Raymond Austin as Photographer & First Division Soldier

Major Raymond Brooks Austin, under a Roman arch in Seicheprey. His letters home note that he took many of the photos in this May 11, 1918 Frank Leslie's Weekly photo-journalism on the famous "First Division".

Major Raymond Brooks Austin (1889-October 6, 1918) was in General Pershing's "Shock Division" that proved the ability of the Army's American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) to overcome the stalemate of trench warfare and deliver a clockwork coordinated attack in the Battle of Cantigny.  The famous "First Division" was organized on June 8, 1917 and is rightly proud of its history. The First Division maintains a Museum, Research Center, and Online Exhibits.  It was a researcher from the First Division Museum who first contacted me with the offer of historic material they had gathered to honor Major Austin at this Centennial.  For more context, I second their advice to read Matthew Davenport's First Over There (based on diaries and letters) to better understand why Raymond's Division and the Battle of Cantigny are legendary in American military history.

Many of Raymond's letters home have been preserved in The First Division Museum Archive. I was able to get copies of these letters thanks to the prompt professional and friendly help given me by their staff, and I want to thank them again. In Raymond's letter home dated June 20, 1918 it is clear that everyone in his hometown has seen the article in the 1918 equivalent of Life Magazine or Instagram. Raymond talks at length about the Battle of Cantigny that has taken place by then, and identifies the people and places in the Frank Leslie article. A photograph of Major Austin is prominent on page 646 and to the right is a photograph he took of a church ruin. I have seen the original snapshots of this scene, and others Raymond took, in the Ohio Wesleyan University Institutional Archives. On page 647, he took the photo in the upper left of a friend of his badly injured by gas and now stateside. Raymond identified himself in the lower photo as the soldier to the left - with the camera. 

I'll close this post with a sample of one of his letters - always addressed to his mom and signed -"Much love".