died in camp of pneumonia, just twenty-five days after arriving in Europe, on October 10, 1918, and was buried in the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery in France. William Galloway, Company H, 805th Pioneer Infantry, was killed in action just four days later, on October 14, 1918, the only African-American from St. Charles County to die in action in World War I.

     When the United States finally declared war on Germany in April, 1917, many in the African American community resisted the war effort. President Woodrow Wilson had justified America's decision to support the war by stating the world needed to be safe for democracy. Many African Americans scoffed at this idea since America at that time, especially in the South, was rife with segregation. However, most African Americans viewed the war as chance to show their patriotism. For all African Americans, however, “the war became a crucial test of America's commitment to the ideal of democracy and rights of full citizenship for all people, regardless of race.” By war's end, there were commisioned African American officers in the United States Army for the first time, so America passed the test, at least to some degree.

     William Galloway, serial number 4,261,983, was one of 350,00 African Americans drafted during the war and assigned to segregated units in the army. No African Americans were accepted by the Marine Corps and the Army Air Corps, and very few were allowed in the Navy. In July, 1918, Galloway took a trin to Camp Funston (Fort Riley, Kansas). He was assigned to the 805th Pioneer Infantry, nicknamed the “Bearcats.” In August the unit traveled to Hoboken, New Jersey and sailed from there to Quebec. In early September, 1918, the 805th boarded the Saxonia and sailed for England. Later that month Galloway and his comrades set foot in France.

     Galloway, however, would do no fighting in France, nor would any other member of his regiment. In fact, of the approximately 200,000 African Americans who were sent to France, only about 40,000 saw combat. The most famous African-American combat unit in World War One was the 93rd Division, the “Harlem Hellfighters,” who actually fought under the auspices of the French Army. By war's end, 171 individuals in this unit were awarded the French Legion of Honor. Most African-Americans, though, would serve in labor units. Their work included unloading ships, transporting materials to the front, digging trenches and latrines, burying the dead, removing unexploded bombs and other battlefield debris, and building and maintaining roads.

     On October 6, 1918, the Second Battalion of the 805th Infantry, which included Galloway's Company H, were ordered to march from Clermont-en-Argonne to Avocourt to build and repair roads. This meant that the men had been ordered to the front for the first time. Their first night there they experience a gas attack by the Germans. In the month they spent at Avocourt, German planes bombed their camp nearly every day. Their regimental historian later wrote that they were “under continuous shell fire.” On October 14, about a week after his arrival, Private William Galloway was killed in action. Unfortunately, the National Personnel Records Center at the St. Louis National Archives has no Burial Record File for William Galloway, so there is no way of knowing how he was killed, although the most likely cause would seem to be German shell fire.

     The absence of a Burial Record File also means no information exists about his burial; this is also true for his brother Louis. Apparently Galloway's mother decided to have the government repatriate only the remains of William, leaving Louis in his French grave. One struggles to understand why she would have done this. It is also not known why Mrs. Galloway decided to have William's body reinterred in Arlington National Cemetery instead of bringing it back to St. Charles County. Whatever her reasoning, Galloway was buried in Virginia on January 14, 1921.

     Although a “spirit of determination, inspired by the war, surged through black America” after the war ended, William Galloway knew nothing of it. Galloway had given his life to make the world safe for democracy, even though he had been forced to serve in a segregated regiment doing menial labor. It would be foolish, however, to conclude that Galloway's work with shovel and pick was in someway less important than that done with rifle and cannon. William Galloway, like tens of thousands of other Americans in World War One, was killed in action as he served his country.

Sources: “African Americans and World War One” (exhibitions.nypl.org); “African Americans in World War One” (historyrocket.com); American Battle Monuments Commission (abmc.gov); Ancexplorer.army.mil; Findagrave.com, Missouri Death Certificates (s1.sos.mo.gov); Federal Censuses; Fold3 (youranswerplace.org); St. Charles County in the World War (youranswerplace.org); Victory: History of the 805th Pioneer Infantry, AEF by Paul Bliss (archive.org); “World War One and Postwar Society” (memory.loc.gov); “World War I and the Great Migration” (history.house.gov); 1905 St Charles County Plat Map.