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* ''ur. y I.- iU ^la una►.I1rst!PRIVATE RICHARD STIERHEIMirhrclP*n* !11IPslt;fi..JIItl i3Philadelphia'sOwn’» 1:aLaudsOne-time_ itsetter asn\\atcReturned on Santa Rosa, Re-U, V Ivenerated, to Await Actionon Court-martial*totoVburgh, conscientious objector mid self-tPrivate Richard Stierheim, of Pitts- t21 II■mtcame, being regenerated, a man amongone i dconfessed deserter, came home yesterday to the land ho had repudiated. Her? 1 ' na figure almost revered b and all of the 4., officers ami If 117 en-iiien.listed men of the Sloth Infantry, whoobtained their first view of ”Ci*d\set Ycountry through the mists of an early JMemorial J ay mo-ning as the truos- j tport Santa Rosa steamed up the Dela-tware.Yet. although Private Stierheim re- j 1•ytturned a hero Yvhere once he was an lt;outcast who gladly would have traded 1♦his existence with the most lowly ofpariah dogs, there is still hanging over1£his head the fearsome verdict of amilitary court-martial before which liewas tried on the grave charge of wileful desertion in time of war.I i :■ •T^lie verdict of the court has been filed with the Mar Department in Washington for many months, and it is upon the department's disposition ofthe case that the fate of Private Stier-1lt;ii11heim hangs. It may bo decreed that *he suffer the supreme penalty, death before a firing squad.s;ft,1May Get Highest Award1Rut. to carry his theoretical futureto the other extreme. Private Stior-f(heim is just as likely to be awarded Isthe Congressional Medal of Honor, the ii . ihighest citation within the gift of theAmerican republic. This* is inevitablemblamethe event that he is absolved fromfor the scruples that prompted! «him to desert his comrades in the hourof the greatest need, almost on the eve of the great Argoflne-Meuse offen-isive.For there is not a cowardly bone inthe six-foot, hulking frame of* thisrriant, whose attitude toward the taking of human life Yvas at qUce incomprehensible and revolting to the average doughboy until he * saw him go into action for the first time, on OctoberI21) lastHe did not carry a rifle; neither didheoperate a machine gun, nor yet a* . \ • 111 J £ /v* _typewriter in some shell-proof offieemiles from the front. Private Stior-lieim’s self-imposed mission, after the heat* of battle had gotten into his blood, was none other tb the carrying of innumerable bucket., of water to his beleaguered comrades on the front line, hisI]]route taking him through a shell-infested region in whieh it did not seempossible a human being could venture and still live.CharmedWorkENot once, but many times, at any hour of the day or night, from October, 29 until the signing of the arrai- j stice. this man, Yvhom few knew and I none loved, rushed loyally to the aid of those whose only Yvord hitherto had been a curse. Rut they did not cursehim now as they watched him coming |toward them, a bucket of the precious! water in either hand, now disappearing; into' a shell hole, when the machine guns became too active, now obliter-ated by the spume of a bursting shell,! only to reappear when the dust anu debris settled to earth, a stark, indomitable figure, a man with a charmed life..whom the gods had decreed shouldsurvive that he might live down the stigma that the entire Seventy-ninthDivision knew to be his.But that was not all. Private Stierheim employed a system that was not ingenious, but which served a dual purpose. He went out to the treirrhes with buckets of water; he came back j laden with the wounded, not in the conventional stretcher-bearing manner, but across his stalwart shoulders. •That is how Private Stierkeim won his way into the hearts of his fellow-soldiers after a troublous military ca-at■ - r ■■ ■■ - - ■ • ,4Continued on J^th Page, 2d Col.
Newspaper Details
Philadelphia Inquirer
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US
Sat, May 31, 1919
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
AK, USA 26 Sep 2021
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