Basil L. Smith

Basil L Smith was born in January of 1897 to Albert and Bessie Smith of Mechanicville, NY. Basil was one of the couple’s four children; the middle sibling of Ralph and Irene. By the beginning of the century, the family had moved to Halfmoon, in Saratoga, New York. As time went on the family moved to Adams, Massachusetts. When Basil was old enough, he moved in with his uncle S. B. Garrison, who lived in Teaneck. He became a machinist's helper, the machinist most likely being his uncle.

When Basil was nineteen, he decided to enlist in the New York National Guard in New York City, on July 3rd, 1916. However, nineteen was too young to sign up so he forged his birth date 2 years earlier to be eligible to fight. He was assigned to the New York National Guard 71st Infantry Regiment, Machine Gun Company.

In July of 1917, the units of the New York National Guard moved to Camp Wadsworth, close to Spartanburg, South Carolina, for further training once the nation had entered the war. The unit was designated as part of the 27th Division in July 1917 and on May 17th, 1918, the Regiment was sent overseas. Upon arrival the Division was attached to the British Fourth and Third Armies, the former first, for training. On the 30th of June the Division joined the British Second Army on the Western Front. Under British jurisdiction PFC Smith fought in the Hundred Days Campaign.  On July 5th, they were placed on the Eastern Poperinghe Line southwest of Ypres to take part in the Ypres-Lys Offensive. His last days were during the Somme Offensive. The offensive ended on October 21st, when the Division was relieved by British forces. Sadly, PFC Smith died a day before it ended.

The Somme American Cemetery or anywhere along the Somme River may be the final resting place for Basil. He has a headstone with his family plot in Bennington ,Vermont, yet the price of transporting a body back home to the States at this time was near to impossible. The tombstone was most likely a symbolic gesture.

Ancestry.com

1. New York, State Census, 1905
2. 1900 United States Federal Census
3. 1910 United States Federal Census
4. New York, Abstracts of National Guard Service in WWI, 1917-1919
5. New York, Mexican Punitive Campaign Muster Rolls for National Guard, 1916-1917
6. New York, New Jersey Soldiers Serving in the New York National guard, 1918
7. New York, Abstracts of World War I Military Service, 1917-1919

New Jersey State Archives Searchable Database

1. World War I Casualties: Descriptive Cards and Photographs - Basil L. Smith
2. Basil L. Smith - Photo

The NY Military Museum and Veterans Research Center

1. Page 38 - A Short History and Illustrated Roster of the 105th Infantry, United States Army, By Col. James M. Andrews, 1917

Geneologybank.com

1. Vermont Honor Roll

Find A Grave Website

1. Basil L. Smith
2. Photo of the Tombstone