We're here at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland and we're looking
at records relating to Private Henry Gunther. He is noted as the last American casualty
of World War One.
The National Archives holds literally
millions of records relating to the American Expeditionary Forces and
for researchers it's really a gold mine. The document that I'm looking at is known
as a war diary. The Armistice was set for 11:00am on November 11th of 1918.
As the clock ticked forward, at 10:58am, Private Gunther had stood up, was
charging towards the German lines when he was shot by a German machine gun.
Two minutes before the Armistice, Henry Gunther was killed.
In searching the records, I located two documents specific to Henry Gunther.
The first of them is a telegram that was sent
confirming his death on November 11th, 1918. The second document is
a little bit more unique: it's handwritten. What's interesting is
that it gives the time of his death, which is 10:58am on November 11th.
You don't often see the time on a document and it also counters what's previously
been written about Gunther, which many accounts say that he died
one minute before the Armistice.
This is a copy of the graves registration burial card
for Henry Gunther. It gives information on him saying that
he was killed in action, the date that he was killed. But more importantly,
it documents that his body was shipped home in 1921. That was done at the request of
his mother, Lena Gunther, who lived on Eastern Avenue in Baltimore.
Did your dad ever mention anything about why they chose to have Henry brought
back to Baltimore? They wanted him back with the family because they loved him
so much and he was a big part of the family, so they wanted to have him here,
close by. Here we go! Henry N. Gunther born June the 6th, 1895...died in France...
Company 313 Infantry...November 11th, 1918.
I think there's a lot of mystery
surrounding those last moments and why he did what he did, which has all
been talked about before and printed, but the fact that he had tried to
send a letter home and he was talking about the terrible, deplorable conditions
in France and that letter got intercepted and he got in a lot of
trouble for it and he was demoted, and I know that put a lot of feelings probably
of shame on him, as well as the family when they found out and then there's
talk perhaps that his fiancé broke up with him as a result of all of that.
So his frame of mind when all of this happened may not have been so great.
However, I think that he showed a tremendous amount of courage and bravery
because he volunteered, he didn't have to do it, he volunteered to
become the runner back and forth between the enemy lines
and he had got quite good at it.
Standing here at the gravesite brings the records that document
the service of Henry Gunther and his unit, the 313th Infantry,
known as "Baltimore's Own" to the forefront. It's living history by being
at the site where he went from being killed in France, which is well-documented
in National Archives records, to brought back to the United States,
which is also well-documented and then buried here in a private cemetery.