Edward Rowe (July 20, 1895–November 16, 1941)

By Harrison Smith

Service Card of Edward Rowe

Edward Rowe served in the U.S. Army during World War I and attained the rank of Private First Class. Rowe was born on July 20, 1895, in Raleigh, Florida,¹ to Ella Brown and Tom Rowe as found here on his service card.² (Figure 1: Service Card of Edward Rowe) Not much is known about Rowe’s youth until the Selective Service Act of 1917.

Like thousands of other men, Edward Rowe registered for the draft on July 5, 1917, in Raleigh, Florida.³ He was twenty-one years old, single and working as a farmer in Levy County.⁴ Rowe was inducted into the United States Army from Bronson, Florida, on August 3, 1918.⁵ He was then sent to Camp Devens, in Massachusetts, for basic training.⁶

After arriving to Camp Devens, Rowe was assigned to Company A of the 547th Engineers Service Battalion.⁷ A service battalion was made up of different companies of engineers that built infrastructure, such as roads and bridges. They were also given the duties of digging trenches near the frontlines, as well as transporting and burying bodies. These service battalions were strictly support units, meaning that the men within these battalions received limited military training. Many white officials, especially those from the Jim Crow South feared that armed African Americans would revolt, so it was decided that black Americans would help defeat the Germans by serving in labor battalions. By October of 1918, Rowe and his unit had been transferred to Camp Humphreys, Virginia, to await passage to France.⁸ On October 27, 1918, Rowe and his company departed from Hoboken, New Jersey, aboard the S.S Leviathan.⁹ The Leviathan was a recently captured German vessel that was originally called the Vaterland.

USS Floridian

Upon arrival in France, the Army planned to use Rowe and his company on the front lines providing aid to the Allied Forces. Rowe’s wartime service was short-lived because combat operations ended with the signing of the Armistice on November 11, 1918. After the war, the 547th Engineers spent most of their service, in the Northern District and the upper Loire Basin. The unit was attached to the Twentieth Forestry Engineers and provided wood to the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF). In France, the AEF needed wood to build railroads, docks, storage units, shelters, hospitals, bridges, trenches, and to keep the troops warm in the winter time. With four years of war, France did not have the manpower to supply wood to the American Army.¹⁰ Rowe performed these duties while waiting nearly nine months to return to the United States. On July 5, 1919, Rowe and his company departed from France aboard the USS Floridian, shown here, and arrived in Brooklyn, New York, on July 15, 1919.¹¹ He would be honorably discharged on July 23, 1919.¹²

Rowe disappears to history after his military service ends. Edward Rowe died on November 16, 1941 and was buried at St. Augustine National Cemetery.¹³ He is located in Section D, Grave 8.¹⁴ He was forty-six years old.

© 2018, University of Central Florida