Ernest Camon
As was the case with many African American veterans, there is little documented information about Ernest Camon. He was born sometime in 1899 and raised by his grandmother, Mary Wilson, from his infancy. They lived in an area known as as the "Hagin District." Ernest enlisted into the US Army with the Quartermaster's Department as a Private at Fort McPherson on Oct. 30th, 1917. He was 17 years of age at the time. He left for Europe aboard the George Washington on December 4th, 1917. Camon served in Com. A 303 Stevedore Regiment and Co. I. 302nd Stevedores, which was attached to General Pershing's Expeditionary Forces.
Camon died only twenty-seven days later of bronchopneumonia, making him not only among the 34,000 American soldiers to die from an illness during the conflict, but he was also among the 778 African American men to die overseas. He was buried in Savenay, France as part of a graveyard for foreign soldiers. Ernest’s corpse was later exhumed in October 1920 and returned to his grandmother in Lyons, GA.
Works Cited
Dexter Allen American Auxiliary. Box 1, Folder 5. "List of Bulloch County WWI Dead," Zach S. Henderson Library Special Collections, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA.
United States Military: Office of the Quartermaster General. “World War 1 Card Register of Burials of Deceased American Soldiers: Number 315 Ernest Camon.” National Archives Catalog. Accessed May 3, 2024.
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/108999337?objectPage=315.
US Census Bureau. “Ernest Camon: World War 1 Service Card.” Ancestry Library Edition. Accessed May 3, 2024. https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/family- tree/person/tree/165677537/person/352174478025/facts?tab=0.