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Joseph Pulaski Bittner was born on August 30, 1900 to Thomas and Elizabeth Bittner.
The
Bittner's made their home in New Albany, Indiana during the early years of Joseph's boyhood. In 1912 the family relocated
to Jeffersonville, Indiana where they resided in the Port Fulton area for many years.
On November 21, 1916 Joseph
boarded the ferry in Louisville, Kentucky to join the Army, as so many young men were doing at the time. Joseph was
barely sixteen years old, but had quite a musical talent, and was sent to Fort McKinley, Maine. At Fort McKinley, Joseph
was given basic training in preparation for the war in Europe, and as a result of his musical abilities was given the capacity
of Bugler. Upon completion of this training he was shipped to Fort Williams, also in Maine, for his final processing
to World War I in Europe.
On August 14, 1917, just sixteen days before his seventeenth birthday, Joseph shipped
out from New York City with Battery C, 57th Coast Artillery Corps as their Bugler.
In the early days of war, and
long before field radios were in common use, the Bugler was one of the most important members of any fighting unit.
Not only did the Bugler wake the men in the morning and play them to sleep at night, he was also a key member in actual battle.
It was the Bugler who had to sound the command to charge, and God forbid, the signal to retreat. Like so many of America's
young men, Joseph distinguished himself both as a man and as a soldier, and at the young age of seventeen.
Bittner's
Company was embroiled in many major battles in France. They fought heroically at Toul and the Argonne Forrest.
However, Bittner's service with the 57th ended during a skirmish northeast of the French villa of Verdun. It is there,
during a firefight, that Bittner was fatally wounded and died instantly on October 17, 1918. The young Clark Countian's
body was taken to the village of Fleury, Sur Ainse where he was laid to rest with full military honors.
Joseph Bittner
has the distinction of having this Post named in his honor because he was the first soldier from southern Indiana to die in
World War I. But this post is actually dedicated to all who have served, and to all who have had to wait for their loved
ones to return.
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