University of Virginia Library

XI
Mobilizing under Selective Service

The first peacetime conscription law enacted in the United States
was signed by President Roosevelt on September 16, 1940. It required
those men selected to serve for one year in the Army in order
that the nation might have sufficient trained defenders in event of an
emergency. The same day the President issued a proclamation
directing all men between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-five,
inclusive, to register for Selective Service on October 16. Local
opinion was well expressed by Dr. George T. Starnes of the University
of Virginia in an address to the Business and Professional
Women's Club of Charlottesville the same evening. Said he, “We
have got to prepare for war against all possibilities. Everything has
come so easy for Hitler so far that it is quite possible that he has
ambition to conquer the whole world. The United States must
carry on to completion its plan for defense, for it is a fight for our
very existence.”[1]

A great deal of valuable preliminary work had been done in anticipation
of the passage of the law, and plans for registration in
Virginia took form quickly. Immediately upon the issuance of a
proclamation by Governor James H. Price, the Secretary of the
Commonwealth, Raymond L. Jackson of Charlottesville, moved
to put the election machinery of the state into operation to assist
the State Director of Selective Service, Lieutenant Colonel Mills F.
Neal. The electoral boards in Albemarle County and Charlottesville
were responsible for conducting the registration in their respective
areas. Percy G. Dunn, secretary of the county board, E. Clinton
Wingfield, secretary of the city board, and F. Roy Early attended a
“school” in Richmond at which Governor Price and other officials
explained the terms of the Selective Service Act. Later, at the New
County Office Building and the City Court House, similar meetings
were held of the local volunteer workers who were to be
registrars.

On registration day brief, appropriate patriotic exercises were held
in the schools, and then the children were dismissed. As a rule the

registration took place at schoolhouses and other regular election
polling places, which were open from seven in the morning to nine
at night. Generally the usual election officials were in charge, and
teachers, together with other citizens who had volunteered, served
as assistant registrars. Special registrars visited those in hospitals
and others unable to attend at the places of registration. The young
men flocked to the polls, most of them coming early. On cards the
registrars recorded the preliminary information the government
needed for the first peacetime draft. When this had been done,
each man was given a card to be carried at all times as evidence
that he had registered. Oddly enough, excluding University students,
exactly the same number, 2,845, registered in the county as
in the city. At the Rotunda there were registered 1,172 University
of Virginia students from forty states, the District of Columbia,
and five foreign countries.[2]

By coincidence, on this day when approximately one-fifth of the
male population of the community began to prepare for the fight
to protect our liberty, the last payment was made on Monticello,
and the home of Thomas Jefferson, the Apostle of Freedom, became
a debt-free shrine.[3]

Meanwhile, on the recommendation of Judge Lemuel F. Smith,
members of the local Selective Service boards had been appointed
by Governor Price. The Albemarle County Board originally consisted
of R. O. Hall, Keswick, chairman: Hugh Clark, Moorman's
River, and Richard H. Miller, Free Union. Dr. J. O. Mundy was
the physician and Edward V. Walker, appeal agent. The Charlottesville
board originally consisted of R. A. Watson, chairman; Strother
F. Hamm, and C. E. Moran. Dr. R. T. Ergenbright was the
physician and Lyttelton Waddell, appeal agent. The draft board
was the most important cog in the entire machinery of Selective
Service. Its members were chosen on the basis of residence and
character, rather than because of their professions or callings, and
without regard to political, religious, or other affiliations. Like all
other local Selective Service personnel except clerical assistants, they
served without compensation. It was their duty to determine the
status of each of their fellow citizens subject to military service.
Applying complex national policies, they decided who should go
into service and who should be deferred and remain at home. Their
decision was based largely on the answers to a questionnaire filled
in by each registrant and took into consideration both his fitness for
military service and the importance of his work as a civilian in
the local community. It was the duty of the examining physician
to determine the physical condition of the registrants, while the appeal
agent acted when necessary to protect the interests of the registrant
or of the government.

