To mark the 100th anniversary of the Armistice of 11 November 1918 that ended World War I, we’re looking back this weekend at one of the Islanders who participated in the “war to end all wars”.
Frederick R. Zabel was described by the Shelter Island correspondent for the Riverhead County Review as “the first man of our town to be called to the colors”. You can find the names of all of those who served displayed on a plaque affixed to a stone set among other memorials around Wilson Circle in the center of town.
Frederick Richard Zabel
Zabel’s name appears along with 64 other servicemen, one nurse and 11 members of the Army Student Training Corps. Listed alphabetically, his is among the last and is given with the alternate spelling Zable. But he was first among the drafted soldiers to depart Shelter Island for the Great War. The 21-year-old was ordered to report to the Army’s new training facility, Camp Upton near Yaphank, on September 19, 1917.
Zabel was a son of John Zabel, a widowed, elderly shoemaker who’d emigrated from Germany some 30 years earlier. Later, Zabel’s older brother, Otto, was drafted, too, and served in a U.S.-based depot brigade.
Island send-off
Fred Zabel was given a farewell parade on the day of his departure that, from a published description, included just about half the population of Shelter Island as marchers. According to an account the following day in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Zabel rode with the town supervisor in a car “decorated with flags and some 50 more machines followed it.
“As the procession of 500 people passed across the island, church and fire bells were rung, and as the ferry boat carried Zabel away from the pier, a salute in his honor was fired by the cannon of the yacht club and members of the Home Guard.”
As part of the farewell, Zabel was given a purse of funds “raised by the Brooklyn summer colonists,” the Eagle reported. And more ceremonies awaited, as draftees from East End communities gathered at the courthouse in Riverhead before proceeding westward in a convoy of flag bedecked cars to Camp Upton.
World War I service
Zabel’s military records show he was assigned to Company M of the 305th Infantry. Part of the 77th Regiment, it arrived in France in April 1918 and stayed through the end of the war. The 77th Regiment holds the distinction of having made the biggest advances of any of the American fighting troops during some of the bloodiest battles in France, according to a regimental history.
Among other campaigns, it was engaged in the horrific Meuse-Argonne offensive, 47 days of fighting starting in September that cost 26,277 American lives. The 77th is credited with driving German troops back during near continuous engagement in a decisive rout that led to the armistice.
The 77th also took part in the ferocious Battle of Champigneulle, noted for its enormous exchange of gas and artillery fire. Cpl. Zabel’s military records report he suffered an injury, described as “slight”, in October 1918, but it did not end his service. He returned home aboard a ship from Brest with Company M in January 1919.
At home in New York that spring an even bigger parade awaited the returning soldiers. New York City effectively shut down on May 6 as more than 23,000 soldiers from the 77th Regiment, all of them draftees and most of them from the city, marched up Fifth Avenue. They were cheered by hundreds of thousands of onlookers, including children released from school for day so they could witness the event. The returning soldiers passed under a colossal Victory Arch at Madison Square, temporarily erected of wood and plaster. Representatives of each company laid memorial wreaths to honor fallen comrades on the steps of the New York Public Library.
We aren’t sure whether Fred Zabel was among the marchers; many soldiers opted to forego the festivities and return home to loved ones. But a film of the event is worth a look to get a sense of what it was like 100 years ago at the end of the Great War, before it became known as the First World War.
You can watch reels of that parade on the National Archives website:
Return Parade of the 77th Regiment Reel 1
Return Parade of the 77th Regiment Reel 2
After the war
Not long after returning home to Shelter Island, Fred Zabel married Elsie Marie Leden, daughter of a Greenport fisherman; the couple had two sons.
Zabel’s younger son, George, had a harrowing experience in World War II when stationed aboard the USS William D. Porter. In June of 1945, the ship — famous for a series of unlucky events — was the target of a suicide attack during the Battle of Okinawa. The Japanese plane narrowly missed hitting the ship, plunging into the ocean. But it then exploded below the surface, blasting a hole in the Porter’s hull.
Fred and Elsie endured nerve-wracking weeks awaiting word of their son’s fate. Eventually they learned that all aboard had been rescued.
Cpl. Frederick R. Zabel died February 7, 1967 and was buried in the Shelter Island Cemetery. He was 70 years old.
100th Anniversary of the Armistice
Join friends and neighbors in marking this anniversary, and honoring all veterans — living and deceased. Attend the community ceremony at the American Legion Mitchell Post 281 on Monday, November 12 beginning at 10 a.m. Read details in this Gazette post.
And if you have story about a Shelter Island veteran, send it to us at editor@shelterislandgazette.com and we’ll post it.
[print-me]
Draft registration image courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration and Ancestry.com
