Whittlesey, Charles White, 1884-1921

Charles Whittlesey was not one to acknowledge the accolades of others. He was a humble man but remained loyal to those with whom he served. His service in the First World War was the thing of legend and perseverance against insurmountable odds that still inspires today.

Charles White Whittlesey (born January 20, 1884; disappeared November 26, 1921) was a United States Army Medal of Honor recipient who led the "Lost Battalion" in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive during World War I. On November 26, 1921, he committed suicide by drowning on route to Havana at age 37.

<p> Finding the Lost Battalion: 'Galloping Charlie', Hero of the Charlevaux Ravine </p>

<p> It goes without saying that Charles Whittlesey believed he was right concerning the decisions he made during the advance through the Argonne. (This, despite any doubt that may have been brought to his mind by the jealous whisperings that went on around him afterwards.) After all, he was a man who carefully considered the consequences likely to be brought about by actions he set into motion and he would have been unlikely to wantonly jeopardize either his men or his own high standards through haste. That said, it is nevertheless also true that he did made mistakes, albeit ones that he seemed to have little control over or that, to him at least, did not seem mistakes at the time but instead good, sound decisions, backed by firm reasons. And these, as we have seen, were mostly due to a general lack of leadership experience in warfare, but there were also several as well that he might not have made if his own, rigid personal value system and moral code had not been as unbending as it was. Case in point: on the morning of October 4th, when it still might have been possible to evacuate the ravine with relatively fewer casualties than at any later time after, he stayed put on the premise that they lacked any formal orders to draw back – even though it would have, by then, been virtually impossible to receive any such orders. Without his strict adherence to the last orders he received – which he continued to believe stood, right up until the end (and rightly so, it might be argued) – he might have made a deliberate move that could have relieved the situation and thus prevented four more days of suffering. Theorists might also argue however that by that time the Germans had enough machine-guns emplaced on Hill 198 and along the south side of the Charlevaux Ravine, and that the new wire up there was by then so thick, that Major Whittlesey’s men would never have gotten through. Under those circumstances, such movement then would probably have resulted in either a horrible blood bath, or a necessary mass surrender of what remained of his troops to prevent such. Perhaps. In either case, we shall never know. </p>