Appointed at the same time was the district advisory board for

registrants in Albemarle, Greene, and Madison counties and the city
of Charlottesville. Associated with Judge Lemuel F. Smith of the
Circuit Court, who was chairman, were Bernard F. Chamberlain for
Albemarle County, Judge A. D. Dabney for Charlottesville, John
Morris for Greene County, and Norman G. Payne for Madison
County. The principal job of the advisory board was to give
advice and aid to registrants in properly preparing their questionnaires
for the draft board. In order to do this the advisory board
appointed associate members in the various local communities. Every
attorney within the district volunteered his services, and to these
were added some of the leading citizens in localities where attorneys
were not resident.[4]

Charlottesville had also the medical advisory board for the counties
of Albemarle, Buckingham, Fluvanna, Greene, Nelson, and the
city of Charlottesville. It was made up of physicians with specialized
knowledge who were able to give expert advice on the physical
condition of registrants whom local examiners considered doubtful
or borderline cases. This board was originally composed of
Dr. H. S. Hedges, chairman; Dr. David C. Wilson, Dr. William E.
Brown, Dr. A. D. Hart, Dr. V. W. Archer, and Dr. D. C. Smith.[5]

The local draft boards began at once to assign serial numbers,
in anticipation of the national lottery on October 29 which would
determine the order in which the registrants would become subject
to call for a year's training with the Army. Soon lists giving serial
numbers were posted at the New County Office Building and the
New City Armory. Later they were printed in the newspapers.
Among the names were a large number of “Woodrow Wilsons”
and “Pershings”, the war babies of the first World War. Also included
were “Goldenlocks” and “John the Baptist.”[6]

When the lottery was held in Washington serial number 158
was drawn first. In Albemarle County it had been assigned to
Marion Jerome Wood, and in Charlottesville to Wilson Warner
Cropp. These, unless deferred, stood first in order for compulsory
induction into military service, but those eager to volunteer for their
year of service were the first to go. Laurie K. Sandridge, Jr., of
Crozet, who was to fight through the Normandy campaign as a
lieutenant, was the first Selective Service volunteer in the county:
but as he had recently injured his hand, he was deferred for several
weeks, and William Cornelius Knipscher of North Garden was
actually the first inductee from Albemarle. Henry Cecil Childress was
the first inductee from Charlottesville. On November 28 Childress
and Knipscher were given a send-off when they departed by train
via Richmond for Fort George G. Meade, Maryland. Members
of the city and county draft boards, the American Legion, and the
Monticello Guard were among those who turned out with family
and friends to wish them well. The first Negroes inducted locally,

Frank Sampson from the city and Rayfield Willer Taylor from
the county, were also volunteers.[7]

The departure of the young men aroused some misgivings in
parents and civic leaders. While it was expected that the military
training would be wholesome, it was feared that other influences
associated with camps would be evil. Paradoxically, the soldiers
would at once be under military discipline and yet have more freedom
than ever before in their young lives. Editorially The Daily
Progress pointed out that the manner in which the individual Selective
Service soldier would use this freedom would determine whether
the end of the year would find him a better and more valuable citizen
or whether he would return to his community with lowered
character and ideals. It concluded, “A young man who has been
taught to seek a high standard in civilian life will seek the same
standard in army life, no matter what freedom he has and temptations
he is offered.”[8]

Some had misgivings from another quarter. At a meeting of the
Lions Clubs of Charlottesville, Albemarle, and neighboring counties
at the Monticello Hotel the speaker of the evening said, “I am in
favor of assisting the Allies in every possible material and financial
way but not with the young men of this nation. ... We have the
wonderful Gulf Stream that flows Northeastward from Florida to
England. May it warm England with our sympathy but not with
the blood of our fine American youth.” Another side of the question
was presented a few days later by an English refugee, Miss Sue
Curry, who was visiting her uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur
W. Talcott at Keswick. “We feel,” she said, “that England is
America's 'front line' and that we are in reality fighting your war.”
People generally agreed with the first spokesman, and only after
some time did they realize that the United States could not escape
active participation in the war.[9]

In February, 1941, a committee of the Parent-Teacher Association
of Lane High School reported that it found military training
inadvisable in the high school because the “present physical education
program would be handicapped; it would be difficult to secure
help from the military authorities due to the present emergency; the
citizens cannot assume the burden; military training will be compulsory
eventually.” A motion favoring adoption of military
training at Lane High School failed to receive a second at the meeting.
Nearly two years later military training was adopted at the
Miller School.[10]

While the young men were being mobilized for training, all
aliens in the United States were required to register. This did not
include native born children of foreign parentage. When an English
mother registered at the Charlottesville Post Office, she was much
confused to find that her eldest child, born in this country, was not

required to register, while her youngest, born in South America, was.
In all, 174 persons were registered locally between August 27 and
December 26, 1940. By far the greatest number of them came
from Great Britain. Greece ranked second. The remainder included
natives of many countries throughout the world, with no one
country contributing a large number.[11]

While Selective Service was beginning to mobilize individuals for
a year's service with the Army, the Virginia National Guard was
also preparing for induction into Federal service for a year's training.
The Monticello Guard, which had a long and honorable history
reaching back to “The Gentleman Volunteers of Albemarle” organized
in 1745,[12] was among the units alerted early in October,
1940.

