War Story – August Vogt

August Vogt was born in Payne, Ohio in 1888 to parents who had only recently emigrated from Germany. He had three older siblings who had also been born in Germany and three younger siblings who were also born in Ohio. Just a few years later the family moved from Ohio to Jersey City, New Jersey.

In 1908, August enlisted in the Army for a 3 year tour, specifically in the CAC (Coastal Artillery Corps). However, at the end of each tour he reenlisted again (1911, 1914, 1917, and 1920). His final tour ended on 2/14/1924 when he was 35 years of age. By then he attained the rank of Sgt. He passed away on Dec 19, 1933 and was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Arlington, NJ. A number of his Vogt relatives are also buried there. His headstone was made in a quarry in VT and delivered by the Lehigh Valley RR to Bayonne NJ.

The job of the CAC is to provide coastal defenses, however, unlike the Coast Guard who provides protection using sea-going vessels, the CAC is responsible for placing electrically detonated mines in the harbor as well as to use shore-based guns. They have both large guns that are permanent and may launch 12” shells as well as smaller, mobile guns (usually mounted on railroad cars) that fire 5”, 6” or 8” shells. During the latter years of August’s service he was a mine-layer, but it appears that he was assigned to one of the artillery units earlier in his military career.

When the US finally entered WWI the American Expeditionary Force was under the command of General Pershing. There were several units of the CAC as part of the AEF. Most of these were assigned to assist French units who were equipped with railway-mounted guns. The 42^nd Field Artillery unit, which August was a part of, was formed in June 1918 and was organized in August 1918 in France. However, by the end of the war only a few months later in November 1918 (11/11/1918), these units had not seen any real action. Thus August was in France at that time. But as a member of the regular army he was not discharged after the war as those who had been drafted were. As noted above, he continued serving in the CAC until 1924.

On Armistice Day, August wrote a “Merry Christmas” postcard to Miss Blanche Van Billiard in Allentown, PA. It is not known how August originally met Blanche or how well they knew each other. At the time he would have been 30 years old and she would have been 24. But it does not appear to be a part of any serious romantic interest, despite the fact that both of them were single. Blanche finally did marry sometime in late 1920, but she died of a stoke just a year later (she was unmarried and living with her sister and brother-in-law in January of 1920 and died on March 10, 1921 at the age of 27).

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_Coast_Artillery_Corps

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/42nd_Field_Artillery_Regiment