--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Nibley, Charles W. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 22 number: 9 published: 1919-07 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Nibley, Charles W., "How Private Neibaur Won the Congressional Medal of Honor," *Improvement Era* 22, no. 9 (July 1919): 782–790.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2209unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera2209unse start_page: 782 end_page: 790 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1919-07) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2209unse publication_year: 1919 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1919, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # How Private Neibaur Won the Congressional Medal of Honor 784 IMPROVEMENT ERA On the 21st of February we were sent into the trenches in the Sector of Lorraine. It was our first time in the trenches, and, although it was very quiet, we thought it was terrible. There may have been a dozen shots during the night but we, at that time, thought it was a heavy bombardment. This was near Baccarat, Lorraine. The First Battalion of my regiment would be in the front line trenches eight days, then would be relieved to do reserve duty, and the Second Battalion would take it« place, and so likewise the other bat- talions following eight days at a time. We were there until June 10 or 12. We then made a long six days' march to the Champagne front, near Rheims. We got in there on the 4th day of July. On the 3rd of July we were planning for a cele- bration of the Fourth, about ten miles behind the front lines. While we were making our plans and deciding which of us were going to participate in the sports, the next day, the Captain came up and said we were to be called in parade for the Colonel that day. \?e formed in line and paraded for him that afternoon. At 9 /We Tkonas Croft JWtar. as ^ I * j^W* ' 1 "' Sf,er through prisoners we had taken that *u a n & ? midnight. Our officers told us that we should not a " em pt to ttemnt sleep anv that night. At ' oYWk ^. ocl ock w« 12 we !,« hada orders j to start our We barrage. W*> k.,, b-irraap ,u beat them to it by just fifteen minutes, and, for HOW PRIVATE NEIBAUR WON THE MEDAL OF HONOR 785 awhile bullets were falling so fast and guns shooting so rapidly that if one had attempted to count the large shells that struck close to us, he would have had a big job on his hands These were our first days of real fighting. The next morning at 6 o'clock the Germans came over in one of their famous mass formations. We didn't think we would ever be able to stop them. We were fighting in conjunction with the French, but the Germans kept coming on, wave after wave, until, I think, about 8 or 9 o'clock in the evening, they kept up a steady fire. Finally they quieted down and we made our counter-attack, and drove them back a distance of about fourteen miles on a forty-mile front. Then, through some mistake, we were forced to give up all the ground we had taken and to fall back to our old positions. Had we not done so, we would have remained in a perilous position where the Germans could have flanked us from both sides and would perhaps have surrounded us. We were in this fight and retreat three days, July 15, 16 and 17. On the 18th my division was relieved from the front, and we went back about ten miles and rested for two days. We were loaded on motor trucks and taken right into Chateau-Thierry and we took our position in support oAhe Twenty-sixth Division, and followed them in their attack a few days, I don't remember just how many. On the 26th we were ordered to the front position, and they were sent back to rest. On the same date, we went over the top in the Ourcq river drive. . For three days we went over the top each morning and resistance kept driving them back a little farther against strong machine guns. On the 28th we were in a position at one from time where we could see one regiment of our division on one with bayonets; and on the other side, another side of us, fighting part of our division fighting with bayonets. The One Hundred Sixty-fifth (New York) Regiment went over five different times fall back and let the enemy retake the ground. This and had to was all hand-to-hand fighting. about We were relieved from the front in Chateau-Thierry of July, and we went back to our position in support the 31st again, while the Fourth Division took the front line. We were the 9th of August waiting for our relief and held there until marched three days back of the lines, finallv we got it, and we or thirty miles. We stopped at a distance of perhaps twenty-five village on the Marne and were promised a rest and a little We were quite close to Paris, and we were promised passes. cent of the company at a time should have leave that twenty per The first bunch got their passes and after to visit the city. they had been gone two days they were telegraphed for, and 786 IMPROVEM- -A when located were ordered back at once. From Chateau-Thierry on the Marne we were ordered to St. Mihiel, which required marching nine successive nights, for we took advantage of traveling in the night on account of the hot weather, for one thing, and also as a matter of safety and precaution against the German aeroplanes. We would march for fifty minutes and then rest ten. Some of the boys got so sleepy that during the ten minutes rest they would go sound asleep and be considerably refreshed when wakened. In one or two instances some of the boys got so sleepy they would fall asleep while they were walking and would stagger from side to side on the road until they were wakened. We got into the front line at St. Mihiel, September 10, and we lay quiet for two days and went over the top on the 12th. We had very easy fighting at this time, it was merely nothing. Some of the German officers would look around and try to find some officer of the American Army when they would surrender their men to us. We gave them heavy barrage and our barrage scared them out. We gained our objective in three days, although our officers had planned that it would require seven days to