Sep 24, 2020 - Sale 2546

Sale 2546 - Lot 253

Price Realized: $ 406
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(WORLD WAR ONE.) Emil Milton Woerner. Diary of a medical corpsman on the Meuse–Argonne offensive. [50] manuscript diary pages plus [23] pages of names and addresses, and the 78th Division's "Lightning" insignia laid down. 24mo, 4 x 2 1/2 inches, original limp calf, minor wear; one leaf coming loose. Vp, 3 April 1918 to 29 May 1919
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Emil Milton Woerner (1894-1968) was apparently drafted into the 311th Infantry Regiment and reported to Camp Dix, NJ. He quickly realized that the soldier's life was not for him, and by late May he had gained a transfer as a conscientious objector to the 309th Field Hospital. This hospital unit was attached to the soon-to-be-renowned 78th Infantry Division, the "Lightning Division" which played a key role in the Meuse–Argonne offensive, the final push of the war.
Some of Woerner's early diary entries were extensive, but he clearly had little time to write after reaching France on 14 June. However, the brief notes he did record are evocative of the hardest fighting of the war:
"Arrived Tremblecourt in time to hear and see the first big American barrage which started at 1:00 A.M. in St. Mihiel sector" (12 September).
"Mortmere, German dugouts railroads, trenches, dead Americans and Germans, alarms all nite, aeroplane battles, observation balloons." (15 September).
"Arrived Thiaucourt at 2:00 pm where we received our baptism of shell fire. Shells every 5 minutes, hospital in dugout, slept in dugouts, nite of terror, shells, bombs, machine guns & gas" (16 September).
"Left St. Jacques, motor lorries for Verdun front . . . big barrage on, held in reserve for div. entry" (7 October).
"Left 7 pm for Apremont, opened Gen. Hospital and had beau coup patients immediately after opening" (17 October).
"Left on truck for Braux St Remey. Passed thru Ste. Menchould and heard that armistice had been signed" (11 November).
Woerner did not sign his name and offered precious few clues to his identity. Swann's Americana staff are quite pleased with ourselves for identifying him, however, and hope you will indulge us as we explain. One entry in May 1918 offers good clues to the author's identity. He spent a weekend on leave from Camp Dix, at home with "Ma, Pa, Karl & M.E.Z.": "Asked M.E.Z. to wait until I returned to civil life before entering into matrimony and she asked for time to consider. Walked to the station with MEZ and had the last glance of Netherwood I was to have for some time." This suggests that he lived near Netherwood Station in Plainfield, NJ, had living parents and a brother named Karl.
That's not quite enough. However, in his second entry after arriving at Camp Dix, 7 April 1918, the diarist wrote "Sent an original joke to Judge." Judge was a weekly humor magazine which offered modest prizes to soldiers whose jokes were published. Knowing his regiment, a search for "311th" turned up a joke in the 4 May 1918 issue which won the $5 grand prize. The soldier was Private E.M. Woerner of the right company and regiment--and it was a joke about a clueless rookie who had just arrived yesterday. A bit more research showed him in the 1915 census with his parents and brother Karl; he registered for the draft from Plainfield, NJ; and the 1920 census found him working in Manhattan as a salesman of silk hosiery, living with his wife Matilda E. Woerner, nee Zaisser.