BERRYVILLE — A special observance is planned Saturday to honor a local soldier in World War I regarded as having influenced how battles are waged today.
“Captain Lloyd Williams Day” will honor the late commander of the 51st Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines Regiment. On June 2, 1918, a Marine division was sent to support the French army at the Battle of Belleau Wood. As the American troops arrived, French troops were retreating. Historical documents recall Williams declaring, “Retreat, hell! We just got here!”
Williams was gassed and hurt by shrapnel slightly more than a week later. After being evacuated to a field medical station, he died during a shell explosion and was buried in Flanders Field, a military cemetery near the battlefield. Posthumously, he was promoted to major and awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
Born June 5, 1887, in Berryville, Williams graduated from Virginia Tech and became a second lieutenant in the Marines in December 1909. Historians believe Williams was the first soldier from Virginia to die in World War 1. He was the first Clarke County native to die in combat.
In 1919, Berryville’s American Legion post was named in Williams’ honor.
Records show that more than 1,000 people lined Berryville’s streets on July 21, 1921, as a train brought Williams’ casket to Clarke County, his family having sought the return of his remains. The casket was placed on a horse-drawn caisson for the funeral procession to Grace Episcopal Church. Williams then was buried in Green Hill Cemetery.
Approximately 10 area residents formed a World War I 100th Anniversary Committee last year to plan events coinciding with the centennial observance of the war’s end. Commemorations are planned for Veterans Day on Nov. 11, but the committee decided to honor Williams on July 14.
Williams is important to military and war history because “he led a rallying cry that many American troops have held to” over the years and still maintain — never retreat from conflict, said Nathan Stalvey, director of the Clarke County Historical Association.
Yet “a lot of people in this community don’t realize who Lloyd Williams is,” Stalvey said.
Saturday’s event is designed to change that.
The day’s activities will start at 11:30 a.m. in Berryville with a short procession from First Street west on East Main Street to Rose Hill Park in the town’s center. Participants will include the Marine Corps Color Guard, the Winchester Pipes and Drums Corps, American Legion Lloyd Williams Post 41, VFW Post 9760, Boyce Town Council, Berryville Town Council, the Clarke County Board of Supervisors, Virginia Dels. Dave LaRock and Wendy Gooditis, the Shenandoah Young Marines Detachment and the American Legion Riders with a 1915 Indian motorcycle.
After the procession, a ceremony in Rose Hill Park will feature World War I re-enactors and a performance of music from the World War I era.
To Stalvey’s understanding, there has been no other event highlighting Williams’ contribution to the war, at least during the three years that he has headed the historical association.
An interactive “Profiles of Honor Mobile Museum,” focusing on Virginia’s involvement in both World Wars I and II, will be on site during Saturday’s observance. Visitors can bring related historical photos to be scanned for inclusion in the Virginia Profiles of Honor project, a partnership with the Library of Virginia intended to preserve stories and documents for future generations.
The Clarke County Historical Association Museum at 32 E. Main St., across from the park, will be open during the observance. An exhibit titled “Clarke County During World War I” will include photos of county residents including Robert Jenkins, Gilbert Royston, Maurice Wisecarver and Lucy Meredith Ginn, who was a nurse in France when she met her future husband, county resident L. Holmes Ginn. A computer in the exhibit space will enable visitors to learn more about Clarke County during the war.
Surviving relatives donated memorabilia for the exhibit. The museum is willing to accept more Clarke-related World War I memorabilia.
World War I started July 28, 1914, mainly between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey, known as the Central Powers, and France, Great Britain, Russia, Italy and Japan, known as the Allies. The United States entered the war on April 6, 1917, largely as the result of German ships attacking American ships as well as ships from other countries on which Americans were traveling.
Of the 272 men and women from Clarke County who were on active duty during the war, 14 died during their service, records show.
Stalvey said he believes World War I is “one of the most understudied wars in history.”
But it is one of the most significant wars, he said, because armies started relying less on primitive weapons such as muskets and more on technology-based weaponry such as machine guns and chemical warfare.
Another World War I-related observance is being planned for Nov. 11 (Armistice Day), which this year will mark the 100th anniversary of the temporary stoppage of hostilities declared between the Allied nations and Germany at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918.
— Contact Mickey Powell at mpowell@winchesterstar.com.
