Sergeant York Pic

NARA's Today's Document twitter yesterday had a picture of Sergeant Alvin York who was the most decorated soldier of WWI.  He won the US Congressional Medal of Honor.  But here is an actual photo of him on the hill of his fame:

Sergeant Alvin C. York, 328th Infantry, who with aid of 17 men, captured 132 German prisoners; shows hill on which raid took place [October 8, 1918]. Argonne Forest, near Cornay, France., 02/07/1919

I knew he was a real person, but I was more familiar with the movie about him in 1941 with Gary Cooper playing York that won Cooper the Oscar for best actor.  The movie wasn't bad, but depicted York of course simplistically.  In real life he was more complex.  The movie depicted him as a conscientious objector, but really he seemed to waver.  He kept a diary during the war, and probably that would be fascinating to read.  And sure enough with a little searching online here is the link: http://acacia.pair.com/Acacia.Vignettes/The.Diary.of.Alvin.York.html

During part of the battle he recounts picking off men with bayonets:

In the middle of the fight a German officer and five men done jumped out of a trench and charged me with fixed bayonets. They had about twenty-five yards to come and they were coming right smart. I only had about half a clip left in my rifle; but I had my pistol ready. I done flipped it out fast and teched them off, too.

I teched off the sixth man first; then the fifth; then the fourth; then the third; and so on. That's the way we shoot wild turkeys at home. You see we don't want the front ones to know that we're getting the back ones, and then they keep on coming until we get them all. Of course, I hadn't time to think of that. I guess I jes naturally did it. I knowed, too, that if the front ones wavered, or if I stopped them the rear ones would drop down and pump a volley into me and get me.

Then I returned to the rifle, and kept right on after those machine guns. I knowed now that if I done kept my head and didn't run out of ammunition I had them. So I done hollered to them to come down and give up. I didn't want to kill any more'n I had to. I would tech a couple of them off and holler again. But I guess they couldn't understand my language, or else they couldn't hear me in the awful racket that was going on all around. Over twenty Germans were killed by this time.

He may have killed 20, but his sharpshooting enabled him to capture 132 prisoners.  And there he is on the hill where it happened.