accomplish the result. One division took the lines in the front that two divisions had gained and gave these lines to one division to hold, and my division was the one that was left there to hold it. We remained there until the 26th of September, the morning that the Argonne offensive started. We were then sent by motor truck to the Argonne. We went into the lines there on the 4th of October. Things were quiet on both sides. We lay there until the 14th. It rained almost every day, and there was no place to get out of the rain except in holes that we dug in the ground. Where available we got corrugated iron to put over the top and keep the rain out as best we could. The ground was soaked with water, and whenever we lay down, our clothes would absorb the moisture from the ground. We lay there until the 14th, and then went over the top. We lost an awful lot of men in this fight, and didn't gain an inch of ground. The 15th was the same. We did not — seem able to drive the Germans back an inch they had too many machine guns. On the 16th we got two more companies from another battalion and put them with what we had left of our battalion; and got a good barrage and then went over the top again, and gained our objective without losing scarcely a man. The Germans seemed to get tired, and wanted to quit; they fell back, and we kept our ground. Occasionally we ran onto a machine gun which we soon put out of commission. On this date (October 16), after we gained our objective, we were in a position facing a hill, on which was a small round HOW PRIVATE NEIBAUR WON THE MEDAL OF HONOR 787 knoll. On the right of this knoll there was a nest of machine guns shooting down on us, on an angle, and we were in a position where we could not advance and strengthen our lines until that nest of machine guns was cleaned out. It was a hazardous piece of business to undertake to capture this German position, and the officers did not like to ask any of the boys to sacrifice their lives. The Captain called for volunteers, and asked if there was anyone who would go and get that bunch of Geimans. I volunteered, then my two companions stepped out and said they would go with me. With an automatic rifle it requires three men, a gunner, a loader, and a scout. The scout should go ahead and locate a good position for the gun; the loader keeps the slip of cartridges ready to put into the gun at any time. I, with my scout and loader, crawled to the top of the hill where we encountered barbed wire entanglements. The distance we had to make was about as far as one of our Salt Lake City blocks. In getting over this wire entanglement I was shot in the thigh of my right leg three times, three bullets passing through the leg without breaking any bones, however. My loader and scout were both killed at this wire fence; one was killed instantly and the other shot through the lungs and killed. My leg was weak and I then didn't havw any confidence in it as I thought it was worse than it was. 1 dragged myself along among the shell holes to where I could se^ a pile of dirt that the Germans had piled up when they had started to dig a dugout. I got behind this pile of dirt, where I was compara- tively safe from the German machine gun fire, and the first thing I thought of was how badly I was shot. I examined my wounds and concluded they were not ex- tremely serious; they were not bleeding, and when I looked up from the examination of them, I saw about forty to forty-five Germans coming up directly toward me. I quickly turned my automatic rifle on them and fired about fifty shots. I was left out without a loader. It takes as long to get a clip of cartridges shoot a clip; of a bag and put it into the rifle as it does to whereas, if my loader had been there, it would have taken only loaded twice the clips of twenty cartridges an instant to change. I behind the pile of as I had twenty in the gun when I first got and about half of the third, and the Ger- dirt. I shot two clips coming toward me and firing on me that I saw mans got so close there was no chance whatever for me to get them all, so I turned back over the shell holes to my and made an attempt to get m pile of dirt After I got away from the protection which the was in plain view of the fifteen Germans who had given me, I 788 IMPROVEMENT ERA were still alive out of the forty or forty-five who started for me, and these kept advancing toward me, shooting as they came! Just at this time I was hit with a ball in my right hip which passed through into the left hip and there remains until this day. This shot seemed to stun me just for a minute. I fell on my face in the mud, and then the Germans, fifteen in number, came up and took my pistol away from me. I had left my rifle and I was without anything to defend myself, and Private Thomas Croft Neibaur, as he appeared on his return from overseas I certainly expected either to be killed or to go back to a German prison. About this time the Germans kept getting up a little further on the hill, and the boys of my company saw them and fired a volley at them. None of the Germans were killed, but it scared them badly and they got down out of sight in the shell holes, and when they got down, I got up to see if I could stand and walk with my wounds. I found I could, and so I crawled HOW PRIVATE NEIBAUR WON THE MEDAL OF HONOR 789 I back to my pistol; they had not picked it up. I got hold of it and then stood up and called to the Germans to hold up their hands. They came out of the shell hole and rushed at me with fixed bayonets. There were seven shots in my pistol. I then shot four of the Germans who were in the front attack, and all this time I was calling on them to hold up their hands! When they saw that four out of the fifteen were killed, the other eleven threw down their rifles, knocked off their helmets and threw up their hands I took them as prisoners back to our lines, and ! the Captain came out and asked me if I would take these prisoners on back to battalion headquarters or let someone else take them, so that I could be taken back to the hospital on a stretcher. I was still able to walk, so I told the Captain I would take them back to headquarters. I