Special Collections, Gettysburg College’s archive, is home to a rich variety of college documents. One collection I have been spending quite a bit of time with lately is the World War One Service Questionnaires. Two separate projects compiled by a college professor, Dr. Hagen, and the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, sought to catalog the actions of Gettysburg College Students during the World War. Today, Special Collections has a rich cross-section of the many ways Gettysburgians served at the front and at home during the war. As is to be expected from a Lutheran-affiliated college, many served as chaplains in France and in stateside army camps throughout the country. Many also served as doctors, medics, and other medical personnel. A good number, however, chose active combat branches of the service. This series, “Students at War,” will feature the varied experiences of Gettysburgians at war.
German Bomb Proofs in the Argonne Forest, 1918. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress. Photograph Collection.
George Poffenberger, Pennsylvania(Gettysburg) College, Class of 1911.
Poffenberger left school his junior year for unknown reasons and never graduated. Because of this, there are no photographs of him in the college spectrum and I have been unable to locate a photo of him anywhere else. When the war came, Poffenberger served in the National Guard in the 28th Division. He fought at Belleau Wood, Chateau-Thierry, and the Argonne. On October 3, 1918, Poffenberger was struck by shrapnel in the ankle. He refused to be evacuated until others more severely wounded were treated. By the time the stretcher bearers had evacuated the other men, a German barrage trapped Poffenberger in No Man’s Land, where he laid in a shell hole for thirty hours. Numerous attempts to drag him to safety resulted in the wounding of several men and the deaths of two more as they tried to rescue him. Poffengerger threatened to shoot himself if any others foolishly tried to risk lives to retrieve him. He bled out in the shell hole and died in No Man’s Land. He was twenty-five years old.
Gettysburg and the Great War 