Private First Class Frank C. Whiteman was born August 20, 1896, the son of Frank C. Whiteman (age 46) and Emily M. (Aldrich) Whiteman (age 39) in Titlton. NH.
Whiteman enlisted in the 1st New Hampshire Infantry Regiment on May 1, 1917 and was assigned to Company C under the command of Colonel Healy. The regiment was mustered into federal service at Camp Keyes, in Concord, on August 5, 1917. On August 27, 1917, the regiment was designated as the 103rd Infantry Regiment. That same day, the 103rd was sent to Camp Bartlett in Westfield, Massachusetts for training. The 1st Battalion of the 103rd (Companies A, B, C & D) left Westfield on September 25, 1917 for New York City to board the USS Celtic.
Arriving in Liverpool, England on October 10, 1917, the 103rd was sent to Camp Oxney in Southern England. After additional training alongside the English, Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders, just 10 days later, the 103rd crossed the English Channel and landed at the port of Le Havre in France. There, they boarded boxcars, traveling for 2 days and 2 nights, with 40 soldiers and 8 horses per boxcar, bound for the village of Liffol le Grand. Here the men of the 103rd were welcomed by the citizens, and the soldiers were put up in the homes of the citizens until February of 1918. From their base in Liffol le Grand, the men of the 103rd trained in trench warfare alongside French troops until February 5, 1918 when the 103rd left for Soissons, France.
The next day, the men marched to giant fortified cave complex near Nanteuil La Fosse. Here at the Saint Blaise Quarry, the men had decent food, slept on bunks, and had electricity, but shared their quarters with rats and foul air. From here, the 103rd went to the front lines on February 8th near Soissons at Chemin Des Dames.
During their first month of frontline duty, the 103rd served as follows:
Bois Dherly (Front Line) February 8-19, 1918
Vregney (Reserve) February 20-27, 1918
Pinon (Front Line) February 27-March 7, 1918
Vregney (Reserve) March 7-10, 1918
On March 19th, the 103rd was relieved and returned to Liffol. Their relief would not last long, as on April 2nd, the men boarded trucks which took them to Toul, France, where they would again be on the front lines until June 14th when they were pulled back as reserves. During this time the Battalion received a unit citation for action they had engaged in between Xivray and Secicheprey, France.
On June 29th, the 103rd left the Toul sector for Lizy Sur Ourcq and on to Bois Jean, where, on July 12th, they again went to the front line at Torcy Belleau in the northwest corner of the Belleau Woods. Fighting in this sector had been fierce over the past few days. Two companies of the 103rd had taken Hill 190 from the Germans, but had taken many casualties with 42 killed by German machine gun fire. The men on Hill 190 needed to be reinforced or the hill would once gain fall into German hands. So, on July 20th, the 103rd stepped off into a storm of German artillery fire to hold onto Hill 190.
In this advance PFC Frank C. Whiteman was killed by machine gun fire. He would be one of 49 men of the 103rd killed in this fight.
The Manchester Union reported on page 12 of the August 21, 1918 edition: “Concord. Aug. 20, State Historian Husband has issued his summary up to last Saturday. He lists 54 state casualties for the week and a total to that date of 366. The figures: Killed In Action, Whiteman, Pvt. Frank C., Tilton, Reported Aug. 12.”*
PFC Whiteman was buried in the American section of the Belleau Cemetery. In 1921, at the end of the war, most of these dead were reburied in the new Aisne Marne cemetery, but PFC Whiteman’s remains were returned to the US, where he was buried for the final time by his family in the Park Cemetery on West Main Street in Tilton, NH.
The American Legion Post 49 in Tilton is named the Whiteman- Davidson Post after PFC Frank C. Whiteman.