World War I
-
Fallen

Fargo, ND

County:
Stutsman

Date of Loss:

Branch of Service:
Army

Rank:
Pvt.

Company / Ship / Flight or equivalent:
Medical Detachment, 7th Inf Regt, 3rd Division

Medals and Honors:
Distinguished Service Cross

Circumstances:

Killed in action on Oct. 5, 1918.

Buried Grave 16, Row 16, Block C, Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, Romagne-sous-Montfaucon, Meuse, France.

Name included on the All Veterans Memorial at State Capitol in Bismarck ND.

Information found in Volume 1, page 70 of the Official Roster of North Dakota Soldiers, Sailors and Marines.

Biography:

Registered Stutsman county. Born, Purple Grove, Ontario, Nov. 24, 1888. Naturalized citizen. Occupation - clerk. Inducted at Jamestown on Feb. 6, 1918. Sent to Fort Riley, Kans. Served in Casual Detachment, Medical Officers Training Camp, to Feb. 12, 1918; Evacuation Hospital No. 12, Medical Officers Training Camp, to May 1, 1918;Medical Detachment, Fort Riley 3rd Automatic Replacement Draft, to June 28, 1918; Army Postoffice No. 726, Central Officers' Depot, Service of Supply, AEF, to July 2, 1918; Headquarter, 3rd Division Regiment, AEF, Office of Division Surgeon, to July 24, 1918; Medical Detachment, 7th Infantry, to death. Overseas from June 11, 1918, to death. Engagements: Defensive: Champagne-Marne. Offensives: Aisen-Marne; St. Mihiel; Meuse-Argonne. Defensive Sector: Chateau-Thierry (Champagne). Awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, in General Orders No. 10, War Department, Washington, Feb. 12, 1919, for extraordinary heroism north of Clerges, France, Oct. 5, 1918. While attending wounded under fire of artillery and machine guns, Private Anderson, although himself wounded, continued to render first aid to the wounded while subject to fire, until mortally wounded by machine-gun fire. Cited in General Orders No. 22, Headquarters, 3rd Division, AEF, July 8, 1919. The Commanding General desires to record in General Orders the valor and devotion to duty of these officers and men of the 3rd Division. Their individual deeds, summed up, have created that glorious record enjoyed by the Marne Division, from those unforgetable days at Chateau-Thierry, in the defense of Paris, the Victory Drive which began on the banks of the Marne and continued relentlessly until its brilliant conclusion in the Argonne before Sedan. Anderson, Fletcher D., Private, was killed by a sniper while administering first aid to a wounded man in plain sight of the enemy at Clerges, France, Oct. 5, 1918, during the battle of the Meuse-Argonne. This was one of the many incidents that this man exposed himself to the enemy without orders from his commanding officers, to dress the wounded.