MANILA -- As World War I centennial commemorations come to a close between now and Nov. 11, a salute is in order at Arkansas' smallest state park. Less than an acre in size, it is named for an Army private who fought with valor in 1918.
Pvt. Herman Davis was not one of the three Arkansans awarded the Medal of Honor, all of them posthumously, for action during what was then called the Great War. He received the nation's second highest combat medal, the Distinguished Service Cross, along with three awards from the French government.
Although he survived the war and was discharged from military duty in May 1919, Davis died in January 1923 of tuberculosis. Doctors said the disease developed due to his exposure to German poison gas on the front lines in northeastern France. So he became a belated military casualty.
Born in 1888 in Big Lake Island, which later was renamed Manila, he quit school after the fourth grade and began working as a hunting guide. A skilled sharpshooter, he was rejected for military service in 1917 because he was only 5 feet, 3 inches tall. In March 1918, he was drafted as demand rose for soldiers.
He served as a scout with the 29th Division's 113th Infantry Regiment -- front-line duty that exposed him many times to poison gas. When his platoon faced fire near Verdun in October, he crawled within 50 yards of the gun and killed four Germans. In other engagements, he shot and killed 15 of the enemy in a machine-gun nest and 11 more as they left a dugout.
When American Expeditionary Force commander Gen. John J. Pershing published a roll call of the war's 100 heroic figures as a 1919 fundraising project for veterans, Davis was among those named. He was placed fourth on the list.
Back in Manila, he kept his medals tucked away in his fishing tackle box until his military exploits came to light via Pershing's nominations. A state-park plaque calls him a "reluctant hero." He is also described as "a small, quiet man."
After Davis' death in a Memphis hospital, Arkansas schoolchildren collected pennies to help finance the obelisk and statue, which were dedicated on Memorial Day 1925. His coffin was moved from a local cemetery and reburied at the monument's base. In 1953, the site became Arkansas' sixth state park.
Davis' valor is also marked in Little Rock, where the iron fountain near the entrance to the Old State House Museum was renamed for him in 1954, with a plaque posted in his memory. The fountain had been displayed at Arkansas' pavilion during the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia.
Those three Arkansans awarded Medals of Honor for actions in France during what was called -- with mistaken optimism -- "the War to End All Wars" likewise merit a 100th-anniversary salute. They are:
• Maj. Oscar Miller, of rural Franklin County, was shot three times on Sept. 28, 1918, while urging his Army men to continue their attack. He rallied them to press on as he lay wounded. A few days later, he died.
• Cpl. John Henry Pruitt, of Fallsville in Newton County, made a solo attack on two German machine guns on Oct. 4, 1918. The Marine captured the guns, killed two of the enemy, then captured 40 Germans in a nearby dugout before succumbing to shellfire. He also was awarded the Navy Medal of Honor.
• Capt. Marcellus Holmes Chiles, of Eureka Springs, was fatally wounded on Nov. 3, 1918 (eight days before the combat-ending armistice), while leading his Doughboys across a stream in the face of enemy machine-gun fire.
Herman Davis State Park, at Arkansas 18 and Baltimore Street in Manila, 180 miles northeast of Little Rock, can be visited daily. There are no park facilities other than a couple of benches, and no admission charge. For details, visit arkansasstateparks.com.
Style on 09/18/2018