History of the
4th Trench Mortar Battalion, C.A.C.
During WWI
The American Trench Mortar units typically used the French 58mm - No. 2 Mortar, the 6-inch Newton Mortar or the 240mm Heavy Mortar.
The Trench Mortar Men had a song that they sang and it went like this:
You can sing of the glory of death on the lyre,
Of ar-e-o-planes for their swank,
Prefer to pass out to the fumes of the gas,
Or give up your life in a tank.
But I’ll sing to you of a job that is new,
A job worse than any disease,
A job where your coffin is ever in view,
Or you can die any death that you please.
Working on Fifty-Eight Two's,
You can die any death that you choose.
Get hit by a shell, the gas gives you hell,
Grenades wake you up when you snooze.
But your family is proud of you now,
They are sure to collect that ten thou’
Ten days to each man is the average span,
Working on mortars, those jolly trench mortars,
Those damnable Fifty-Eight Two's.
4th Trench Mortar Battalion Roster
As I find information on men of the 4th TM Bn I will list them here. If you have a family member who served in this unit please contact me.
Sgt. Lester O. Boggs - Lincoln, NE. Born Goodland, KS Jan. 11, 1897. Son of Adelaide and William Boggs. Entered the service May 3, 1917. 3rd Co., Coast Artillery Corps. Overseas from Oct. 1918 to Jan. 1919, with Battery A, 4th Trench Mortar Battalion.
Merrill Glenn Mackey, Battery B- Merrill Glenn Mackey was born on 24 February 1902 in Charter Oak, Iowa. He was the eldest son of Charles Jackson Mackey (b. 16 July 1878 in Agra, Kansas, d. 21 March 1926 in Charter Oak, Iowa) and Grace Maude Mulheron (b. 21 December 1884 in Charter Oak, Iowa) Charles and Grace were married 27 February 1901 in Charter Oak, Iowa and together they had 5 children, Merrill Glenn, Harvey Earl, Thelma Lucile, Lawrence Andrew and Charles Arthur. Charles Jackson Mackey was a Mason by trade.
Merrill worked in the Local drug store in Charter Oak from age twelve until he entered the army. According to the daughter of Merrill Glenn Mackey, Jane Pinkerton of Burbank, California, Merrill ran away from home when he was fifteen and enlisted in the army at Fort Logan Colorado. Jane relates, "He trained at Fort McArthur California and was overseas from October 1918 to January 1919. He was with Battery B, 4th Trench Mortar Battalion, which was an unattached group. He said that when they got to France, the Germans were in retreat out of range of their cannons so they did not unload their equipment from the train cars. Consequently, this group, according to my father, was among the first to return to the US. My father arrived back home in time for his 17th birthday."
After Merrill's return from France he went back to Charter Oak, Iowa and lived with his parents and 3 other siblings. Merrill’s younger brother, Lawrence Andrew Mackey died in 1919 from a strep infection. The story in the family was that Lawrence stayed alive to see his oldest brother Merrill return safely home from France. Merrill’s brother, Harvey Mackey is still alive at age 101 (as of 1 April 2006). Merrill then finished High School and then attended Morningside College for two years. He paid his way by borrowing on his military insurance, a loan from his sister, and waiting tables at the boarding house where he lived. After two years at Morningside, he went to Des Moines and attended pharmacy school for two years. The school eventually became part of Drake University College of Pharmacy. In 1932 Merrill and Naomi purchased two drug stores in Wall Lake. They combined the two stores into one and maintained the business until 1962 when they sold it. After that Merrill was a "relief" pharmacist for another twenty years. By the time he died in 1996, he knew most everyone in west central Iowa.
On 10 June 1929 Merrill G. Mackey and Naomi Ruby Chalberg (b. 10 June 1904 in Pocahontas, Iowa) were married in Nashua, Iowa. In 1930 Merrill worked as a clerk in a drug store in Charter Oak, Iowa. The home they lived in was a rented house in which the monthly rent was $22 and Merrill and Naomi had one of the few luxuries in the home, which was a radio set that Merrill built himself.
Merrill lived the rest of his life in Iowa and when he passed away was living in Wall Lake, Iowa. He died there on 6 July 1996 at the age of 94 years.
This page was first up-loaded on 8 March, 2003 and Last modified on:
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