Originally it had been planned that the Virginia National Guard
would be concentrated in Richmond about the middle of December
before proceeding to Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, but after
some uncertainty, which was occasioned particularly by construction
delays at Fort Meade, the Monticello Guard was finally inducted
into Federal service on February 3, 1941, at its own armory, where
it remained until its departure for Fort Meade two weeks later.[13]

Captain Marshall P. Fletcher commanded the local company, but
during November and December he was attending the Infantry Staff
Officers School at Fort Benning, Georgia, and the responsibility for
preparing the unit for induction devolved upon First Lieutenant
John A. Martin. Though Captain Fletcher returned to the company
before it went to Fort Meade, he did not long remain with it
as he was shortly transferred to the staff of the 29th Division.
Lieutenant Martin, who was subsequently promoted to captain,
succeeded to the command of the company. The other officers of
the Monticello Guard when it entered Federal service were Second
Lieutenants Nathaniel T. Hildreth, Herbert A. Moore, Cecil E.
Runkle, and George G. Weston. John P. Davis was the first sergeant.

When first alerted in October, 1940, the company had an enrollment
of seventy-eight men. A drive was begun to enlist additional
men in order that the entire personnel might come from
the local community rather than that its ranks should be filled by
men transferred to it after the unit was inducted into Federal
service. An office was opened in the Armory where Sergeant Davis
enrolled selected recruits, but, on the other hand, the Guard suffered
a number of losses due to discharges for various reasons. By January
22 there were ninety-eight enlisted men enrolled, but sixteen
vacancies remained to be filled in order to bring the company to its
maximum strength.[14]

On January 31 a farewell banquet for the Monticello Guard was
held in the New City Armory, where plates were reserved for approximately

three hundred people. Randolph H. Perry, Secretary
of the Chamber of Commerce and former Guardsman, was toastmaster
and presided over the elaborate program. Among the principal
speakers were Judge Lemuel F. Smith, who spoke on behalf
of the county and city governments, and Judge A. D. Dabney, who
spoke on behalf of the civic organizations. Giving expression to
the prevailing sentiment, Judge Dabney said, “You are not going
forth to war. This move is an effort against war. If this same
patriotic effort continues, there will be no war, because no one will
dare attack us. We seldom stop to think how fortunate we are
in this country with all its opportunities as compared with the
slavery and devastation in Europe.” Pointing with justifiable pride
to the caliber of the company's personnel, he continued, “You have
a great heritage to live up to. Never in my experience in courts has
a member of the Monticello Guard been before me for any delinquency.
So long as Monticello stands as a sentinel for freedom,
just so long will there be a Guard ready to defend that heritage of
freedom.” A gala military ball with many additional guests followed
the banquet. To music “sweet” and “hot” the Guardsmen,
their partners, and their friends celebrated joyfully the beginning
of a patriotic adventure.[15]

At nine o'clock in the morning of February 3, 1941, seven officers
and ninety-two enlisted men of the Monticello Guard reported
to the New City Armory and were inducted into Federal service
as Company K, 116th Infantry, 29th Division. Thereafter they
led the life of a soldier. Reveille was at 5:30, breakfast at 6:15,
drill at 7:00, dinner at 12:00, recall at 4:30, supper at 5:50, and
taps at 10:00. They slept in the Armory and had their meals there.
The daily training program included physical exercise, close order
drill, and instruction in various other military subjects. Weather
permitting, drills were held outdoors on the nearby East End Parking
Lot, and spectators gathered on the Chesapeake and Ohio viaduct
to watch. During these first days much of the time was taken up
with physical examinations and other matters incidental to the
entrance into Federal service. Some losses were sustained when
members failed to pass the “physical.” At last word came that
a hundred-bed cantonment type hospital had been completed at
Fort Meade and that the camp was now ready to receive the 29th
Division. On February 19 at eleven o'clock in the morning the
Reverend Dwight M. Chalmers, pastor of the Charlottesville Presbyterian
Church, made a farewell address to the men, and the
next morning the company entrained at the Chesapeake and Ohio
Railway station for Fort Meade. Three officers and eighty-eight
men, commanded by Lieutenant Martin, left that day. Captain
Fletcher. with two lieutenants and two enlisted men, was already
at Fort Meade.[16]

