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Remember...George Dayton Jackson
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George Dayton Jackson was born April 28, 1896, in Kingwood, West Virginia, the youngest of seven children born to Daniel and Rachel Martin Jackson. During his boyhood he was employed at a local store and was an athlete. At the time of the United States entry into World War I, George D. Jackson was a sergeant in Company G, 1st Regiment of the West Virginia National Guard at Kingwood.
Answering the call for military service in the war, Sergeant Jackson, upon discharge from the National Guard, went to the Army encampment in Fairmont. In August 1917 he was recommended for Officers Training School at Fort Benjamin Harrison. His devotion to study and duty resulted in graduation with honor. He was appointed a second lieutenant. After a short furlough, he was assigned to the 26th infantry, First Division of the AEF, commanded by Colonel Theodore Roosevelt Jr. He served with distinction until his death on May 27, 1918.
On the morning of May 27, 1918, Lieutenant Jackson was one of six officers and seventy-five men who had volunteered to enter a village in Cantigny, France, and silence a nest of German machine guns. This was the first offensive of the American Army. The platoon overcame two hundred Germans but was overpowered by enemy reinforcements. While leading his platoon in charging the machine gun nest, Lieutenant George Jackson was wounded. He died the following day in a field hospital in Flanders.
At first buried in Crevecoeur le Grand Oise in France, his body was later returned to the United States and buried in Marple Grove Cemetery in Kingwood in March 1921. Taking part in the tribute was the George D. Jackson Post of the American Legion, which had been named in his honor.
West Virginia Archives and History welcomes any additional information that can be provided about these veterans, including photographs, family names, letters and other relevant personal history.
