Tennessee’s Sergeant Alvin York (1887 – 1964), of the Eighty-Second Division, was truly one of the great American heroes of World War I and this four page article from The Literary Digest recounts his brave deeds as well as his glorious trip to New York City where he was luxuriated at the Waldorf Astoria and feted by the swells of Gotham.
“For a hectic half-hour this Tennessee hill-country blacksmith was the vortex of a swarm of photographers, reporters, movie-camera men, and members of the reception committee, all of these last fighting for the privilege of carrying some part of the dunnage that Sergeant York bore on his flat shoulders for many a weary mile in French mud.”
In 1928, New Yorkers would rename Tenth Avenue to York Avenue.
At the end of the article you will find a poem by Richard Butler Glaenzer (1876-1937) titled, A Ballad of Redheads Day, which celebrates Sergeant York and that day in the Argonne.