In the departing group that morning some may have anticipated
that their training was a prelude to battle, but none could foresee
the bloody trials of Omaha Beach and the long road from there into
Germany. All were to find that their Monticello Guard Oath
really meant something. Each had sworn:

Eleven of the departing group were to give their lives in battle.
By selfless devotion to duty one of these was to win the nation's
highest award for valor before he fell preparing the way for the
advance of others.[17]

After the first excitement of getting the system into operation
during the fall of 1940, Selective Service settled down to a more or
less routine existence. First calls had been for only a very few men,
but gradually the number receiving “Greetings from the President”
increased until men left literally by the hundred. While a number
volunteered for duty before they would normally have been summoned,
the great majority awaited their turn and then went without
comment. Some few objected to their classifications, and their appeals
were heard by the Virginia Selective Service Board of Appeals
No. 3. One of four in the state of Virginia, it consisted originally
of John R. Morris, chairman: John L. Livers, and Dr. Staige D.
Blackford, all of Charlottesville: E. C. Davidson, Alexandria; and
T. Russell Cather, Winchester. In 1942 Dr. Henry B. Mulholland
of Charlottesville replaced Dr. Blackford, and in 1944 F. Roy Early
of Charlottesville was added. Other changes did not involve local
men. By June, 1941, it had heard 203 appeals arising in the twenty-seven
counties of northern Virginia.[18]

The second Selective Service registration was held July 1, 1941.
In the city 179 men and in the county 131, who had become
twenty-one years old since the first registration, were enrolled by
the board members, who did most of the work in this and subsequent
registrations.

The increasing tempo of the war in Europe had some effect upon
American thinking. In his Fourth of July address at Lane High

School, Justice J. Callan Brooks of the Civil and Police Court reminded
the citizens of Charlottesville that the “people of this nation
cannot expect to remain free if they cease to be vigilant.”[19] Before
the end of the year the Japanese had struck at Pearl Harbor, taking
advantage of the nation's want of vigilance. An all-out war
effort superseded everything else, and mobilization was stepped up.

In January, 1942, great activity on the two floors above the
Metropolitan Restaurant at 101 East Main Street, Charlottesville,
was observed by the local citizenry, but in a great cloud of military
secrecy questions went unanswered. It was only after the third
selectee-loaded bus arrived that the Army officially announced what
was already generally known, that a regional center for conducting
the physical examination of Selective Service registrants from northwestern
Virginia had been opened. Staffed by thirty or more officers,
clerks, doctors, and nurses, it was capable of processing approximately
one hundred registrants a day. Its establishment
eliminated many of the hardships which selectees suffered in the
long jaunts to the Roanoke and Richmond induction centers. Formerly,
knowing that once inducted he would have no time to settle
his personal affairs, a man on being notified to report for induction
might give up his job, sell his car, and dispose of his home only
to be told a few hours after reporting that he had been rejected for
physical disabilities of which he had no previous knowledge. Under
the new system all men in the area were given a screening examination
in their home communities. After the expiration of
their appeal time they were brought to the army examination center
in Charlottesville for a final check, and then returned home to
await orders from their local boards to report for induction. In
March, 1943, the center in Charlottesville was closed, and its functions
were taken over by the center in Richmond.[20]

On February 16, 1942, the third registration enrolled all men
aged twenty to forty-four not previously registered. There were
1,950 from the county and 1,302 from the city. In the fourth
registration two months later gray hair and bald heads predominated
as the Albemarle County Board registered 2,203 men and the City
Board 1,624 men between forty-five and sixty-five years old. It
was not anticipated that this group would be called to military
service, but rather that they should man the factories and farms
of the nation. So it turned out, though no formal induction took
place.[21]

