Who is alvin c york

Because church members rejected violence, York sought conscientious objector status when the United States entered World War I, but the Selective Service denied his appeal. With half of his sixteen men dead or wounded, York outshot an entire German machine gun battalion, silencing some thirty-five guns and killing approximately twenty of the enemy. In addition he captured prisoners. Instead he returned to Pall Mall, where he devoted himself to public service, most notably securing a state-supported high school in Fentress County.

He married neighbor Gracie Williams in , and the couple had eight children. On the eve of World War II, he finally permitted a film biography after producer Jesse Lasky convinced him that such a portrait would be a patriotic service. With Gary Cooper in the title role, Sergeant York opened to popular and critical acclaim just a few months before the United States entered the war.

As such, he seemed to affirm that the traditional virtues of the agrarian United States still had meaning in the new era. York represented not what Americans were but what they wanted to think they were.

He lived in one of the most rural parts of the country when a majority of Americans lived in cities; he rejected riches when the tenor of the nation was crassly commercial; he was pious when secularism was on the rise. Ironically, while York endured as a symbol of an older America, he spent most of his adult life working to bring roads, schools, and industrial development to the mountains, changes that were destroying the society he had come to represent.

No significant collection of Alvin York papers exists. The most complete study of his life is David D. Dated but valuable are Thomas Skeyhill, ed. As a result, York had a number of arrests for unruly conduct. After pleadings from his mother and his mentor, Parson Rosier Pile, York cleaned up his life in January York decided to convert to Christianity during church revivals of Rev.

York was employed on the local highway in the county when the First World War broke out. Later, after the United States became involved in the war in , Alvin York received his induction orders from the U. He was twenty-nine years old and had never been more than a few miles away from home. He visited the general store of Parson Pile in order to send his military draft registration. York had reservations about serving in the war based on his religious convictions, but upon later reflection he determined it was his duty to fight in a war against the evils of the world.

Army Infantry Division. Deeply troubled by the conflict of his personal Christian beliefs and his infantry training, York sought advice from his company commander, Captain Edward C. Danforth and battalion commander, Major Gonzalo E. York went into the hills of his beloved land to meditate and pray; he returned convinced that God meant for him to fight and serve his country.

York and his company were sent to the battle lines in Western Europe. The group was largely successful in their endeavor, capturing many Germans who were preparing a counter-attack against Americans. However, machine gun fire broke out on a ridge.

Many in the unit were killed or injured. The losses put Cpl. York in charge, and he and seven infantrymen worked their way into position to take out the German guns. York encountered several Germans and attacked their position, killing many and capturing others.

And he knowed I meaned it. So he blowed his whistle and they came down out of the trench and throwed down their guns and equipment and held up their hands and begun to gather around. I guess, though, one of them thought he could get me. He had his hands up all right. But he done had a little hand grenade concealed, and as he come up to me he throwed it right at my head.

But it missed me and wounded one of the prisoners. I hed to tech him off. The rest surrendered without any trouble. Curiously, the accomplishments of Cpl. York and his regiment were reported only in routine field reports from the Meuse-Argonne action of October 8, ; no soldier names were given. The history of Company C, th Infantry, A. This brought attention to the heroic actions of Cpl.

Prior to discharge, York was promoted to the rank of sergeant. Upon returning to America, Sgt. Ticker tape parades, medal ceremonies, news conferences and interviews awaited the Tennessean. However, York had deep reservations on the fame he received and the circumstances that had brought it.

Handy was an African American composer and a leader in popularizing blues music in the early 20th century, with hits like "Memphis Blues" and "St. Louis Blues. Robert C. Byrd is best known as the longest-serving senator and longest-serving member in the history of the United States Congress. An author of nearly books, Arthur C. James C. Maxwell was a 19th-century pioneer in chemistry and physics who articulated the idea of electromagnetism. The most decorated U.

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