Alvin Cullum York Research Paper

Alvin Cullum York was born in the hills of the Cumberland Plateau of Tennessee near the city of Pall Mall on December 13, 1887. Alvin was born into a poor family of 13 people: Alvin's dad William Uriah York, Alvin's mom Mary Elizabeth York, and his 11 siblings. Living in an area where people though education wasn't important, York only received 9 months of schooling. After his father died when York was 24, he started working jobs to help his family out financially, and because of the stress, he started to drink, gamble, and start many fights. But one day, his best friend was killed in a bar fight which resulted in York changing his lifestyle and becoming a religious human being. However, on June 5,1917 all men were required to register to …show more content…
Fortunately York's battalion commander, General George Edward Buxton shared the same religious beliefs he did, and told York to take 10 days off and think things through. During the ten days, he was able to come up with the conclusion that the army was making peace the only way the Germans knew how to. York made the decision to come back in April 1918 and help America fight. In April, York and his unit sailed to France to have some more training for two months before moving to their trenches on the Western Front. On October 8, York and 16 other soldiers had been assigned to stop a German machine gunner on their unit's private area. The Germans managed to kill six soldiers and wound three. This is when York took leadership and led a seven man patrol to victory. During the fight when he was alone, he managed to kill six German soldiers who had bayonets, with only a .45 pistol. He then was able to find a way to the end of the German trench and started to shoot everyone easily because they were in a line. In the end of the gun fight, 25 of the opposing troops were killed and the other 132 gunner surrendered to York and his