Return from the Argonne

Return from the Argonne. . On May 12, 1919, three trains with 1,451 survivors of the original 3,677 soldiers of Alabama's 167th Infantry arrived at Montgomery Union Station to parade to the Capitol. The Return from the Argonne Memorial, by sculptor James Butler, R.A., remembers their last battle of world war one in the Argonne. On October 16, 1918, Alabama's 167th Infantry and Iowa's 168th Infantry in Brigadier General Douglas MacArthur's 84th Brigade of the 42nd Rainbow Division, assisted by the 151st Georgia Machine Gun Battalion, captured the Côte de Châtillon, the final obstacle standing between the Allied Army and Germany on the Hindenburg Line. It opened the road to the Rhine River and the final push that would lead the Germans to request an Armistice on November 11, 1918., The Return from the Argonne Memorial also honors all Alabamians who fought in the Argonne between September and November 1918: this includes the Alabamians in the 31st Dixie Division who served as replacements in other divisions as well as the African American soldiers, mostly from Alabama, in the 366th Infantry Regiment of the 92nd Division. They saw combat in the Argonne on November 10 and 11., Another Alabama native son, James Reese Europe, from Mobile, served in the Meuse-Argonne campaign. A famous musician, he led the military band of the 369th regiment (Harlem Hell Fighters) which brought jazz to Europe. , The Return from the Argonne is a gift to the City of Montgomery from the Croix Rouge Farm Memorial Foundation through the generosity of Nimrod Thompson Frazer, Silver Star, Korea. It is in memory of his father, William Johnson Frazer, Purple Heart, World War I. He never forgot his fellow soldiers., The United States World War One , Centennial Commission .