Louis
Frederick William Siedentop
Killed
in Action
by Bob Brail
On October 10, 1917, the Weldon Spring
reporter for the St. Charles Daily Cosmos-Monitor
wrote these words: “Among the most important eventualities of the
week, we heard with mingled feelings of the departure of one of our
most enterprising young citizens, namely Louis Siedentop, with the
last quota of men summoned to Camp Funston. With the utmost best
wishes of every acquaintance, Mr. Siedentop leaves our community for
what we hope to be . . . a short time only.” Sadly, Louis
Siedentop would be dead in less than a year, the first soldier from
the southern part of St. Charles County to be killed in action in
what became known as World War One.
Louis Frederick William Siedentop was
born on December 10, 1892, to Conrad and Freida Siedentop of Weldon
Spring. His Siedentop grandparents had immigrated from Germany in
the late 1850's and eventually purchased what became the family farm,
located about one mile southwest of Weldon Spring on what is now
Highway 94. At sixteen Louis was no longer in school, no doubt
helping his father and grandfather farm. Eventually Louis became a
farmer in his own right. By the spring of 1917, at the age of
twenty-four and unmarried, he had partnered with John Diekrede to
operate an orchard of 6000 fruit trees.
A few months later, on June 5, 1917,
Louis Siedentop enlisted in the army. According to his enlistment
records, he had a medium build, dark blue eyes, and dark brown hair.
Siedentop, serial number 2,177,863, reported to Camp Fuston, Kansas,
in October, 1917, and became part of Headquarters Company of the
354th Infantry. By March, 1918, Siedentop was in Camp
Merritt, New Jersey, a private in Company I, 7th Infantry,
3rd Division. On April 7, 1918, Private Siedentop and his
unit shipped overseas from Hoboken, New Jersey.
A few months later, Siedentop and his
7th Infantry found themselves on the front lines in
France. The last German offensive of the war, later called the
Marne-Reims Offensive, was about to begin, commencing with what
became known as the Second Battle of the Marne. The offensive would
eventually fail, but its initial thrust would result in the death of
Louis Siedentop.
On July 14, the American and French
soldiers were defending the southern bank of the Marne River on both
sides of the village of Chateau Thierry, located seventy-five miles
northeast of Paris. Siedentop's division, the 3rd
Division, was entrenched along the the river for about three miles.
On the left of the division was the 4th Infantry. To
their right, the 7th Infantry was in place just north and
west of the village of Fossoy. Company I, Louis Siedentop's outfit,
was the right flank of the 7th Infantry, on the southern
bank of the Marne River, immediately across the river from German
troops. To the right of the 7th Infantry were the 30th
and 38th Infantries, stretching past the village of Mezy
and Moulins.
The Second Battle of the Marne began
on July 15, moments after midnight, when American and French
artillery let loose a massive bombardment on the Germans. Ten
minutes later the Germans began firing their artillery. One survivor
later wrote that “there was a tremendous roar, as if the end of the
world had come.” The pounding was “so terrible ear drums were
punctured: and “men shook uncontrollably while others were blown
into nothingness, no traces of their bodies ever found.”This
barrage lasted approximately three hours; it was so loud, the
citizens of Paris, seventy
-five miles away, could hear it. They
could also see the attack as the
horizon turned red and orange. Medical personnel at dressing
stations worked frantically to treat the wounded but there were too
many wounded in the artillery attack. An American in Siedentop's
divison wrote, “It thundered and rained shells, high explosives,
shrapnel and gas. They swept our sector as with a giant scythe.”
Siedentop's 7th Infantry was hit particularly hard in the
artillery barrage. In fact, Colonel Tom Anderson, commander of the
7th Infantry, suffered shellshock and had to be replaced.
It seems likely that Louis Siedentop
was killed during this shelling in the early hours of July 15. The
German infantry attack that followed crossed the Marne River around 4
AM. It was centered on the 30th and 38th
Infantries, just to the east of Siedentop's regiment, although the
right flank of the 7th Infantry, of which Siedentop's
Company I was a major part, “took terrible losses” from the
German assault. So it is possible Siedentop was killed by German
infantry. However, Siedentop's Burial File Record does not indicate
where wounds occurred on his body. In other words, no wound caused
by rifle fire is described. The absence of a specific wound on
Siedentop's body may indicate his body was so badly damaged by
artillery fire, it was impossible to identify a single wound that
killed him.
