Morris High School - Yearbook (Bronx, NY)

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HENRY GUNDLACH ISIDORE ROTGARD JEREMIAH S. HENNESY MATTHEW G. CROSSON 18

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Gold Stars severely wounded by a shell which shattered his left leg. Un- conscious, he was borne to the operating table where he died. His unconsciousness saved him from terrible suffering. Sergeant Matthew f'1'0SS0l'l sailed for France with Com- pany E of the 54th Pioneer Regiment during August 1917. He was there for about a month before he came down with pneumonia. First reports showed that he was progressing fine- ly, but eventually he succumbed and on October 7th passed away. He was twenty-five The sergeant was a veteran in the service for he had been on duty at the Mexican border with the 71st Regiment. He graduated from Morris in June, 1912. Frederick Eriksen entered the service in 1917. He sailed with his regiment, the 107th of New York's famous 27th Divi- sion, for France in June 1918. The regiment was combined with British forces on the West front and soon entered battle. Eriksen on going over the top was struck by gunshot and in- stantly killed. He was buried by his comrades under a little wooden cross at Abeele, France. e Second Lieutenant Henry Gundlach entered the service in September 1917. At Camp Upton he was recommended for the Officer 's Training School, and obtained his commission. While in France he served with the 305th Infantry and the 111th, suc- cessively. As a member of the latter regiment he entered the fighting at Fismette on the Vesle River. It was during this action, on the morning of August 11th, that he met his death. Jeremiah S. Hennesey entered the U. S. Naval Reserve on May 27th, 1917 . After finishing his probation at the Pelham Bay Naval Training Station he volunteered as a guard over a T. N. T. plant in New Jersey. From here he was transferred to various battleships and in a very short time became coxswain. He was to have received his commission as Ensign when he fell sick of influenza. Ten days later he was attacked by pneumonia and succumbed. Before we entered the war, Newberry Holbrook went over with the City Ambulance Unit. For one year he saw conside- rable service with the French. Then the United States entered the conflict and he enlisted in the American Expeditionary Force. He was in active service until January, 1918, when he fell sick with typhoid fever, and shortly afterward died. Hol- brook was awarded the Croix de Guerre by the French Govern- ment for displaying great bravery. He drove his ambulance about under heavy gun fire regardless of self. Williani Jones entered the Officers' Training Camp at 17

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, Gold Stars Plattsburg as soon as he graduated from City College in June 1917. He was the only man in the College to pass the entrance tests for this camp. He never saw actual service, for he was attacked by para-typhoid, of which he died, after only three months of training. I At Morris he had been a member of the football team, and Won his HM . He graduated in June 1913. David W. Miller served with the 30th Engineers at Camp Upton. On March 30th, feeling ill, he was permitted to go home. From here he was removed to the Polyclinic Hospital, suffering from appendicitis. An operation proved ineffectual and he died on March 17th, 1918. Isidore Rotgard, who in his letters home expressed the ut- most abhorrence toward the Germans for their atrocities, by a strange turn of fate was himself slain as a result of an atrocity. Some American forces, among which was Rotgard's regiment, were engaged in hand to hand fighting in a dense forest near the Marne. During the engagement Rotgard was wounded and sent to a hospital twenty miles behind the lines. While he was on the operating table German airplanes bombed the hospital and Rotgard wa killed. Missing in Action Lieutenant Philip Hassinger went to France with the American Aviation corps. It was on September 28th, during the Saint Mihiel drive, that he went up over thc lines in an aero- plane and failed to return. As no definite news of his fate has ever come, there is still a faint hope that he may even yet re- turn . Q Q g The following letter explains itself. We have given it a place in the ANNUAL because we feel that it gives better expres- sion to the spirit in which these boys entered the service and laid down their lives than any words of ours could do. Praise from us would be poor in comparison with the splendid sense of dedication to the cause of Right pervading every sentence. Rotgard's own words are the most fitting memorial for him and for his comrades. V . . . . . . .We have been drilling and working pretty strenuously lately, so that I could not find time to write you sooner. We dig trenches, have gas mask drill, take long hikes. One feels pretty tired at the end of the day. However it is great training and hardens one to -the point where he can endure anything. Al- though conditions are quite different, naturally, from what 19