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Send the Alabamians recounts the story of the 167th Infantry
Regiment of the WWI Rainbow Division from their recruitment to
their valiant service on the bloody fields of eastern France in the
climactic final months of World War I. To mark the centenary of
World War I, Send the Alabamians tells the remarkable story of a
division of Alabama recruits whose service Douglas MacArthur
observed had not "been surpassed in military history." The book
borrows its title from a quip by American General Edward H. Plummer
who commanded the young men during the inauspicious early days of
their service. Impressed with their ferocity and esprit de corps
but exasperated by their rambunctiousness, Plummer reportedly
exclaimed: In time of war, send me all the Alabamians you can get,
but in time of peace, for Lord's sake, send them to somebody else!
The ferocity of the Alabamians, so apt to get them in trouble at
home, proved invaluable in the field. At the climactic Battle of
Croix Rouge, the hot-blooded 167th exhibited unflinching valor and,
in the face of machine guns, artillery shells, and poison gas,
sustained casualty rates over 50 percent to dislodge and repel the
deeply entrenched and heavily armed enemy. Relying on extensive
primary sources such as journals, letters, and military reports,
Frazer draws a vivid picture of the individual soldiers who served
in this division, so often overlooked but critical to the war's
success. After Gettysburg, the Battle of Croix Rouge is the most
significant military engagement to involve Alabama soldiers in the
state's history. Families and genealogists will value the full
roster of the 167th that accompanies the text. Richly researched
yet grippingly readable, Nimrod T. Frazer's Send the Alabamians
will delight those interested in WWI, the World Wars, Alabama
history, or southern military history in general. Historians of the
war, regimental historians, military history aficionados, and those
interested in previously unexplored facets of Alabama history will
prize this unique volume as well.
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