On July 21, the 7th
Infantry crossed the Marne River to attack the Germans, who had
retreated. The previous day, American soldiers had buried their dead
comrades, including Louis Siedentop. He was buried in his uniform on
the battlefied in or near Fossoy close to where he was killed. One
year later, in June, 1919, his body was disinterred and reburied at
the American Cemetery at Sereinges-ete-Verles.
 |
| Battlefield grave marker |
Even before the war ended, a great
controversy grew in the United States as to what to do with the
bodies of American soldiers who had died, either from battle or
disease, in France. By war's end, there would be 116,000 dead
Americans. Should the remains be brought home (repatriated) or
should they be left buried where they fell? One of the best known
opponents of repatriation was former President Theodore Roosevelt.
His son Quentin was a pilot who had been shot down early in the war.
Roosevelt said, “We feel that where the tree falls there let it
lie.” However, even before the war was over, Secretary Of War
Newton Baker, “with little thought given to the enormous logistical
and diplomatic difficulties” of repatriating tens of thousands of
bodies, promised repatriation to any family rquesting it. The
controversy continued, however, after the war was over when an
anti-repatriation organization, the American Field of Honor
Association, formed with World War One hero General John Pershing one
of its leaders. At the same time the Bring Home the Soldier Dead
League formed to pressure War Department to keep its promise to
repatriate. Finally in the spring of 1919, President Woodrow Wilson
signed into law a bill that allowed the parents and spouses of dead
soldiers to choose for themselves. The government would pay. By the
time this program ended in 1923, about 45,000 families opted for
repatriation of their loved one's remains.
Shortly after Louis's death, his
parents were notified. His mother Frieda wrote to the War Department
on March 12, 1919, requesting return of her son's body. A few months
later in July, his father Conrad wrote asking for the location of his
son's grave. It must have been frustrating to read the reply from
the Office of the Quartermaster General of the Army which stated that
the place of burial had not yet been reported. Six months later
Frieda would write again, asking where the grave was located and if
there were any photos. Apparently she received no reply. Conrad
wrote again on February 9, 1920, and received the reply that the
grave of Louis, who had been dead for
On September 17, 1920, Conrad wrote to
Colonel Charles Pierce, the Chief of Grave's Registration Service,
asking for his son's remains to be shipped home and received “no
satisfactory answer.” Finally, on March 11, 1921, Conrad received a
letter from the War Department stating that his sons remains would be
sent home for burial.
The body of Louis Siedentop was
disinterred for the second time in April, 1921. It was shipped in
early June on USAT Wheaton to Hoboken, New Jersey, and arrived in
early July. By early August it was sent west by railroad along with
about 100 other sets of remains. The body arrived in O'Fallon,
Missouri, on August 6.
On August 13, 1921, Louis Siedentop
was buried in the cemetery of the Evangelical Church in Weldon
Spring with military honors. Rev. Edward Brink officiated. The St.
Charles Post of the American Legion was in charge, and music was
provided by the St. Charles Military Band.
Louis Siedentop's gravestone states,
“In Honor of Pvt. L. F. W. Siedentop, Co. I, 7th
Infantry, Killed in Action in France, 2nd Battle of
Marne.” Just a few hundred feet away, a short stretch of two-lane
road on the northern edge of Weldon Spring carries the Siedentop
name. Hundreds of drivers pass Siedentop Road every morning and
evening on their way to and from work in St. Louis County. Perhaps
it would be a proper tribute the next time you pass the road to
remember the sacrifice of Private Louis Siedentop.
Sources: 1905 St. Charles County
Plat Book; “1918: A
Fateful Ending” (historyplace.com); Burial Case Files (National
Archives); “Camp Merritt, New Jersey” (wikipedia.org);
“Commemoration and Remembrance (USA)”
(encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net); Federal Census; Library of
Congress (loc.gov/pictures); Military Records (fold3.com); Missouri
Death Certificates (s1.sos.mo.gov); Rock of the Marne
(Stephen Harris); St. Charles Daily Cosmos Monitor
(newspaperarchive.com); “Second Battle of the Marne”
(worldwar1.com/dbc/2marne.htm); Soldiers of the Great War
(usgwarchives.net/mo.wwi); “Soldiers' Records: War of
1812-World War 1” (s1.sos.mo.gov).