Husband Albert H. Bell, Jr. 1 2
Born: 3 Oct 1893 - Greensburg, Westmoreland Co, PA 2
Christened:
Died: 23 Jul 1918 2
Buried:
Father: Albert Harvey Bell, LL.D. (1857- ) 1 2 3
Mother: Mary C. Clarke ( - ) 1 2 4
Wife
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General Notes: Husband - Albert H. Bell, Jr.
He was among the first soldier sons of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, to fall in battle in the first World War, and was killed on July 23, 1918, near Mont-St-Pierre, France, in the second battle of the Marne. The following citation was awarded him:
Albert H. Bell, Second Lieutenant, Fourth Infantry. For extraordinary heroism in action near les Franquete Farm, France, July 23, 1918. While acting as battalion gas officer, Lieutenant Bell volunteered and took charge of a squad of men and captured a machine gun and eight prisoners. He was killed while attempting to take a second machine gun.
At the high school in Greensburg Albert H. Bell, Jr., was an honor student and editor of the monthly school paper, "Brown and White." One of his beloved teachers says of him:
When I think back over my two years in Greensburg, Albert has always stood out in my memory as one of the boys in whose future I had great confidence. As a high school student he was always thorough and painstaking in whatever tasks we assigned him, and his influence upon others in conduct and behavior was always of the best in every way.
In his subsequent college days at Monmouth College, Monmouth, Illinois, he was again an honor student and editor of "The Ravellings," the student year book. Before completing the law course at the University of Pittsburgh, he enlisted in the Second Student Officers' Training Corps, and graduated from Camp Warden McLean as a second lieutenant on November 26, 1917. With Company B, Fourth United States Infantry, Third Division, for whom he had served as platoon commander and French instructor, he went to France, April 26, 1918. Immediately after landing, his regiment took part in the fighting at Villers Cotterets. When the Germans swept across the Marne, driving the Allies in retreat through Chateau-Thierry in the middle of July, the Third American Division, with which Lieutenant Bell's regiment was brigaded, was thrown into the center with other divisions to stem the retreat and turn the disaster into that glorious series of victories that drove the Germans back beyond the danger line. At the very nerve center of the German defense in the Soissons-Rheims salient, the young lieutenant and many comrades fell on the battle field. Though details are meager, a fellow officer wrote of Lieutenant Bell's death:
He died fighting, like the brave and fearless officer he was. I talked with some of the officers of his regiment the night he fell. They said he kept his head, and died fighting most bravely.
General John J. Pershing, Commander-in-Chief of the American Army, in his general order of August 27, 1918, pays this tribute to the Third and other engaged divisions:
You came to the battlefield at the crucial hour of the Allied cause. For almost four years the most formidable army the world has as yet seen had pressed its invasion of France, and stood threatening its capital. At no time had that army been more powerful and menacing than when, on July 18 it struck again to destroy in one great battle the brave men opposed to it and to enforce its brutal will upon the world and civilization. Three days later, in conjunction with our Allies, you counter-attacked. The Allied Armies gained a brilliant victory that marks the turning point of the war. You did more than give our brave Allies the support to which as a Nation our faith was pledged. You proved that our altruism, our pacific spirit, our sense of justice had not blunted our virility or our courage. You have shown that America's initiative and energy are as fit for the tests of war as for the pursuits of peace. You have justly won the unstinted praise of our Allies and the eternal gratitude of our countrymen. We have paid for our successes in the lives of many of our brave comrades. We shall cherish their memory always and claim for our history and our literature their bravery, achievements and sacrifice.
Upon Lieutenant Bell was posthumously bestowed the Distinguished Service Cross from the United States and the Croix-de-Guerre with Palm from the French Government.
Lieutenant Bell had been admitted to the Westmoreland bar in 1917, and he was the first member of that body to fall in action. He was the third on the honor roll of the Greensburg United Presbyterian Church to answer "taps." He was an affectionate, joyous boy, who went into the service with a profound sense of duty that excluded every suggestion to hunt the easy and safe forms of service.