took them back to battalion headquarters, a mile or a mile and a half in the rear of the front line, and I expected to find my old Captain in charge of the battalion. He had been promoted to a Major, and was in charge of the battalion, as U thought, and I spoke to him rather familiarly, more so, perhaps, than I should have done. I said, "Cap, I have about a dozen boys out here. Would like to have you look them over." The Major was a stranger to me, and as he popped his head out of the hole in the ground, he said, "This doesn't happen to be Cap, it is Major of the First Battalion." I told him I had some prisoners. He came up to the prisoners and looked at them, and at the insignia on their collars. He said, "Which one speaks English?" I said, "I don't think any one of them does, as I have been trying to talk to them." He said, "You don't know anything about it." That made me rather sore, but he examined them and tried to ask them some more questions. Finally he turned to me and said, "Did you take these prisoners?" I- answered, "Yes, sir." "How did you do it?" I said, "They attacked me, and I made a counter-attack." He said, "How did you do it?" I toldhim the story and then his attitude changed altogether.He said, "Son, give me your name and serial number, and when you get to the hospital write me a letter. Anything you want on this side you can have it; I will get it for you no matter what it costs." I could have walked about a mile further back and have gotten to an ambulance drawn by mules, but this ambulance was a very poor thing, and had a habit of getting stuck about every 790 IMPROVEMENT ERA trip. I didn't want to take any chance with it, so I walked back about three miles further where I could catch a motor ambulance. I rode for about an hour in the motor ambulance to the field hospital where I got my wound dressed again and went back in the truck and rode for about three hours in this truck, with about twenty-five other patients, who were all wounded, and every jolt of that truck felt like a knife thrust through my leg. Finally we arrived at the evacuation hospital. I was still in my wet clothes. I had not had a chance to change for a month, and they gave me an anti-tetanic serum, a preventive for lock- — jaw. I sat there by a warm fire and fainted first time I had felt the least bit weak. When I awoke I had been given an anaesthetic and had been operated on and washed and was now in good clean underclothes, and had had a good bath. I was lying in a nice white bed with white sheets, pillows, and a — bed with springs the first time for over a year. My wounds never bled much. I was moved from hospital to hospital. As fast as one hospital is filledup they move the patients that are in the best condition to be moved, to another hospital. When the hospitals closer to the lines fill up, they send the patients further back. I was in the hospital in Limoges, which is base hospital 13. On the 23rd of January I was called to go to Chaumont to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor. I was still on crutches, but I was almost able to walk without them. I went to Chaumont on the 23rd of January, as directed, and it was arranged that I should receive this medal and decoration on the 25th. General Pershing was away, and he didn't get back until the 8th of February, so I was decorated on the 9th of February, and was sent right back to base hospital 13. I went through six different hospitals, and finally was sent to the Embarkation Hospital, at Bordeaux, and sailed from there to Virginia on the 14th of March, 1919, on the ship Pastores. I was in the hospital at Hampton, Virginia, for about three weeks, and from there was sent to General Hospital 36, at Detroit, Michigan. From there I was sent to Fort Russell for discharge, on the 19th of May, as fully recovered. This was just two days after my twenty-first birthday, the 17th of May. Mission Leaders By Edward H. Anderson George Albert Smith, President of the British Mission George Albert Smith, of the Council of the Twelve, recently chosen president of the British mission, to succeed Elder George F. Richards, is a son of John Henry Smith and Sarah Farr Smith. He was born in Salt Lake City, April 4, 1870. Of his father, it is scarcely necessary to speak a word as he was well known in every hamlet of Zion. His mother Sarah Farr, was a daughter of Lorin Farr, one of the Pioneers of Utah, and many years a leading spirit in the Church and State. George Albert received his education in the district schools, in the Brigham Young Academy, at Provo, and in the University of Utah, not to speak of the education that he has received in his activities in the Church. He has been a life-long worker in the Church organizations, including the Mutual Improvement Association, Sunday school, and the Quorums of the Priesthood. From his earliest days, he faithfully attended the Sabbath school, and later took active part in Mutual Improvement association work, and in the quorums of the priesthood in the Seventeenth ward, Salt Lake City, where he occupied every position in the Sunday school except secretary. For a number of years, he was counselor, then superintendent of the Y. M. M. I. A. of the Salt Lake stake, before its division into four stakes. He was president of the deacons' quorum and of the seventies' quorum, a missionary for the Y. M. M. I. A., in 1890, in Southern Utah, and a traveling elder and secretary of the Southern States Mission in 1892-3. This was his first mission, and he labored in Tennessee much of the time in the office, under Elder J. Golden Kimball who was then president of the mission. In this work, he exhibited his usual strict devotion to duty, his services being especially valuable in its extensive business at that time, owing to the labor of furnishing the missionaries with clothing and other supplies. On June 25, 1892, about the time he was called on this mission, he married Lucy Emily Woodruff, a granddaughter of the late President Wilford Woodruff, and Judge Elias Smith. ELDER GEORGE ALBERT SMITH Who succeeds Elder George F. Richards, both of the Council of the Twelve . Apostles, as President of the British Mission.