Collection: Courtney W. Tolley Collection | ArchivesSpace Public Interface

Scope and Contents

This collection comprises the wartime correspondence of Courtney W. Tolley totalling approximately 40 letters along with a scrapbook which contains several wartime snapshots and news clippings as well as a wide selection of ephemera related to commemoration events for the 77th Division and survivors of the 306th Machine Gun Battalion. Also included is a typewritten transcription of Courtney Tolley's letters in blue covers with a steel ACCO binding.

Dates

Majority of material found in 1917-1943

Biographical / Historical

Courtney W. Tolley (1888-1943) was a son of Ira Tolley of Cairo, NY who had moved to Queens and was the manager of a shoe company when the United States entered the First World War. He enlisted and arrived in France in May of 1918 as part of the 306th Machine Gun Battalion, 77th Infantry Division in time to participate in numerous engagements. Notably, he was in one of two companies of the 306th that became trapped behind German Lines along with elements of the 308th Infantry during an attack in the Argonne Forest in October 1918. The diverse companies involved in the event were later styled the "Lost Battalion" in the press, and it took six days for the unit to be rescued. Of over 500 men trapped with the Lost Battalion only 194 were not killed or captured. Little is known of Courtney Tolley's life after he returned to the United States, and he is buried in the Cairo Cemetery near other members of his family.