It was a young man's war, and the fifth registration on June 30
enrolled the youths of eighteen and nineteen. There were 421 from
the city and 797 from the county. Among those from the county
were about 400 who registered from the University and 27 from
the C.C.C. Camp. Finally, in December, 1942, there was initiated
a system by which each man would register upon reaching his

eighteenth birthday. Thereafter the registration was a continuous
process.[22]

The University of Virginia Medical School on March 2, 1942,
was authorized to form the 8th Evacuation Hospital. Applications
for commissions were submitted at once, and in time thirty-five doctors
were accepted for the unit. Of these, twenty-six were graduates
of the University of Virginia Medical School, while others had
served on the staff of the Medical School or Hospital. Their average
age was low, only thirty-one years. Dr. Staige D. Blackford,
Associate Professor of Internal Medicine, commissioned a lieutenant
colonel, became unit director and was in charge of the medical staff.
Dr. Everett Cato Drash, Associate Professor of Clinical Surgery,
also commissioned a lieutenant colonel, was in charge of the surgical
staff. The Reverend William H. Laird, Rector of St. Paul's Episcopal
Church, became chaplain of the group. Twenty-two of the
nurses were recruited locally, but only Miss Helen Berkeley and
Miss Dorothy D. Sandridge were natives of the local community.
There was much ado over buying uniforms and otherwise preparing
for departure.

On June 24 orders were received directing personnel to report
on July 1 at Pageland, South Carolina, where they were to undergo
a six weeks training period with the 3rd Evacuation Hospital during
the Carolina Maneuvers. At the end of the maneuvers the 8th
Evacuation Hospital was formally activated and moved to Fort Benning,
Georgia. Additional personnel, including doctors, nurses, and
enlisted men necessary to bring the unit up to its authorized strength
of 417, were assigned. Three weeks later the 8th Evacuation Hospital
entered a staging area at Camp Kilmer. New Jersey. The
train which carried the personnel north passed through Charlottesville
without stopping. As the movement was secret, members of
the unit were forbidden to communicate with friends and relatives.
Nevertheless, a nurse surreptitiously dropped a note out of the window.
It was picked up and delivered to the addressee, but only a
limited number of people were let in on the secret. A few wives
of staff members left hurriedly for New York, but the newspaper
reporters who got wind of the story did not print it until December.
After six weeks of speculation, rumors, restrictions, alerts, goodbyes,
and “last trips to New York” the 8th Evacuation Hospital
sailed from Staten Island in November, 1942, with the first support
convoy for troops invading North Africa.[23]

A fund of $4,035.42 had been raised by 122 friends of the
hospital to be used for the benefit of the officers and nurses of the
unit. Out of it were bought additional items of hospital equipment
not furnished by the government, and from it were made loans to
personnel when Uncle Sam was slow coming across with the uniform
allowance. About half of the fund had been expended by

the time the unit sailed. Later, when the Liberty ship on which
all of the hospital's equipment had been loaded was sunk at Salerno
during the invasion of Italy, the remainder of the fund was spent
replacing those things which had been lost. An S O S was sent out
to the friends of the hospital, and under the chairmanship of John
R. Morris an additional $5,349.00 was raised during January, 1944.
When the hospital was deactivated, enough money remained to
publish the unit history.[24]

In peacetime Charlottesville had had a recruiting office, and with
the advent of Selective Service it had become a recruiting and induction
center. Early in the war the Navy and Marine Corps had
depended entirely upon voluntary enlistments, but by 1943, with
the demand for men everywhere increasing, voluntary enlistment of
men had been abolished except for seventeen-year-olds. On the
other hand, beginning in 1942 recruiting drives for WAAC's,
WAVE's, SPAR's, and Women Marines had been pushed. The
first WAAC from Charlottesville, Miss Virginia Pond of Monticello
Road, left for Des Moines, Iowa, on September 12, 1942.
In September, 1943, Mrs. Mary Marshall Wood, descendant of Chief
Justice John Marshall, and her seventeen-year-old son, Claude, volunteered
on the same day. Mrs. Wood became a WAC officer candidate
and her son a Naval Aviation cadet.[25]

