Veterans Day Salute: John H. Poore

Gondrecourt, France training area

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm again posting my Veterans Day Salutes to my family.

After John H. Poore was inducted at Bay Springs, Mississippi, on June 15, 1918, he entered Company A of the 152^nd Infantry Regiment. This regiment arrived in Europe on Oct. 5, 1918, and never saw combat. 

It served as a source of replacements for other units. On Nov. 1, John was transferred to Company

B, 325^th Infantry Regiment for combat duty.

On Nov. 1, 1918, John moved up to the front lines as part of the 325^th Infantry Regiment for the last 11 days of the war. The 325^th Infantry waited in reserve as part of the 82^nd Infantry Division while three other divisions of First Army’s I Corps attacked along the Meuse River on Nov. 1. Three days later the Germans retreated east of the Meuse.

When American forces captured the heights overlooking the German railroad at Sedan, they assured the

John H. Poore's grave in Union Seminary Baptist Church
Cemetery in Jasper County, Mississippi.
Photo by Larry Bell

end of the war. The Germans agreed to an Armistice to begin on Nov. 11, 1918. The war ended without John having fired a shot in anger.

During the five months afterward, John and his 325^th comrades waited in France for transport home. There was a shortage of troopships to take them back to the United States.

Six months after the Armistice, John returned to the United States. The Army discharged him in May 1919 and he came home to Jasper County, Mississippi.