Private Ross Perry Buried at Shiloh
submitted by GwenMcReynolds
PRIVATE ROSS PERRY BURIED AT SHILOH
The largest crowd that ever attended a funeral service in Bradford was present yesterday at the funeral of Private Ross B. Perry. Ross Perry paid the supreme sacrifice while in action near Premont, France October 8th 1918. He was a member of Company D. 115th Infantry of the famous 30th Division.
He was in that never-to-be-forgotten drive against the Hindenburg line, the line that the Germans thought to be impregnable, and on September 29th and 30th helped to shatter this line and not only the Hindenburg line, but the German Kaiser's hopes of World Power.
He not only fought like an American soldier in the drive on the Hindenburg line, but played his part wherever duty called. From the time he went under fire near Poperinge, Belgium July 4th, 1918 through the stubborn defensive and in the well-know Ypres sector, and in the bloody drive for freedom on Kemmel Hill, he fought for America as only an American soldier can fight. And then near Amiens, October 8th, 1918, while fighting for civilization, he was killed, and laid to rest in the soil which he had helped to regain.
When our boys came marching home with the laurels of victory on their brows and shouts of praise and welcome to their ears, Ross Perry did not come. He was part of the price that victory had cost us. Although his body rested peacefully in the land he had helped to save, the United States Government brought the body back home.
The remains arrived here Saturday morning and were take in charge by the local post of the American Legion.
It was fitting and deserving tribute to Ross Perry that his comrades when they came back home should organize a Post of the American Legion and name it the Ross B. Perry Post. It was this organization, composed of his chums before the war and his comrades during the war, that gave him such a burial that a General might covet.
The firing squad, composed of local ex-service men, followed by a long line of khaki-clad soldiers headed the procession to the church. Here they stood "at attention" while the pallbearers, Atkins Boone, Perd Bolton, N.D. Gray, E.V. McCartney, A.B. Mathis, James McFadden and Vernon Griffin, men under the same command with Ross Perry, carried his body to the last trip to a church service. With bowed heads these young veterans listened to the story of the Man of Galilee, delivered by the Rev. W. H. Williams.
And then came the march to the cemetery at Shiloh. Every foot of this journey had been covered many times by Ross Perry; he was at home again; he climbed the same hills. Here were all the old familiar scenes he knew in boyhood. Ah! did Ross Perry know that he was home again? Did he know that there were the hands of friends that carried him so gently and lovingly?
The long procession reached the grave. While gentle hands lowered the casket into its damp bed, Chaplain J. W. Blackard of Jackson, Tenn., committed the body to earth. The firing squad fired three volleys of shots. An the last taps were sounded (by Bugler Carl Doran of Greenfield, Tenn.,) sending their notes across the old familiar valleys, letting their solemn echoes die on beloved hills, while Ross Perry's body rested on the bosom of his native soil. At home he sleeps his last long sleep.
The immense crowd that followed the body to the grave, the beautiful floral offers, the honor paid by the Ross Perry Post, all testify of the love and esteem the people of this community had for its brave soldier.
Much of the success of this splendid tribute is due the local chapter of the American Red Cross and L. H. Waldrop, adjutant, and G. D. McCain, post commander of the local post of the American Legion.
29 April 1921 HERALD DEMOCRACT