The increasing calls for men at last necessitated induction of
pre-Pearl Harbor fathers in September, 1943. At this time it was
announced that 154,000 Virginians were serving in the armed
forces of the nation. Of these 1,269 whites and 360 Negroes were
from Charlottesville, and 1,044 whites and 289 Negroes were from
Albemarle County. By March 1, 1947, three and a half years
later, the two local Selective Service boards had sent 2,181 white and
592 Negro registrants from Charlottesville and 1,760 white and 540
Negro registrants from Albemarle County into military or naval
service. These figures do not include servicewomen and many men
who served but who were never registrants. No figures are available
for this group. Charlottesville with a population of 19,400 in
1940 furnished 2,773 men through Selective Service, while Albemarle
County with a population of 24,652 furnished only 2,300.
This discrepancy was probably due to the fact that, while few industrial
workers were deferred, a relatively large number of farm
workers were deferred.[26]

Though most men went willingly, the local community had
its small share of draft dodgers, deserters, and A.W.O.L. 's from
military service. From time to time these were picked up by the
local police. In August, 1943, a soldier was given a ticket to a
dance at the Armory and in a drawing won the grand prize, his
choice of a horse and buggy or $200 in cash. He chose the money
and went merrily on his way. His luck changed next morning,

however, when the police heard the name of the prize winner. They
recalled that they had orders to pick up a deserter by that name.
Apprehended and returned to Drew Field, the soldier still had in
his possession the $200—or most of it.[27]

A more tragic case was that of an eighteen-year-old Virginia
swain. Alerted for shipment to a combat area, a Marine overstayed
his leave from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, in order to
marry his sweetheart in Charlottesville. A few hours before the
wedding the long arm of the law reached out and grabbed him.
That night instead of honeymooning he languished in the city
jail. The next morning the authorities relented long enough to allow
the wedding to take place before the Marine was hauled back
to his base. On departing he declared that he was “all the more
for getting this war over with in a hurry and then I'll come back
home and go on my honeymoon.” Six months later, fighting
to make his dreams come true, he was fatally wounded in the attack
on the Palau Islands.[28]

In January of 1945 about eighty Albemarle white registrants
who had previously been deferred as necessary farm laborers were
called for induction. They made the trip from Charlottesville to
the induction center in Richmond in buses. Soon a scandal was being
whispered about. It was reported that thirty-seven aspirin boxes
or bottles were found in a bus when it returned to Charlottesville.
Conceivably an artificial heart condition could have been produced if
a large number of aspirin tablets had been taken. An investigation
followed which established that “a large aspirin bottle had been
found in one of the buses.” Three or four men who evinced rapid
heart action when examined were directed to report for reexamination.
Other subterfuges, such as pepper in the eyes, were also used
by a despicable few.[29]

With the surrender of Germany and Japan inductions under Selective
Service began immediately to taper off, and on October 16
were halted, though the draft boards continued to register and classify
men until March 31, 1947, when the Charlottesville and the
Albemarle County Selective Service boards finally went out of existence.
However, for two months the board members continued to
serve under the new United States Office of Selective Service Records.

Beginning late in 1945 the Albemarle County and Charlottesville
Selective Service Boards increasingly turned their attention to assisting
the returning veterans. As veterans' information centers they
assisted returning servicemen in obtaining all rights and benefits to
which they were entitled. Staff Sergeant John W. Taylor of Covesville
was the first veteran released under the Army's point system
to secure employment through the United States Employment Office
in Charlottesville. A member of the Monticello Guard, he had
landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day. Two days later he won a

Silver Star when he and a buddy knocked out two Nazi machineguns
with a bazooka. Discharged on May 14, 1945, Taylor applied
for employment a week later expressing a preference for a job
as auto mechanic, a position for which he had been trained while in
in the Army. He was at once employed by MacGregor Motors, Inc.,
in Charlottesville. He immediately made good and remained permanently
in their employ.

The month after V-J Day, October, 1945, brought the reopening
of Army recruiting offices. A district headquarters for seventeen
counties was established in the Charlottesville Post Office Building,
and a campaign began to enlist soldiers for the peacetime army of
occupation. On December 7 the Navy opened its recruiting station.[30]

