PVT Thomas Raymond
Thomas Raymond was born in Clito, GA on May 10, 1894. He was the son of unknown parents who were also from GA, both of which most likely having been laborers/ sharecroppers. Thomas also had siblings, a brother named James Raymond and sister by the name of Verda Trimble, after taking on the name of her husband (unknown). When Thomas was old enough to make a living for himself, he moved to Statesboro, GA, where he became a sharecropper, working for Murat Mikell.
Thomas officially entered the service on March 6, 1918, becoming one of several hundred thousand African American draftees during the war. He reported to Camp Gordon for initial Army training. Once Thomas completed his training he was shipped to Europe with his unit, the 514th Engineer Battalion on the ship called the Matsonia. The unit Thomas was with did not see the frontlines, as their primary role was providing support to the main forces who were in combat. This support, especially for an all-African American engineer service battalion, came in the form of building/maintaining infrastructure such as roads, railways, and trenches, as well as providing a source the Army with a source of general labor. Unfortunately, conditions were not the best at this time, with many servicemen becoming deathly ill with diseases such as Pneumonia, as was the case with Thomas, succumbing to it on July 25, 1918, at the age of 24.
Thomas was buried in France, first being placed in a temporary wartime grave that same year. Several years after the end of the war in 1920, his remains were moved to a permanent resting place, the Saint Mihiel American Cemetery, where they remain to this very day.
African American Stevedores commonly employed in construction, maintenance, and unloading supplies
Works Cited
National Archives Catalog. Series: Card Register of Burials of Decease American Soldiers, 1917-1922, Rabe-Reeder. Accessed March 7, 2024. National Archives NextGen Catalog
Ancestry Library. Thomas Raymond in the U.S., Army Transport Arriving and Departing Passenger Lists, 1910-1939. Accessed March 7, 2024. U.S., Army Transport Service Arriving and Departing Passenger Lists, 1910-1939 - AncestryLibrary.com
Ancestry Library. Thomas Raymond in the Georgia, U.S., World War I Service Cards, 1917-1919. Accessed March 2, 2024. Georgia, U.S., World War I Service Cards, 1917-1919 - AncestryLibrary.com
Ancestry Library. Tom Raymond in the U.S. World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Accessed March 2, 2024. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 - AncestryLibrary.com
Ancestry Library. PVT Thomas Raymond in the Global find a Grave Index for Burials at Sea and other Select Burial Locations, 1300s-Current. Accessed March 2, 2024. Global, Find a Grave® Index for Burials at Sea and other Select Burial Locations, AncestryLibrary.com
Binkin, Martin, and Mark J Eitelberg. Blacks and the Military. Wahington DC: The Brooklings Institution, 1982. ProQuest Ebook Central – Reader