Sergeant York

October 8th, 1918—amid the last of the Allies attempts to the Germans, Sergeant Alvin York of Tennessee, found himself and his platoon of only seventeen men trapped in the thick of heavy machine gun fire. Rather than retreating or calling upon the artillery to take out the nest, York single-handedly took out twenty-five Germans, dropping them one-by-one, and captured many more. This is only one of the many tales of York’s famed heroism, which were heralded as some of the most impressive battle stories in history of modern warfare. Sergeant York contains the legendary soldier’s war diaries, which offer up-close snapshots of his fabled military career. Included in this new edition of a classic work are new forewords written by York’s son and grandson, which provide both personal and historical recollections of their predecessor. In Sergeant York, experience the fascinating life of an American hero.

Alvin C. York (1887--1964) -- devout Christian, conscientious objector, and reluctant hero of World War I -- is one of America's most famous and celebrated soldiers. Known to generations through Gary Cooper's Academy Award-winning portrayal in the 1941 film Sergeant York, York is credited with the capture of 132 German soldiers on October 8, 1918, in the Meuse-Argonne region of France -- a deed for which he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. At war's end, the media glorified York's bravery but some members of the German military and a soldier from his own unit cast aspersions on his wartime heroics. Historians continue to debate whether York has received more recognition than he deserves. A fierce disagreement about the location of the battle in the Argonne forest has further complicated the soldier's legacy. In Alvin York, Douglas V. Mastriano sorts fact from myth in the first full-length biography of York in decades. He meticulously examines York's youth in the hills of east Tennessee, his service in the Great War, and his return to a quiet civilian life dedicated to charity. By reviewing artifacts recovered from the battlefield using military terrain analysis, forensic study, and research in both German and American archives, Mastriano reconstructs the events of October 8 and corroborates the recorded accounts. On the eve of the WWI centennial, Alvin York promises to be a major contribution to twentieth-century military history.

War hero, Medal of Honor recipient, and one of the world's first international media celebrities, Sgt. Alvin York was the most famous soldier of his generation. His welcome home ticker-tape parade in New York was the biggest in history at the time. Advertisers clamored for his endorsement, corporations invited him to join their boards of directors, and movie producers vied to put his story on the silver screen. Yet this shy country boy from the hills of Tennessee couldn't imagine cashing in on fame coming from killing fellow human beings in the service of his country. “Uncle Sam's uniform ain't for sale,” he told them. Sgt. York: His Life, Legend & Legacy remains the only complete biography of this great American patriot based on original sources. Author John Perry scoured military records including official accounts of York's famous battle from surviving eyewitnesses, as well as Warner Bros. archives in Hollywood for details about the film. He also interviewed a host of people who knew York including neighbors who welcomed him home from the war, attended his wedding, hunted and camped with him in the Wolf River Valley. York's four surviving children were eager participants in the project, with son George Edward Buxton York commenting upon reading the completed draft, tears streaming down his face, “Now people will know what my daddy was really like!” This new edition includes a message from York's youngest son, 90-year-old Andrew Jackson York.

During World War I, a man from Tennessee is torn between his pacifist principles and his patriotic duty. He goes on to become the most famous hero of that war, Alvin C. York.

Alvin C. York went out on a routine patrol an ordinary, unknown American doughboy of the First World War. He came back from no-man's-land a hero. In a brief encounter on October 8, 1918, during the Argonne offensive, York had killed 25 German soldiers and, almost singlehandedly, effected the capture of 132 others. Returning to the United States the following spring, he received a tumultuous public welcome and a flood of offers from businessmen eager to capitalize on his acclaimed feat. But York, true to his character, went quietly back to his home in the Tennessee mountains, where he spent the remainder of his life working to bring schools and other services to those remote valleys where his neighbors lived. In this definitive biography, David D. Lee has firmly established the simple facts of Alvin York's life, distinguishing them from the myths which have grown up around the man. He has reexamined the sometimes conflicting accounts of the famous exploit, finding in his research a hitherto unknown report of the skirmish from German military archives. Lee goes beyond that single wartime episode, however, to consider its consequences on York's later life—his efforts, not always successful, to better his mountain community; his involvement in making a motion picture of his life; his difficulties with money and taxes. But Sergeant York is better known as a symbol than as an individual, and in this study Lee connects the man and his life to an American heroic ideal. With his rural background, his refusal to take commercial advantage of his fame, and his simple piety, Alvin York exemplified the traditional values of an agrarian America that was in his own day already receding into the past. He claimed a special place in the hearts of his countrymen, Lee concludes, because his life seemed to show that the virtues of the common man continued to be a vital part of American society.

Alvin C. York went out on a routine patrol an ordinary, unknown American doughboy of the First World War. He came back from no-man's-land a hero. In a brief encounter on October 8, 1918, during the Argonne offensive, York had killed 25 German soldiers and, almost singlehandedly, effected the capture of 132 others. Returning to the United States the following spring, he received a tumultuous public welcome and a flood of offers from businessmen eager to capitalize on his acclaimed feat. But York, true to his character, went quietly back to his home in the Tennessee mountains, where he spent.

Growing up in the Tennessee hills, Alvin York was equally renowned as a marksman and as a hard-drinking brawler. A dramatic New Year’s conversion convinced him that killing was against God’s will, and yet this shy, big-boned mountaineer singlehandedly dispatched two dozen Germans and captured 132 in the closing days of World War I. He earned the Medal of Honor and a ticker tape parade but refused to cash in on his fame, insisting “Uncle Sam’s uniform ain’t for sale.” This succinct and gripping new account of Sgt. York’s remarkable life includes details from exclusive interviews with the sergeant’s three surviving children and information drawn from battlefield eyewitness reports and original film studio archives: fresh reminders of the legacy of one of America’s great Christian patriots. We learn about life through the lives of others. Their experiences, their trials, their adventures become our schools, our chapels, our playgrounds. Christian Encounters, a series of biographies from Thomas Nelson Publishers, highlights important lives from all ages and areas of the Church through prose as accessible and concise as it is personal and engaging. Some are familiar faces. Others are unexpected guests. Whether the person is D.L. Moody, Sergeant York, Saint Nicholas, John Bunyan, or William F. Buckley, we are now living in the world that they created and understand both it and ourselves better in the light of their lives. Their relationships, struggles, prayers, and desires uniquely illuminate our shared experience.

This classic reprint of Corporal Alvin York's journal reveals him as a humble Christian who risked his life in the First World War and was later awarded the congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery.