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Subject: [MEX-ZACATECAS] Solomon LERMA obit 1918
Date: Thu, 04 Jan 2007 01:18:13 -0000

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...taken & transcribed from the Oklahoman Newspaper archives, dated:

12-23-1923
Oklahoma City, OK, newspaper archives dated:

Mexican Youth Proves He Could Stand Great Test
Headboard Erected by Col. Sam Robertson Tells
Story of Marvelous Bravery of Fifteen-Year-Old Boy


EDITOR'S NOTE-The following story will interest Oklahoma City overseas men who knew Colonel Sam Robertson. This little document is one of these poignant human stories which grip the heart. It is from The Brownsville, Texas, Herald, and was passed on by General Roy Hoffman.


In the American National cemetery at Romange, France, lies the body of Solomon Lerma, a Mexican boy, a native of the state of Zacatecas, a derelict from the Villista army, which attacked Matamoros, a hero who risked his life to save that of an American friend, and who died in February, 1918, in a hospital in France after being twice wounded and gassed. He was 15 years of age at the time of his death.

Major M.T. Todd, now medical officer at Fort Brown, was assigned to receive the bodies of American soldiers as they were being concentrated for burial in the American National cemeteries in France. All marks of identification were brought to him by the details which were removing the bodies from their temporary burial places on the battle line, and one day his attention was called to a headboard
which was brought in with the body of a mere boy. The inscription on the headboard read as follows:

HERE LIES
SOLOMON LERMA
MASCOT E Co. 28th U.S. INF.
15 YEARS OLD AT THE TIME
DEATH ABOUT FEB., 1918. A
NATIVE OF THE STATE OF
ZACATECAS, MEXICO, BUT A
CITIZEN OF SAN BENITO,
TEXAS. HE WAS ADOPTED BY
E CO. 26TH U.S. INF.
AFTER THE FIGHT NEAR
RANCH ANAQUITAS, TEXAS,
SEPT. 1915.
THIS SLAB ERECTED BY HIS
OLD COMPADRE LT. COL. SAM
ROBERTSON, C OF E US ARMY
WHO OWES HIS LIFE TO THIS
BOY. NO GAMER PERSON
EVER LIVED.
ADIOS MUCHACHO MIO.

This inscription was so peculiar that Major Todd took a photograph of the headboard, and intended when he returned to the United States to find Colonel Robertson and present the photograph to him. He did not have the time to do this immediately upon his return, and after being assigned to Fort Brown learned that Colonel Robertson was now sheriff of Cameron county.

SOLOMON LERMA, whose headboard was inscribed by Colonel Robertson while the American troops were engaged in the fiercest fighting of the world war, was a derelict from the army of General Banco which attacked Matamoros in 1914. He had accompanied the army from the state of Zacatecas and while fighting was on near Matamoros, the lad, the less
than 12 years of age, got across the Rio Grande, and finally found shelter with a Mexican family near Rancho Anaquitas, occupying his time by herding a flock of goats in the chaparral.

In 1915 Colonel Robertson was building a highway through the brush from the Browne tract to Buena Vista club house on Laguna Madre, and he and the boy became fast friends. On September 15, while Colonel Robertson was driving along the road to the club house several Mexican bandits opened fire on him, and he was forced to leave his car and take to the brush. He found a safe haven in a clump of ebony trees, and opened fire on the bandits, who were eveidently
bent on looting the car. The fight started about 3 o'clock and some time later the colonel heard someone creeping through the brush and turned to find Solomon Lerma, who had heard the firing and came to learn of the cause. The colonel's supply of cartridges was running low, and Solomon crept to the car, brought back a large supply, and while the colonel's fire kept the bandits under cover he again went to the car and brought a canteen of water.

From 3 o'clock until after dark the colonel held the bandits at bay. Shortly after dark a detachment from E Company, 26th Infantry, which was then stationed at Harlingen and San Benito, and a number of cowboys from Buena Vista ranch, accompanied by Deputy United States
Marshal Harold Jefferds, arrived on the scene and the bandits were driven off.
The members of E Company adopted the Mexican waif on the spot, taking him to Harlingen, where he remained, a permanent fixture in the camp, until the 26th, Colonel Bullard's famous regiment, was ordered to France, shortly after the United States entered the conflict.

No American regiment saw harder fighting than the 26th Infantry. It was one of the first American organizations to enter the trenches, and its record is replete with indvidual and organized acts of heroism which have never been equalled. Through all the fighting in which the
regiment engaged, Solomon Lerma took a part which won the respect and friendship of his older comrades. He was the special protege of Captain Kilbourn of E Company, who since the war has been promoted to colonel, and was formerly inspection officer for the Eighth Corps area with headquarters at San Antonio, but is now stationed at Fort
Benning, Ga.

Twice during the fight in which E Company engaged, Solomon Lerma, was wounded, and later was badly gassed. After his recovery Captain Kilbourn, who had also been injured, placed the boy in charge of the mess sergeant of the company, Joe Hoeflin, now jailor at the Cameron county jail. The boy never fully recovered from the effects
of the gassing, and contracted pneumonia, dying in a hospital in the Arrencourt sector. Colonel Robertson was building a railroad in that sector at the time, and learning of the death of his old "compadre" prepared the headboard which marked his grave.

"No gamer person ever lived," was the comment of Colonel Robertson. "Solomon proved that when he crept to my automobile to secure cartridges when I was holding off the bandits, and he proved it times without number in France. There was not a member of old E Company who did not shed a tear when he learned that Solomon Lerma had 'gone west.' I am certainly glad to learn that the body of the little Mexican hero has been buried in the American National
cemetery in France, and I doubt if there is one in the cemetery who was more loyal to the Stars and Stripes, or who was more loyal to his friends than Solomon Lerma."


***posted for genealogical purposes only; no relation

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