He sent ‘a kiss from France,’ then died one month before the armistice
Barbara Miller/Observer-Reporter
David Ritchie mailed this hand-embroidered postcard from France to family members, who have kept it in pristine condition. The Canadian flag of that era is displayed on the right. The United States entered the war two years and eight months after Canada, which was then part of the British Empire.
Barbara S. Miller/Observer-Reporter
This tribute to David Ritchie’s memory from the people of France notes his sacrifice on their behalf.
Barbara Miller/Observer-Reporter
Ralph F. Mueller holds a copy of the banner that hangs in Finleyville’s business district to recognize his late wife’s uncle, David A. Ritchie, one of the World War I veterans for whom Morrison-Ritchie American Legion Post 613 is named.
Barbara Miller/Observer-Reporter
David Ritchie, photographed in civilian clothes, died in France exactly one month before the armistice.
Barbara Miller/Observer-Reporter
Ralph F. Mueller checks a book about the Western Front in the office of his home in Finleyville.
Barbara S. Miller/Observer-Reporter
Pictured separately are David Allen Ritchie, his wife, Rhoda Belle Byers Ritchie, who outlived him by only three years, and their baby, Violet Virginia Ritchie.
The doughboy took pencil in hand, writing a letter to his mother from a trench “somewhere in France” and referring to a flurry of eight letters from home that arrived all at once.
“But it will be some time before I get a chance to answer them,” the soldier wrote, likely never knowing the “some time” to which he was referring would literally be an eternity.
Because, eight days later, in the Argonne Forest of France, he was dead – killed in action.
The doughboy was David A. Ritchie, and his letter, dated Oct. 3, 1918, were the last words his mother, Sadie (also known as Sarah) McLaughlin Ritchie, ever heard from him.
Ritchie, who last resided in New Eagle, served in the U.S. Army’s 320th Infantry Regiment, 80th Division, known as the Blue Ridge Division.
In what proved to be his final communication, he had important news: “Well the other day I was made corporal. My corporal got wounded in the back. It was only a slight wound.”
The American Battle Monuments Commission website lists Ritchie’s date of death as Oct. 11, 1918, and notes that he is “commemorated in perpetuity” at Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, Romagne-sous-Montfaucon, France, which contains the largest number of military dead in Europe: 14,246.
Although his family calls him a corporal, the battlefield promotion apparently didn’t register with the military, because the commission website lists him as a private.
Another source lists his date of death as Oct. 12, 1918.
Sometime before he became embroiled in combat in what proved to be a decisive Allied offensive, he sent an exquisite, hand-embroidered postcard, that, in its pure whiteness and embossed paper frame, was unsullied by the muck that marked trench warfare.
Perhaps it was a handkerchief that he purchased and mailed before he was sent to the front. His family has never unfolded it, but has preserved it for a century exactly as it arrived in Washington County.
“My late wife, this was her side of the family, her father’s family,” said Ralph Mueller of Finleyville, who shared the story of David A. Ritchie’s short life. “We did not get all the information we would have liked to have had.”
David Ritchie was part of Mueller’s father-in-law’s side of the family. Ritchie’s parents were former residents of Coalburg, Ohio, near Warren, who later moved to Finleyville.
In the upheaval of global conflict and lack of communication, David Ritchie’s fate remained in doubt for some time, leaving his family in agony.
In reply to an April letter, the central records office of the Adjutant General H.M. Kelly, American Expeditionary Forces in France, wrote June 3, 1919, to Ritchie’s sister, Violet, that her brother was reported missing in action Oct. 11, 1918.
“I very much regret to inform you that no further report has been received in this office concerning the above mentioned soldier,” Kelly concluded.
“For years, we didn’t know for sure that he had married,” said Mueller, who retired from the Pennsylvania National Guard as a lieutenant colonel and who has kept meticulous documentation about Ritchie, plus books about American troops’ offensive in France that turned the tide of the war and led to the defeat of the Germans and Austro-Hungarians.
