The United States sent troops during World War I primarily due to Germany’s resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare in the Atlantic, which resulted in the sinking of American merchant ships.
Another factor that pushed the U. S. toward war was the interception of the “Zimmermann Telegram,” a coded message sent by German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann to the German Minister to Mexico in 1917. The telegram proposed an alliance between Germany and Mexico against the United States. The British intercepted and decoded the message, and shared it with the U.S. government. The telegram helped convince the U.S. to join World War I.
Some 700 men from Cleveland County enlisted for service during World War I. Two dozen of these became officers.
| Colonels | Lieutenant Colonel |
| Junius T. Gardner | Charles E. McBrayer |
| John W. Harrelson | |
| Captains | |
| Tom Gold | Charlie Roberts |
| Cleveland Holland | Chap Turner |
| Bussy B. Lattimore | Cliff Turner |
| Hugh A. Logan | |
| Lieutenants | |
| Oliver Anthony | J. Horace Grigg |
| W. Ernest Brackett | John R. Hudson |
| Grady Burgess | Renn Honeycutt |
| W. E. Crowder | Durham Moore |
| J. Talmadge Gardner | George Moore |
| Louie W. Gardner | Victor Rudisill |
| Ensign | |
| Elijah Holcomb |
Four Cleveland County men earned the Distinguished Service Cross. They were Charles V. Abernathy, Richard H. Branton, Herbert O. Champion, and Dr. Thomas Byron Gold, Sr.
Of the 700 Cleveland County men who served, 31 of them died. They were: Harvey Nicholas Allen, William Barrett, Esley Omar Cabaniss, John Carver, Calvin Wesley Cook, Ira Alberto Crabtree, Broadus Vetus Doty, Robert Pressley Falls, Otis D. Green, George William Hasting, Frank Hayes, Marion Butler Hord, Warren Findley Hoyle, Roy Lattimore, C. A. McCraw, George Bynum McEntyre, Baxter Converse McSwain, Reid Morris, Lawson J. Owens, William Parker, Summey Powell, Edgar R. Price, Stanley Jesse Randall, J. H. Ratteree, Ralph Orland Rhyne, Forrest A. Rippy, Joseph W. Runyans, Joseph Lee Spangler, Odus Pratt Street, William Broadus Weathers, William Fredrick “Fred” Weathers.
Family and burial information about these men is found on Find a Grave. Their memorial pages have been compiled together in a “virtual cemetery” by Judith Parker-Proctor. It is here.
The memorial plaque pictured below is located on the west exterior wall of the old courthouse (now the Earl Scruggs Center) in Shelby.
Cleveland County History 