[3] When he got too close to the machine guns, he was shot and killed instantly. Henry Gunther worked as a bookkeeper at the National Bank of Baltimore.He joined the Knights of Columbus in 1915. “From an American point of view there was a mixed reaction, and the Germans were surprised that the Americans were still fighting so vigorously. The gravesite of Henry Gunther in Baltimore, Maryland. “He probably felt shamed by his demotion to private and felt this somehow dishonored his family. On the morning of November 11, the men of the 313th found themselves on the far-right flank of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. All Rights Reserved. The quest to bring poetic symmetry to the conclusion of a war that was anything but poetic came at a terrible cost—the lives of nearly 3,000 soldiers, including one American private who sought to restore his reputation in the war’s final minute. What did daedalus mean when he told his son no fancy steering by star or constellation? [13], People of the American Civil War by state, Articles with unsourced statements from November 2014, Articles incorporating text from Wikipedia, American military personnel killed in World War I, Burials at Most Holy Redeemer Cemetery (Baltimore), Recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross (United States), "The last soldiers to die in World War I", http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7696021.stm, http://www.marylandlife.com/articles/the-unknown-soldier, "The sad, senseless end of Henry Gunther", http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2008-11-11/news/0811100097_1_henry-gunther-11th-month-war-i, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=16204809, "Dedication of the Memorial to Brother Knight Henry N. Gunther", http://www.cpowersolns.com/docs1011/carousel04.pdf, http://books.google.com/books?id=-ctMA-_Y5W0C&pg=PA209, http://www.ffm-montreal.org/pdf/Cahier%20des%20projets_2011_final.pdf, https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Henry_Gunther?oldid=4517084. If Gunther charged the German machine-gun nest to regain his stripes, it worked. Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. "[3], General John J. Pershing's order of the day on the following day mentioned Gunther as the last American killed in the war. Henry Nicholas John Gunther (June 6, 1895 – November 11, 1918) was an American soldier and the last soldier killed during World War I. After experiencing nearly two months of uninterrupted combat, the regiment found no abatement in the hours following the armistice signing, seizing the town of Ville-devant-Chaumont, 10 miles north of Verdun. The armistice was set to begin at 11 and he was killed at 10:59. He was trying to redeem himself, and when shots rang out he alone raced forward,” Aikman says. [9] The Armistice with Germany was signed by 5:00 am, but it would only come into force at 11:00 am. Former Kansas City Chiefs head coach Gunther Cunningham died at the age of 72 on Saturday from cancer, according to Josh Alper of Pro Football … If he heard the pleas, Gunther ignored them. What is 724 rounded to the nearest hundred? U.S. soldiers firing at a German position in the Argonne Forest during the Meuse-Argonne offensive. According to author Joseph Persico, Gunther was one of at least 2,738 troops and 320 Americans to die on the Western Front in the war’s final day, most of them in the six hours between the armistice signing and enactment. What are the advantages and disadvantages of on premise catering? Persico wrote in Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour that the death toll surpassed the daily average on the Western Front. He kept going and fired "a shot or two". © 2020 A&E Television Networks, LLC. Some did and some didn’t based on their personal appraisals of whether it was really worth it,” Casey says. The Germans kept watch on the American soldier who suddenly rose to his feet and charged toward the machine-gun nest with his fixed bayonet. [2][5] Subsequent investigations revealed that on the last day of World War I, between the signing of the armistice and its entry into force, about 11,000 men were wounded or killed - far more than usual. [2][3][11], Gunther's remains were returned to the United States in 1923 and buried at Most Holy Redeemer Cemetery in Baltimore. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. Rejecting German calls to immediately halt hostilities, Allied commander Ferdinand Foch dictated that the guns would fall silent at 11 a.m. in part to allow news of the cease-fire to be transmitted to the front lines. US Army Signal Corps/American Stock/Getty Images. Shortly after 5 a.m. on November 11, 1918, German, British and French officials gathered inside a railroad dining car in a dark forest north of Paris and signed an armistice to end World War I. Before war ripped him away from his new fiancée and comfortable job at a Baltimore bank, life had been good for the handsome, mustachioed grandson of German immigrants. [2][7] He joined the Knights of Columbus in 1915.