Spotlight #3: First Infantry Vermont National Guard Machine Gun Co.

These photos and the accompanying caption were originally posted to our Facebook page (link to external site) on November 11, 2022.

Happy Veterans Day to all who have served our country. We recognize the sacrifices you have made and thank you for your service and dedication.

This photo from the SAM archives depicts the members of the First Infantry Vermont National Guard Machine Gun Co. on April 6th, 1917, shortly before departing for Fort Ethan Allen. 18 of its 45 members were high school students, and the average age of the unit was just 22 years old. After undergoing basic training at Fort Ethan Allen, the "St. Albans boys," as they came to be known, arrived in France on October 6th, 1917.

Their first major battle took place on June 16th, 1918, in Xivray, a French town along the front. In a 1928 American Legion Monthly article by Marquis James, the battle was described as: “After a night of clashes between patrols, random machine gunning and miscellaneous excitement the Germans dropped a wicked barrage upon the ruins of Xivray-Marvoison. Company D held a good share of Xivray-Marvoison. At the first crack of dawn, the German infantry in three parallel columns threw itself upon the Yank positions... The boy machine gunners were going to get the brunt of the attack... The guns were well set for enfilading fire. The gray German silhouettes showed through the mist and the gunners let them have it... The dead piled up before the emplacements. The attack failed.” After this battle, 15 of the St. Albans boys received citations for bravery, and the unit would go on to fight in other key battles, including the Second Battle of the Marne and the Battle of Saint-Mihiel.

By the end of the war on November 11th, 1918, just 18 members of the unit remained, the rest having been wounded or killed. After returning home, many of the survivors remained in St. Albans.