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- [S84] E-Mail, Carroll McMahan [cmcmahan@scoc.org], 27 Oct 2011.
In 1917, three brothers left behind home and family in Richardson’s Cove to defend their country in World War I. They were: James Wilson DeArnold McMahan, Henry Russell McMahan, and Dallas Redmond McMahan. The young men were sons of Gilbert R McMahan and Martha Elizabeth “Eliza” Manis McMahan. They were among Sevier County’s quota of 145 men drafted into the U.S. Army to serve along with a number of enlisted men. While growing up, like most of the other local boys, they had never traveled far from home. At the time the older brother, James Wilson DeArnold (who was called Arnold), was 24 years old. Henry was 22 and the younger brother, Dallas (who was nicknamed Ras), was only 19. Both Arnold and Dallas endured combat and a flu pandemic, returned home, married and raised families.
Born November 18, 1894, PFC Henry Russell McMahan, a member of the U.S. Army 177th Infantry Division, participated in some of the fiercest combat of the war, on the Hindenburg Line, a vast system of defenses in Northern France constructed by the Germans during the winter of 1916 -1917. It ran from the area around Arras all the way to beyond St. Quentin, and consisted of deep and wide trenches, thick belts of barbed wire, concrete machine-gun positions, concrete bunkers, tunnels and command posts. The battle of the St. Quentin Canal began on September 29, 1918 and involved Canadian, British, Australian and American forces. The battle continued until October 10th. The attack on the first day had to be started without the customary and highly effective artillery support due to confusion created because of a shortage of American officers. This had a large negative effect on the initial operations of the battle. Henry R. McMahan was killed in action on that first day of the Battle of St. Quentin Canal. The twenty- three year-old, who had never traveled any further from Sevier County than North Carolina prior to entering the Army, died on foreign soil among strangers and thousands of miles from home. He was buried on the battlefield where the graves of the hundreds of other casualties from the conflict were marked by crosses.
Over two years after Armistice Day, the U.S. Army excavated the remains of PFC Henry R. McMahan and transported them back to his native Sevier County for interment. The flag draped coffin arrived at the Knoxville, Sevierville and Eastern Railway Depot in Sevierville on April 25, 1921. The cortege was led from town to Shady Grove Cemetery by Fred P. Rawlings who had been a comrade in the war. Henry was laid to rest beside his mother who had died a year and four months after her son.
Besides his parents and two brothers who served with him in World War I, Henry left behind two younger brothers, George and Earl. He was also survived by two sisters, Melinda and Nancy. Additional siblings from his father’s first marriage to Mary Townsend were: John, Nannie and Sarah.
- [S34] In the Shadow of the Smokies, Smoky Mountain Historical Society, (1993), 435.
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1894 - 1918 (23 years)
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