Decorations Earned by Members of the 2nd Infantry Division in World War I
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Medal of Honor 18
Distinguished Service Cross 722
Navy Cross 430
Distinguished Service Medal 32
Navy Distinguished Service Medal 9
Silver Star Citation / Silver Star Medal 7,786
British Distinguished Service Order 2
Legion of Honor 59
French Order of the Black Star 1
French Medaille Militaire 50
French Croix de Guerre w/palm 454
French de Guerre w/gold star 730
French Croix de Guerre w/silver star 1,064
French Croix de Guerre w/bronze star 1,460
French Croix de Guerre device not listed 1
Belgian Order of Leopold 2
Belgian Order of Leopold II 2
Belgian Order of the Crown 3
Belgian Croix de Guerre 10
Italian Order of the Cross 1
Italian War Cross 22
Portuguese War Cross 3rd Class 4
Romanian Order of the Star 1
Montenegrin Order of Prince Danilo I 3
Montenegrin Silver Medal for Valor 10
Panamanian Medal La Solidaridad 9
Total Awards 12,885
This book has 141 pages
ISBN 978-1-932891-73-7
Library of Congress
Control Number Pending
Order of Battle
2nd Division Headquarters Troop
3rd Infantry Brigade
9th Infantry
23rd Infantry
4th Marine Brigade
5th Marines
6th Marines
4th Machine Gun Battalion
5th Machine Gun Battalion
6th Marine Machine Gun Battalion
2nd Artillery Brigade
12th Field Artillery
15th Field Artillery
17th Field Artillery
2nd Trench Mortar Battery
2nd Engineers
1st Field Signal Battalion
2nd Train Headquarters & Military Police
2nd Supply Train
2nd Ammunition Train
2nd Engineer Train
2nd Sanitary Train
Field Hospital No. 1
Field Hospital No. 15
Field Hospital No. 16
Field Hospital No. 23
Ambulance Company No. 1
Ambulance Company No. 15
Ambulance Company No. 16
Ambulance Company No. 23
Campaign Credits
Aisne
Aisne-Marne
St. Mihiel
Meuse-Argonne
Defensive Sector
This work includes
decorations, citations, and orders issued to members of the 2nd
Infantry Division for service during World War I, as published in The
Second Division American Expeditionary Forces in France, 1917-1919,
published by Hilman Press, New York, New York in 1937. Please note that some
decorations presented to members of the 2nd Infantry Division may
have been awarded after the original book was compiled. I have made no
attempt to list those who were wounded, killed, unit awards or battle
credits.
The majority of
decorations awarded to members of the 2nd Infantry Division were
citations. These Silver Star Citations after 1932 could be converted into
the Silver Star Medal. It is important to remember that not every citation
issued during World War I, warranted the Silver Star Medal. Therefore, it is
important to consult each citation to insure that it meets the “Gallantry in
Action” requirement. Another important issue when dealing with World War I
Citations is to realize that a solider could have been cited by his brigade
commander, divisional commander and by General Pershing for the same action
and their three citations only warrant one Silver Star Medal, because the
citations are for the same action. Likewise if the soldier or marine was
cited and was later presented with the Distinguished Service Cross of the
same action, the Distinguished Service Cross superceded their citation/s and
no Silver Star Medal was authorized. This is why it is important to locate
each citation and review the text not only to see if it meets the “Gallantry
in Action” requirement but also to see if any other citation superceded it.
Since Oak Leaf Clusters were not used to denote additional citations until the creation of the Silver Star Medal in 1932, the source does not mention them. I have noted when I believe that the citation recipient may be entitled to an Oak Leaf Cluster. This normally occurred when they were mentioned in more then one citation. The number of Oak Leaf Clusters noted in this work only represents the number of times the solider was cited; it does not represent the number of Oak Leaf Clusters the solider or marine is entitled to.
I do plan to continue to search for the World War I general orders as my research time allows. However this reference should prove to be very useful in identifying World War I Silver Stars. The original source is excellent but its arrangement makes it very time consuming to use, unless you already know the rank status and unit of assignment of the man in question. However most of the time we don’t have any information other than a name, and an alphabetical listing is more efficient.
Every effort has been made to minimize errors and misspelled names. An error may be attributable to the source document, or may have occurred while transcribing the names/units. Some of the original documents are of very poor print quality, making them difficult to decipher.