Killed in Action: Private Arnold Henry Niederjohann

by Bob Brail

     About 4,500 miles from New Melle, Missouri, is the St. Mihiel American Cemetery near Thiaucourt, France. Its forty acres cover the graves of over 4,000 Americans who died in World War One. The cemetery is divided into four plots of equal size at the center of which is a large sundial topped by an American eagle. In Row 8 of Plot D is the grave of Private Arnold Henry Neiderjohann of New Melle who was killed in action on September 23, 1918.

     Niederjohann was born on Feb 3, 1895, to Henry and Minnie Neiderjohann, who farmed near New Melle. When Neiderjohann enlisted in the United States Army on June 5, 1917, he was unmarried and working as a carpenter for a Foristell business. According to his draft registration, Neiderjohann was of medium height and build, and had gray eyes and black hair.

     On May 17, 1918, Neiderjohann, serial number 2,192,399, was assigned to Company C, 356^th Infantry Regiment of the 89^th Division (Arch Bowman of Hamburg, who would be killed in action on the next-to-the-last day of the war, was also in the 356^th, but in Company A). According to government documents, Neiderjohann worked as a mechanic, although in letters to his parents Neiderjohann wrote he served as a carpenter after his unit arrived in France on June 4, 1918.

     Neiderjohann's regiment was eventually sent to the front near the small towns of Dommartin, Charey, and Dampvitoux, an area about fifteen miles southwest of Metz and 125 miles east of Paris. His regiment was relieved on September 21 and began its movement away from the front. However, the next day the 356^th received orders to return for an early morning raid on Dommartin Woods the next day. Early in morning on September 23, a portion of the 356th entered Dommartin Woods, advancing toward the German lines. Their raid was successful, resulting in the capture of three prisoners, partly due to the fact that the infantry had been supported by Allied artillery. This artillery attack, though, resulted in an enormous barrage of German artillery during the regiment's retreat through the woods. As one historian wrote, “In the darkness of the woods and heavy downpour of rain, the returning troops lost their way, became separated, and suffered many casualties.” Arnold Henry Neiderjohann was mortally wounded at about 5:00 AM; there were no eyewitnesses. Neiderjohann was buried in his uniform on the battlefield the next day.

    Three weeks later, on October 14, Henry and Minnie Neiderjohann were notified of their son's death. However, in the following weeks, several men in Company C had written the Neiderjohanns that their son had not been killed, but only severely wounded. It is unclear as to why this confusion existed, but these letters must have created false hopes for the Neiderjohanns. However, in late December, Lt. Colonel Charles Pierce wrote a letter to Henry and Minnie confirming their son's death. In the middle of January, Henry Neiderjohann sent a letter to Lt. Colonel Charles Pierce requesting information regarding the death of their son and a photograph of his battlefield grave.

     As in the case of nearly every other American killed in action during World War I, Neiderjohann's remains would be reinterred more than once. The body was moved to St. Mihiel for reburial in April, 1919, and then again disinterred on August 14, 1922, for reburial in the St. Mihiel American Cemetery. Although Neiderjohann's remains could have been removed yet again for transport to the United States for reburial, his parents declined to take advantage of the government's offer of repatriation. A short time later, in December, 1919, Minnie Niederjohann died of heart disease.

     Ten years later, Congress created a second act meant to deal with the grief caused by World War I. This Act of Congress was passed on March 2, 1929, and provided an opportunity for “the mothers and widows of the deceased soldiers, sailors, and marines of the American forces now interred in the cemeteries of Europe to make a pilgrimage to those cemeteries.” The Act meant that the government would pay for ship passage to France and a ten-day tour of the region, including a visit to Paris and tours of battlefields for the mother or widow of any American soldier who had died in Europe in World War I. By the time the program concluded in 1933, over 5,000 women had taken the trip at a cost to the government of over five million dollars.

     Minnie Niederjohann would not, of course, every take this trip. However, the government apparently did not know of her death, because it sent nine letters to New Melle from 1929 through 1933, asking if she wanted to make a pilgrimage to her son's grave. Each time her widowed husband Henry would indicate “NO” on the form and mail it back to Washington, D. C. One can only try to imagine how these nine letters, received ten to fifteen years after the deaths of his son and wife, served as painful reminders of Henry Niederjohann's enormous loss.

     Little did Henry and Minnie Niederjohann know that when their son left home to go off to war that they would never see him again. Like thousands of other young American men, Arnold Henry Niederjohann died for his country far away from this home and family. Killed in a woods in eastern France, Niederjohann was eventually buried in the American cemetery at St. Mihiel, a monument to America's commitment to freedom.

Sources: Fold3.com; “Gold Star Mothers” (rootsweb.ancestry.com); Heritage.freese.net; “Pilgrimage for the Mothers and Widows . . .” (Digital Library @ Villanova University); Regimental History: 353^rd Infantry (kancoll.org/books/dienst/353-chap17); St. Louis-Post Dispatch (newspapers.com); “St. Mihiel American Cemetery” (abmc.gov); “Soldiers' Records: War of 1812 – World War I” (s1.sos.mo.gov); The World War with Company “A” 356^th Infantry 89^th Division (cdm.sos.mo.gov).