By Philip R. Devlin
(July 13, 2024) — The Battle of Chateau-Thierry began on July 18, 1918, and lasted for less than a week. It was one of the first battles of the Great War involving significant numbers of American soldiers under the command of General John J. Pershing. Private Hezekiah S. Porter of Higganum, a member of Company B of the 101st Machine Gun Battalion of Connecticut’s 102nd Regiment, part of the 26th or “Yankee” Division, lost his life in that battle on Monday, July 22, 1918.
Hezekiah Porter attended the Choate School in Wallingford before matriculating at Yale University. At Choate he was known to be an outstanding pitcher on their baseball team; in fact, the April 20, 1916, edition of the Hartford Courant, in reporting an early-season Choate loss, had this to say one year after Porter had graduated: “It was expected that Choate was going to have some difficulty in finding a pitcher who could take up the work where Hezekiah Porter left off last year.”
Porter, an excellent student as well as an excellent athlete, left Yale during his sophomore year to join the Army. He trained with the 101st Machine Gun Battalion in Niantic for several months before shipping overseas, where he would be killed about nine months later.
The Friday, August 2, 1918 edition of the Hartford Courant had this to say about his death on page 7: “The telegram announcing the death of Private Porter was sent to his brother, Whitney S. Porter of Higganum. The dead soldier is a son of the late Wallace Porter of Higganum and a grandson of Hezekiah Scovil, founder of the D. and H. Scovil Company of Higganum, manufacturers of hoes and other agricultural implements. He leaves two brothers, Whitney Porter of Higganum and Philip Porter, who is in the aviation corps, and three sisters, Mrs. C.W. Walker of Stratford and the Misses Adelaide and Esther Porter of Higganum.”
Recently, I acquired several books on the Great War at an auction. One of these books, Making the Kaiser Dance, was edited by a Connecticut writer named Henry Berry, of Darien. It contains many firsthand accounts of individual veterans of World War I.
One of these accounts was written by Pfc. Philip H. Hammerslough of Hartford, a friend of Porter’s who witnessed his death during the Allied attack on the town of Epieds on the morning of July 22, 1918.
Here is what he had to say: “The first thing we knew, the shells were flying so fast we could only move forward on our bellies, crawling through this wheat field, trying to find a place to set up our guns. The Germans were letting loose with rapid fire—mainly their one-pounders—and they were hell! A fellow named Hezekiah Porter was over on my right. I could see him out of the corner of my eye. Then this shell landed, and he completely disappeared. Can you imagine that— seeing a buddy one minute, then a minute later he’s gone? I still have nightmares over that one!”
Another account of Porter’s death says, “It was here that Hez Porter, following his platoon leader, was instantly killed.”
A War Diary compiled from the diaries of six men in the 101st sheds further light upon Hezekiah Porter’s fate: “About 6 p.m. the Boche put down a fearful artillery barrage close in front of us, and we were pulled back a hundred yards to escape the effects of this fire. A detail had been digging a grave for Porter but were unable to finish.” Three days later, on July 25th, the burial was finished: “A detail went back and buried Porter.”
Porter’s body was later moved to a cemetery at Seringes-et-Nesles –its permanent location at the American cemetery there called the Oise-Aisne (pronounced Waz-Aine) American Cemetery, where it remains today along with more than 6,000 other American war dead.
Hezekiah Porter was one of three Haddam men to die while fighting in the Great War. Hilmer O. Johnson died of the flu in France on September 30, 1918, followed by William Woodruff, who was killed in action during the Meuse Argonne Campaign on October 16, 1918.
Author’s Note: The photos that accompany this article are from a 1922 book on the history of a Connecticut unit called the 101st Machine Gun Battalion. Pfc Hezekiah Porter of Higganum was a member of this unit and was the first Haddam soldier to die in WWI. I don’t think anyone has ever seen these photos, as the book referenced is quite rare.
Since the book was published prior to 1923, it is by law in the public domain. The photo of Company B was taken in Niantic, where the unit trained for about three months. The other photo shows Company B in the wheat field in
France where Porter was killed. He is somewhere within both of those photos.
