Jacob Feldman

First Lieutenant, U.S. Army

Company D, 110th Infantry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division

Entered the Service from: New Jersey
Died: September 6, 1918
Buried at: Plot D Row 12 Grave 21, Oise-Aisne American Cemetery, Fère-en-Tardenois, France

First Lieutenant Jacob Feldman of 17 West Park Avenue, Merchantville, was killed under heroic circumstances. He was attached to Company D, 110th Infantry, formerly the 3rd Regiment, National Guard of Pennsylvania. He was mortally wounded on September 12, 1918, in the Marancourt sector, in the advance on Hill 212. All of the officers of the company were casualties and Feldman assumed command and reformed the unit and ordered the charge. As they dashed across the open ground he was hit in the stomach by an explosive bullet and fell. He struggled to his feet and beckoned his men on. He was struck by two more bullets and fell. Handing his papers to First Sergeant Harold M. Nash, he shouted “Forward, men!” He died in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. He was buried at Reddy Farm, near Cohan, the following day. His regiment had gone overseas in April, 1918, and participated in the Chateau-Thierry battle. He was the son of Isaac & Dora Feldman, of Merchantville, New Jersey, and had several brothers and sisters.

Jacob Feldman was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on March 21, 1891 to Isaac & Dora Feldman, who had come to America from Russia in 1890 with their daughter Pauline. The 1900 Census shows the family at 832 Gray’s Ferry Road in Philadelphia. Besides Pauline and Jacob the family included young brothers Michael, Samuel, and Harry Feldman.

Jacob Feldman enlisted in the Pennsylvania National Guard as a private in Company D, 3rd Infantry Regiment, on April 30, 1909. He was promoted to corporal on June 1, 1910 and was promoted to sergeant on March 12, 1912. He re-enlisted in the Pennsylvania National Guard in May of 1912 and again in May of 1915. In July of 1916 the National Guard was mobilized for service along the Mexican Border. Jacob Feldman served as First Sergeant from July 1 to October 18, 1916.

In the weeks leading up to America’s entry into World War I, Jacob Feldman was recalled to service, again as First Sergeant with his National Guard unit. The Third and Tenth Pennsylvania Regiments were reorganized as the 110th Infantry Regiment on October 11, 1917, while both units were stationed at Camp Hancock, Georgia. The regiment reached France in May of 1918 and went into combat for the first time on July 15 at Chateau-Thierry. At some point after being recalled to service, Jacob Feldman, due to his prior service and evidenced abilities, was promoted to Second Lieutenant, and again to First Lieutenant.

In the late 1920s the War Department of the United States compiled a list of mothers and widows of deceased soldiers killed in World War I and offered to send them to their loved one’s final resting place in Europe. Mrs. Feldman chose not to make the pilgrimage to France.

Isaac and Dora Feldman moved to the then-new Westfield Acres homes in Camden, New Jersey in August of 1938. Dora Feldman was living there in May of 1941, when she was photographed on Memorial Day of that year.

The book History of Camden County in the Great War, 1917–1918, reported that Lieutenant Feldman had been a member of the National Guard eleven years and was thirty-one years old. This had been reported in the Philadelphia Inquirer in February of 1919 and was an error on the part of its editors.