Culbertson, Tingle Woods

Born January 15, 1886, at Echo Point, near Wheeling, West Virginia. Son of John D. and Sallie T. Culbertson. Home, Sewickley, Pennsylvania. Educated Hill School, Pottstown, Pennsylvania, and Princeton University, Class of 1911. Business, National Tube Company, Pittsburgh. Joined American Field Service, March 11, 1916; attached Section One to November 16, 1916. On torpedoed Sussex en route to France, 1916. Returned to America. Enlisted U. S. Infantry; trained Fort Niagara, New York. Commissioned First Lieutenant, attached 318th Regiment. To France with 80th Division. Killed in action, October 4, 1918, near Bois des Ogons, north of Nantillois, Argonne. Buried American Cemetery, Romagne-sous-Montfaucon, Meuse.

"TRULY none but the bravest of noble men could have had the determination and the physical strength and the nerve to lead a front platoon into what he knew was awaiting him at that place," wrote a friend of "Ting" Culbertson, describing the way the latter led his company up Hill 274, in the Meuse-Argonne offensive, October 4, 1918.

In that advance the Lieutenant was killed, but his spirit went marching on, as one of his privates testified in the following words: "Such an influence as the Lieutenant had cannot end, but has left its impress on every man, and his name will be on the tongues of our children's children for what he meant to his men."

"Ting" Culbertson felt the full force of the principles for which he fought. Early in March, 1916, he went to France to join the Field Service, being upon the Sussex when she was torpedoed in the Channel. He served a year with Section One of the ambulance service, for the most part in the long battle around Verdun. Culbertson returned home in November and subsequently went into training at the officers' camp at Fort Niagara. Soon he was back in France with the Eightieth Division, in the 318th Regiment of Infantry.

Major J. C. Wise has described graphically the battle in which Culbertson lost his life, in a letter to the Lieutenant's parents:

"At 5.45 A.M. your son led his company's advance platoon against the enemy. As the battalion jumped off, the counter barrage fell upon us, literally tearing the forward platoon to shreds. But the rear wave kept on toward the Bois des Ogons. Passing over a gentle crest, we met a tremendous barrage, and those who entered the Woods were unable to hold their ground, falling back to the crest. Somewhere between the crest and the woods your son was last seen advancing. Of my sixteen officers four were killed and nine wounded.

I consider it an honor to have commanded your son. I shall write no eulogy of his character. I admired him as a man, trusted him as an officer, liked him as a comrade in arms, and know that he was greatly beloved by his fellow officers and men. Once I had occasion to reprove him most harshly. His bearing was what it should have been had he been really at fault. I later discovered that he assumed knowingly the blame due his company commander. I shall regret all the days of my life that an opportunity never presented itself when I might without prejudice to discipline convey my amended understanding to him."

The nonchalant and characteristic attitude Culbertson displayed toward discomforts that overtook him in war is evidenced whimsically in the following extract from one of his letters: "Turning off the main road we took a trail through the woods, ankle deep with mud. About an hour before daylight we reached our camping place. I rolled up in a blanket under a tree. It was cold and water was coming down through the leaves, but I was soon asleep. Trifle wet when I woke up in the morning, but that was a usual matter. This is a hard outfit by now and little things like sleeping on wet ground in the rain have long ceased to trouble us."

In the letter from an officer in the same company, Lieutenant Petters, the writer said that the men of Culbertson's command wept when informed of his death . "They lost an officer who had endeared himself to them during their period of training by his personality and conduct and had inspired them during combat by his leadership and personal example."

• Tribute from Memorial Volume of the American Field Service, 1921