HONORED
BY WBM STAFF
his grandson, Edward Hardin Manning, was given a box of
letters. Inside he found over 150 letters from his grandfather
who fought with distinction along with other Wilmington
men to liberate the world more than 100 years ago.
These Wilmington heroes included Hargrove “Hoggie”
Bellamy (future mayor of Wilmington), Arthur “Bluey”
Bluethenthal, (the first Wilmingtonian and second North
Carolinian killed in the war, and for whom the Wilmington
airport is named), brothers Paul and Pete Cantwell, George
Clark Sr., Harry Hayden, Hugh Hines, Col. Thomas J.
Gause, J. Douglas “Duddie” Taylor, Walker Taylor and
Frank Williamson.
Beginning with a few from 1914, the letters span the years
the United States was embroiled in the First World War
and its aftermath — 1917 to 1919 — during which Hardin
faithfully wrote from wherever he was back to his hometown
of Wilmington.
READ “A SOLDIER’S STORY” PARTS 1 AND 2:
www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com/flash/2019-11/page_28.html
www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com/flash/2019-12/page_34.html
NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM
Top left: Edward Hardin sat for a
portrait in his U.S. Army issued
trench coat and campaign hat,
most likely in early 1918. Above:
The “Old Hickory” 30th Division
patch and commendation by Field
Marshal Sir Douglas Haig. Left: Both
sides used poison gas during the
war. British Vickers machine-gun
crew firing their weapons during
the Battle of the Somme in Septem-ber
1916. Background: “Smashing
the Hindenburg Line” by Frank E.
Schoonover, 1919.
“ Old Hickory” Division Receives the Presidential Citation
15
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