The men from Charlottesville and Albemarle County in the
armed forces were from the first a source of great local pride. Practically
every group in the community, civic or business, had its service
flag or plaque. One of the most interesting service flags was that of
the Charlottesville Presbyterian Church, which had the unusual history
of having been used for both World Wars. On behalf of the
church Miss Mary Louise Dinwiddie prepared during the First
World War a silk flag, eleven by seven feet, and, unable to secure
ready-made stars of appropriate quality, she embroidered on the flag
ninety-four blue stars, of which five were later overlaid with gold
in honor of those who died. When World War II again brought
the need for a service flag, Miss Dinwiddie got out the old flag, together
with the embroidery silk, the pattern for the stars, and the
needle used during the first war. The gold stars were covered with
appliqued blue silk, and new stars were added to bring the number
up to 179. As deaths were reported the appliqued stars were removed
until, as in World War I, there were five gold stars. There
would have been a greater number of stars, but between the two
wars the Westminster Presbyterian Church had been established near
the University. Of its members fifty-three served in the Second
World War. Two of these died while in uniform.

A large minority of homes had members in the armed forces.
Something of a record was set by the 500 block of Ridge Street
which by November, 1942, had already furnished eighteen youths
to various branches of the service. All of these except one, who had
resided in a boarding house, had lived in detached, individual homes.
Many families which had only one or two men of military age sent
into service all members who were eligible and in so doing made an
outstanding contribution in defense of liberty and democracy.
Worthy of especial mention are several homes which had five or more
stars on their service flags. Unfortunately, some such families may
have escaped attention. Mrs. Eula Gleason of Charlottesville, Mr.
and Mrs. Frank E. Hartman of Charlottesville, Mr. and Mrs. G. F.

The Charlottesville Presbyterian Church uses the same service flag
for two wars.

Nimmo of Charlottesville, Mr. and Mrs. J. E. Pollard of Scottsville,
and Mr. and Mrs. J. L. Shaver of Proffit each had five sons in
service. Mr. and Mrs. William H. Stoneburner of Charlottesville
had six children in service—a daughter in the Marine Corps, a son in
the Army, and four sons in the Navy. Mrs. Thomas M. Estes of the
county had six sons in service, as also did Mr. and Mrs. O. A. Trice
of Howardsville. The most remarkable of all was a Negro mother,
Mrs. Fanny Estes of Proffit, the widow of Richard Estes. Her nine
sons in service constitute a record having few parallels anywhere
in the United States. The eldest of the sons, Richard J. Estes,
served for seven years as steward on the cruiser USS San Francisco.
Horace O. Estes was a first lieutenant of Co. M, 25th Infantry.
Other brothers in the Army were Staff Sergeant William C. Estes,
Corporal Elmer J. Estes, Private First Class Benjamin W. Estes,
Private First Class Henry H. Estes, Private Nathaniel Estes and
Private Joseph W. Estes. Paul S. Estes, the youngest of the group,
served in the Navy.[31]

When seventeen-year-old Henry Eugene Craddock of Charlottesville
joined the Navy on January 12, 1943, his mother, Mrs. Alice
May Craddock, who was thirty-two years old on the previous
Christmas Day, became the youngest war mother in the United
States. The Navy officially certified the fact in announcing Mrs.
Craddock's distinction. Before he entered the service “Gene” Craddock,
who was to win four battle stars in the Pacific, worked with
his father, Henry Wise Craddock, at the Charlottesville Woolen
Mills where Navy uniforms were being manufactured. When he
left for Bainbridge Naval Training Station, Maryland, he took with
him a blue jacket which he had helped to make.[32]

Many families displayed on their service flags a gold star symboliz
ing a member who had died in the service, a sacrifice on the altar of
freedom. Altogether 199 did not return. Of these 116 were from
Charlottesville and 83 from Albemarle County. A few families
had two such gold stars. Mr. and Mrs. Robert H. Batten of Charlottesville
lost two sons. Private First Class George Rexford Batten
with the 36th Division was killed in the crossing of the Rhine River,
and First Lieutenant Donald Sherwood Batten with the 86th Bomber
Group in Italy was killed by a land mine while he was searching for
a friend who had been shot down. Two sons of Mr. and Mrs. Richard
T. Brown of Charlottesville also died in Europe. Private Harry
Elmer Brown with the 9th Division in France was killed in action on
August 4, 1944, and Private First Class Richard Marton Brown
with the 29th Division died of injuries sustained in a vehicular accident
at Louvain, Belgium, March 10, 1945. Mr. and Mrs. Floyd
F. Davis also of Charlottesville lost two sons, Staff Sergeant Calvin
Edgar Davis, who was shot down over France on May 28, 1944,
and Private First Class Raymond Earl Davis, who died on February

