BERRYVILLE — A century after he became what is believed to be the first Virginian killed in World War I, Clarke County resident and Marine Capt. Lloyd W. Williams was honored with a parade on Saturday.
Williams became a Marine Corps legend after saying, “Retreat, hell! We just got here,” before the Battle of Bellau Wood in Northern France in June 1918. The utterance was in reply to a French officer who told Williams to retreat after the Marine Corps 51st Co., 2nd Battalion, 5th Regiment arrived on June 2.
Boot camp recruits learn about famous Marines like Williams in classes about Marine Corps history, said James Wolfe, a parade participant and Marine from 1970-74.
“Everybody knows about him in the Marine Corps,” Wolfe said. “‘Retreat, hell.’ That’s classic.”
On June 11, 1918, Williams was wounded. He died a day later at a medical aid station that was shelled, according to a Virginia Tech biography of its famous graduates. It was known as Virginia Polytechnic Institute when Williams attended.
“Don’t bother with me. Take care of my good men,” Williams told medics after being wounded, according to an American Legion profile of him. Of the 260 men in the company Williams commanded, 243 were killed or wounded.
At least 1,800 Americans were killed in the 18-day battle and thousands of Germans, but the Americans stopped the German advance on Paris and helped end the war, which concluded on Nov. 11, 1918.
Williams was born in 1887 to wealthy parents who had multiple homes in Berryville. He moved to Washington, D.C., to attend high school and later married and was the father of at least one child, according to Mary Thomason-Morris, archivist of the Clarke County Historical Association, which organized the parade.
The parade was one of several events held throughout the year to to mark the centennial of the end of World War I and salute the Clarke County residents who served in it.
In 1914, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire, set off a chain of events that began the war. It killed about 20 million people, including 116,000 Americans.
President Woodrow Wilson, a Virginian who as a candidate in 1916 pledged to stay out of the war, got the U.S. involved in 1917. It was in response to German submarines torpedoing U.S. ships, some of which were carrying munitions and other supplies to the Allies.
Nathan Stalvey, historical association director, said the war profoundly changed the world. It led to the beginning of the end of western colonial imperialism, the beginning of communism and the birth of new nations in the Middle East as the Allied victors redrew maps expanding their power. The war also began the use of machine guns, planes and tanks and new tactics such as targeting civilians for mass bombing to break their morale.
“It was absolutely mind boggling how that war absolutely changed everything,” Stalvey said. “It was the bloodiest thing the world had seen. It gave rise to so many things.”
Stalvey said the parade and other events held earlier this year, as well an exhibit of war artifacts, are an attempt to help county residents better understand the war and the role local people played in it. He urged people to visit local historical associations and museums as the centennial approaches.
“It’s one thing to read about World War I, but it’s another thing to see artifacts and read letters from people who lived in your county or lived in your town that were part of it and to hear their stories,” he said.
Neil Conner, a Woodstock resident who rode a Jeep in the parade, said his grandfather’s cousin fought in World War I. Conner, a Marine from 1966-68 and Vietnam War veteran, said he studied WWI while majoring in history in college. Conner said the crippling war reparations the Allies made Germany pay led to World War II in which 85 million were killed. He said the wars illustrate the value of diplomacy.
“War is the stupidest way to solve an argument,” he said. “Anybody that’s been in combat will tell you this is just dumb, because all you can do then is shoot. You can’t talk. You can only shoot.”
— Contact Evan Goodenow at egoodenow@winchesterstar.com
