Veteran Spotlight

Richard D. L. Fulton

Carl L. Firor

Ambulance Soldier KIA

Carl L. Firor, of Sabillasville, Maryland was born on January 5, 1895, in Frederick County, Maryland to Reverend Marion L. and Anna P. Firor.

Firor had five brothers, Paul, Richard, Frederick, Garrett and Whitmer, and two sisters, Marion and Ruth, the children having been the result of both a previous marriage (to Amanda Elizabeth Firor) and the subsequent marriage (to Anna).

At the time that Firor was drafted on June 5, 1917, at age 22, his employer was listed as having been Roscoe P. Brown, of “near Sabillasville,” where Firor worked as a farm laborer. Also prior to entering the service, Firor served as a deacon at Saint John’s Reformed Church in Sabillasville, where his father was the pastor.

Firor was listed on his draft card as having been single, and suffering from “defective eyesight.” He was also described as having been slender, of “medium” height, with dark hair and grey eyes.

Nevertheless, perhaps having been determined to be unfit for combat, due to his vision issues, Firor was assigned to serve in the 315th Ambulance Company, 304th Sanitary Train, with the rank of private first-class, and he was stationed in France during the culmination of World War I.

According to an article in the October 27, 1927, issue of the The Catoctin Clarion, Firor had passed away on October 1, 1918, at the Evacuation Hospital-114, at Fleury-sur-Aire, near Verdun, France, at age 23 years, and eight months, after having been admitted on September 29.

In an article that appeared in the July 31, 1919, edition of The Catoctin Clarion, it was stated that Firor’s body had been buried in the French Military Cemetery, in the West American plot, in Fleury-sur-Aire, on the day after he had died.

The Maryland Military Men, 1917-1918, recorded Firor’s death as having been the result of wounds sustained during the Meuse-Argonne offensive.  The July 31, 1919, issue of The Catoctin Clarion reported that he had died of “multiple gun-shot wounds.”

The Catoctin Clarion had reported in the October 27, 1921, edition that the funeral services for Firor were held in the Third Reformed Church in Baltimore, and that he had subsequently been interred in the Mount Olivet Cemetery, in Baltimore.

As to why the funeral of a soldier killed in 1918 was not buried until 1921, archival evidence suggests that his body had remained buried in France for over two years, until it could then be exhumed, and rightfully returned to the United States. 

In fact, in 1920, there were doubts that Firor was even deceased. 

In a cruel twist of fate, doubts arose as to Firor’s death, such as The (Baltimore) Evening Sun had reported on October 2, 1920, two years after Firor’s reported death, that “the War Department, however, does not believe that the record of his death is correct, because it has received reports that comrades of Firor saw him several days after his reported death.” The report misled his family to believe that he was still alive.

The Schley Post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars had overseen the services, which included a firing-squad and bugler that had been sent from Fort Howard, Maryland, to participate in the ceremony. Firor’s parents were also buried in the Mount Olivet Cemetery.

The newspaper further reported, “By his (Firor’s) love for his church and his activity in her every line of work, he had endeared himself to his fellow-members, and the community, in general.”

In order to show their respect for the fallen soldier, “the bell of St. John’s (Saint John’s Reformed Church in Sabillasville), was tolled during the progress of the services in Baltimore,” The Catoctin Clarion had reported.

Firor’s brother, Paul, had also passed away while in the service during the war, and had died at Fort Benjamin, in Harrison, Indiana, on November 13, 1918, from bronchial pneumonia. Paul had served in the 6th Company, 2nd  Battalion, 154th Depot Brigade, and Company E, in the 5th  Provisional Engineer Battalion, and he had achieved the rank of sergeant.

Carl L. Firor’s headstone, Mount Olivet Cemetery, Baltimore.

Carl L. Firor’s draft registration card. 

Source: U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, Ancestry