Charlie Cornelius Miller, son of Mrs. Emma Miller was born on January 23, 1893 in Canoe, Alabama and inducted into the US Army in Brewton on July 29, 1918. He was sent to Camp Sheridan in Montgomery, Alabama for induction and basic training. Afterwards, he was assigned to the 12th Company, Provisional Brigade and sent overseas on August 18, 1918. He boarded his ship and was immediately assigned the lowest deck with the worst ventilation and food. He arrived in France on August 22, 1918 and was assigned to the all African American 338th Labor Battalion in the "burial unit." Labor battalions were used extensively as support troops such as stevedores, trench construction, removing unexploded shells from fields, and clearing equipment and barbed wire. Charlie's specific unit had the grisly task of burying the bloated, decomposed, and mutilated bodies of soldiers killed in action. They worked 16-24 hours shifts without adequate food or housing and forced to sleep in barns and stables. They were also rarely provided opportunities for relaxation and recreation in nearby towns and villages like other soldiers. To make matters worst, Charlie happened to be in France at the height of the infamous "Spanish Influenza" that killed 30,000 soldiers in France alone. Many of the deaths were listed only as "pneumonia." So it happened that two months after his arrival, his wife Mrs. Annie May Miller received a telegram from the War Department announcing the death of Charlie from pneumonia on September 24, 1918. The family chose to have him buried in the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery in France where he rests today. Eleven years after his death, America authorized what became known as the "Mother's Pilgrimage" that sent over six thousand mothers of fallen solPensadier's to Europe to visit the graves of their sons. The pilgrimage was offered to the "mother or the unremarried widow" of any fallen serviceman. From 1930 to 1933, over 6,600 hundred mothers made the journey. Sadly, the mothers of these heroes were segregated, which in turn caused controversy within the groups of mothers. Some protested over the racial discrimination and refused to go at all, but 168 African-American women still chose to make the trip. Charlie's mother, Emma Miller was one of those women.
Induction orders for Private Charlie Cornelius Miller 7-29-1918
A labor battalion assigned to the burial details
A labor battalion assigned to the munitions detail
Mrs. Emma Miller Signs Up for the "Mother's Pilgrimage" for 1930
Special Passport for the WWI Gold Star Mother's Pilgrimage
Gold Star Mothers Making Their Pilgrimage 1930