14, 1946, at McGuire General Hospital in Richmond of wounds sustained
in Germany. Half-brothers, the sons of John W. Gibson of
Red Hill, died in service. Technician Fifth Class Clarence Cecil
Gibson was killed in an airplane accident in North Africa, February
12, 1943, and Private Coleman Tafty Gibson died on February 7,
1944, while on furlough in Charlottesville.[33]

There were many who asked the perpetual question, “Why should
young men just through college or just married who have everything
to live for, take upon themselves all of this war against life itself?”
“I feel I'm capable of answering that,” Lieutenant James E. Harlow
of Charlottesville, an aviator in England, wrote his wife, “for I was
one of these thousands who felt that, though we had everything to
gain by remaining out of the Army, this war was destroying everything
that could and should exist. We could be happy, yes, but for
how long? Even now, instead of being here in combat, I could be
home with my wife and thousands of others could be home also.
However, it's harder to see something beautiful you've built de-stroyed than to destroy its possible enemy in the beginning.”[34]

So it seemed to many others.

ALBEMARLE COUNTY SELECTIVE SERVICE BOARD

                                             

Board Members	Service Began	Service Ended
R. O. Hall	October 14, 1940	March 31, 1947
Richard H. Miller	October 15, 1940	March 31, 1947
Hugh Clark	October 15, 1940	March 31, 1947
Gabe N. Maupin	October 6, 1941	March 31, 1947
Henry McComb Bush	March 27, 1945	March 31, 1947
F. Pierson Scott	March 31, 1945	March 31, 1947
Government Appeal Agent
Edward V. Walker	October 14, 1940	April 5, 1947
Examining Physicians
Dr. J. O. Mundy	October 16, 1940	November 11, 1942
Dr. T. E. Jones	November 9, 1940	April 5, 1947
Dr. R. G. Magruder	December 11, 1940	March 10, 1942
Dr. Frank D. Daniel	December 27, 1940	March 1, 1947
Dr. John O. McNeel	May 31, 1941	November 11, 1942
Dr. G. F. Johnson	June 30, 1941	March 1, 1947
Dr. Thomas H. Daniel	January 16, 1942	November 11, 1942
Dr. Robert R. Nelson	February 10, 1942	March 1, 1946
Dr. John Edwin Beck	May 18, 1942	August 6, 1943
Dr. William R. Dandridge	August 12, 1943	March 1, 1947
Reemployment Committeemen
John G. Yancey	November 12, 1941	March 31, 1947
Edward V. Walker	August 3, 1945	March 31, 1947

CHARLOTTESVILLE CITY SELECTIVE SERVICE BOARD

                                                   

Board Members	Service Began	Service Ended
Charles E. Moran	October 11, 1940	March 31, 1947
Strother F. Hamm	October 12, 1940	August 9, 1946
R. A. Watson	October 12, 1940	July 1, 1946
Lyttelton Waddell	March 22, 1943	August 9, 1946
Frank H. Calhoun	May 10, 1943	August 14, 1946
Henry B. Gordon	August 9, 1946	March 31, 1947
J. Philip Grove	August 9, 1946	March 31, 1947
Government Appeal Agents
Lyttelton Waddell	November 12, 1940	March 25, 1943
Henry E. Belt	May 10, 1943	April 5, 1947
Examining Physicians
Dr. R. T. Ergenbright	October 17, 1940	April 5, 1947
Dr. William H. Wood	November 8, 1940	November 10, 1942
Dr. W. H. Paine	January 22, 1941	May 25, 1941
Dr. Byrd S. Leavell	January 28, 1941	June 12, 1942
Dr. John F. McGavock	May 26, 1941	March 1, 1947
Dr. Dan O. Nichols	June 19, 1941	March 1, 1947
Dr. E. W. Stratton	June 30, 1941	May 7, 1942
Dr. Robert R. Nelson	October 16, 1941	March 1, 1946
Dr. B. A. Coles. D. D. S.	January 16, 1942	March 1, 1947
Dr. M. T. Garrett	May 7, 1942	March 1, 1947
Dr. Harry LaCato Smith, Jr.	November 20, 1942	March 1, 1947
Dr. William R. Dandridge	August 5, 1943	March 1, 1947
Reemployment Committeeman
E. C. Wingfield	September 22, 1941	March 31, 1947