Private First Class, Co L, 108th Infantry, 27th Division.
Killed in action near Hindenburg Line east of Ronssoy, France, September 29, 1918. Age 24.
Town: Batavia
Burial: St. Joseph Cemetery, Section 2, Batavia, Genesee County, New York
Thomas Albert Brown was born on May 2, 1894. Newspaper accounts say that he was born in Batavia (Genesee County), New York, but his NYSS and 74th Infantry enlistment card give his birthplace as Buffalo. Regardless, he spent most of his life in Batavia. He was the oldest son of Joseph B and Mary M Brown. The 1905 NY Census shows Thomas at age 11 living at 4 Mix Place in Batavia with his parents and six siblings (sisters Grace, Francis—listed later as Nellie—and Margaret; brothers Joseph, Lloyd and Manville). At the time of the 1910 US Census the family, plus an additional daughter (Bernice), was living in the city at 15 Hutchins Street.
Thomas Brown enlisted in the New York National Guard’s 74th Regiment in Buffalo on April 23, 1917, barely more than two weeks after the United States declared war on Germany. According to his enlistment card, he was working as a machinist for the Worcester Salt Company, which was located in Silver Springs (Wyoming County), New York. He listed his residence as 108 State Street, the same address in Batavia given for his mother on his NYSS and also in several Burial Case File documents (some of which specify 108-1/2 State Street).
At the end of September, 1917, the 74th Regiment was sent to Camp Wadsworth, South Carolina, where it became part of the 27th Division’s 108th Infantry. On May 17, 1918, Brown’s Company L, along with the rest of the 3rd Battalion of the 108th Infantry, left for overseas from Newport News, Virginia, aboard USS President Grant.
When Thomas Brown was killed, his three brothers also were serving overseas. His initial death announcement in the November 20, 1918 Batavia Daily News mistakenly identified him as Joseph Brown, but a correction ran in the Daily News the following day. Initial newspaper reports listed Brown’s rank as sergeant. Official sources, however, including the NY Roll of Honor, Story of the 27th Division, Brown’s NYSS, and documents in his Burial Case File list him as Private First Class.
Pfc. Brown and six others from Genesee County were among at least 192 men of the 108th Infantry who died on September 29, 1918, in fierce combat that helped break the strongest point of the infamous Hindenburg Line, a complex of defenses including 30-foot-deep concrete bunkers, the St. Quentin canal and tunnel, miles of hidden passageways, and fortified trench systems fronted by fields of heavy twisted barbed wire.
Brown’s Company L, 3rd Battalion, was on the left of the 108th’s leading assault wave, attacking at 5:50 a.m. toward the Hindenburg system and Bony over open ground against artillery and heavy machine-gun fire from enemy strongholds at Guillemont Farm on their near left and Quennemont Farm on their right. The 3rd Battalion took heavy casualties almost from the start.
A searcher’s report in Brown’s Burial Case File quotes an eyewitness account of Brown’s death from Pfc. John H Dunn, Co L, 108th Infantry: “We were just going over the top at 5:50 A.M. Sept. 29th, 1918 in the advance on the Hindenburg Line, and had advanced perhaps 50 yards when a large shell hit in the midst of our Machine Gun team killing Brown instantly and wounding three more.”
On Sunday, March 27, 1921, the bodies of Thomas A Brown and William Hyde, both members of the 108th Infantry’s 3rd Battalion killed in the attacks on the Hindenburg Line, and both recently returned home under military escort from American cemeteries overseas, lay side-by-side in flag-draped caskets in Batavia’s City Hall while hundreds of citizens filed past in solemn tribute.
– – – – –
—— [CLICK ON DOCUMENTS TO OPEN FULL VIEW IN SEPARATE TAB] ——
November 20, 1918 Batavia Daily News p1 c6 (mistakenly identified as Joseph Brown)
– – – – –
November 21, 1918 Batavia Daily News p2 c5 (correction – Thomas Brown named)
– – – – –
March 28, 1921 Batavia Daily News p1 c6-7
– – – – –
Source: New York Service Summary from Abstracts of World War I Military Service, 1917-1919, NY State Archives, Albany, New York
– – – – –
Source: Burial Case Files, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92, National Archives — St Louis, Missouri
– – – – –
Source: Burial Case Files, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92, National Archives — St Louis, Missouri
– – – – –
Source: Burial Case Files, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92, National Archives — St Louis, Missouri
– – – – –
Source: Burial Case Files, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92, National Archives — St Louis, Missouri
– – – – –
Thomas A Brown headstone, St. Joseph Cemetery, Section 2, Batavia, Genesee County, New York
GPS Coordinates: Lat 42° 59’ 19.649” N; Long 78° 10’ 18.669” W (DD: 42.988791, -78.171853)
– – – – –
Thomas A Brown Sources:
– All County Lists; also BHR
– Nov 20, 1918 BD p1 c6* (initial announcement but wrong first name)
– Nov 21, 1918 BD p2 c5 (first name correction)
– Mar 7, 1919 BD p10 c2
– Mar 15, 1921 BD p1 c4
– Mar 22, 1921 BD p1 c7, p2 c1
– Mar 25, 1921 BD p7 c3
– Mar 26, 1921 BT p2 c3
– Mar 28, 1921 BD p1 c6-7
– Apr 2, 1921 BT p2 c3
– “New York State Census, 1905.” Online index and images, FamilySearch.org. Entry for Thomas A Brown, age 11, citing Census Records, Batavia, E.D. 02, Genesee, New York; page number 17, line number 26.
– “United States Census, 1910.” Online index and images, HeritageQuest.com. Entries for Joseph B Brown (head) and Thomas Brown (son, age 16), citing Census Records, Batavia, Genesee, New York; sheet number 13, line 48, and sheet number 14, line 1, microfilm series T624, Roll 951, pages 162 and 163.
– New York, 74th Infantry National Guard Enlistment Cards, 1889-1917 (Ancestry.com)
– NYSS
– Roll of Honor (NY State), p 64
– 27th Division, Summary of Operations in the World War, pp 13-26
– The Story of the 27th Division, Vol. 1, pp 39, 146, 300-313, 328a
– The Story of the 27th Division, Vol. 2, pp 1067, 1102
– BCF
– St. Joseph Cemetery tombstone transcriptions, A-B listings, online, access from USGenWeb, “Genesee County NY Cemeteries” Table of Contents (http://www.usgwarchives.net/ny/genesee/cemeteries/cemeterytoc.htm)
– – – – –
Click for Key to Source Abbreviations. See the Bibliography for complete title, author, and publisher information, with links to online access when available.