Ritchie’s wife, the former Rhoda Belle Byers of New Eagle, sought information about her husband, and received a letter from the American Red Cross, Washington, D.C., in June 1919.
“We regret to say that we have no definite news to give you,” wrote W.R. Castle Jr. “We are merely informed that Private Ritchie died of wounds in a hospital.
“We very much fear that no details will be available through this office since our Paris office is now closed. … Please believe that you have our very deep sympathy and we are very sorry not to be able to do more for you.”
A year after this exchange, the Monongahela Republican newspaper published an article, July 3, 1920, with the headline, “MISSING IN ACTION: NO RECORD OF HIS GRAVE.”
The family name is misspelled “Richey,” but the article was undoubtedly correct when it says the uncertainty “makes the present sorrow unbearable …
“The family and the local committee for soldier relief have been bending every effort to get some tangible information.
“When it is realized what an infinitesimal part of the army one individual was, it can be readily seen how (easy) it would be to lose a man in the heat of action.”
Mueller’s family has preserved the clippings in a binder.
“They just disintegrated as you handled it,” he said of the nearly century-old newsprint pages.
Rhoda Belle Byers Ritchie, and their daughter, Violet Virginia Ritchie, continued to live in New Eagle, but the child was orphaned when her mother died Dec. 31, 1922. An Army insurance director identified Violet Virginia’s legal guardian as B.E. Teeple, the recipient of a $10,000 war risk insurance policy.
Ritchie’s family has lost track of his daughter.
“The child, she visited once my wife’s parents up the street, probably in the 1960s,” Mueller said.
Gold Star Mothers – those whose offspring have died in service to their country, including Sadie Ritchie – made a pilgrimage abroad in 1931 so they could visit, under the auspices of the American War Mothers organization, cemeteries in Europe.
A decade later, and just 23 years after the armistice of the “War to End All Wars,” American service members would be headed back to Europe and another front, the Pacific.
The American Battle Monuments Commission, in memorial entries on its website, quotes Gen. John J. “Black Jack” Pershing, general of the armies and commander of the American Expeditionary Force on the Western Front.
Pershing promised, “Time will not dim the glory of their deeds,” which is inscribed at the base of an eagle sculpture sundial at the center of the St. Mihiel American Cemetery and Memorial in France.
That can be said of Ritchie’s hometown.
Morrison-Ritchie American Legion Post 613, Finleyville, is named for him and the friend, David Morrison Jr., he mentioned in the long-ago letter. When Ritchie wrote about Morrison, little did he know that his friend had less than a week to live. Morrison was also killed in action in the Argonne Forest.
Morrison was a corporal with the Army’s M 319th Infantry. He was born in 1896 and died in 1918.
The post bearing their names was chartered Nov. 4, 1932.
Ritchie’s and Morrison’s portraits are part of the post’s Facebook page, depictions of banners that were made to display in the Finleyville business district.
As the centennial of World War I’s anniversary neared, Mueller said of the banners, “That started off about four years ago because we knew David Ritchie and David Morrison, the two were lost. They were killed on almost the same day in the same area.”
David A. Ritchie’s last letter home, dated Oct. 3, 1918, and written in pencil
Dear Mother,
Just a line to let you know that I am well and hope every body there are the same. Well at present there is a big drive going on, in which me took part. We were in it four days and at present we are in a trench, resting up and going to get some clothes and things we need.
Well the other day I was made corporal. My corporal got wounded in the back. It was only a slight wound.
I seen Charles Carrol and Dave Morrison last night. They are alright. Well yesterday I received your money order and picture and letters and also received eight letters and a card. But it will be some time before I get a chance to answer them. Has Ed Bailey left camp yet? Send him my address, so he can write. Well I can’t think of anything more to say. So I guess I will close. Good Bye. I remain your loving son, Dave.