The First American Soldiers Killed in Action | Military History Forum

On November 2-3, 1917, during WWI the first US soldiers were killed in combat: James Gresham, Thomas Enright, and Merle Hay. From the article:

"The first men killed in action were Corporal James Gresham, Pvt. Thomas Enright and Pvt. Merle Hay all of the 1st Division. They were killed in a trench raid near Bathelemont, November 2, 1917 The most memorable event associated with Sector Occupation involves the deaths of the AEF's first men killed in action: James Gresham Merle Hay and Thomas Enright all of Company F, 16th Infantry, 1st Division. In his 1963 classic The Doughboys Laurence Stallings describes what happened: When night fell on November 2 1917 near Bathelemont, a German Assault Company was brought into their front line and sent to the deepest dugouts to await its hour...Exactly at three o'clock in the morning all hell broke loose. Enemy guns spoke in chorus, tons of metal descended heavily along the Yank's front, communicating trenches were plastered with mortar fire, machine guns sent their whispering streams of nickeled steel over the heads of the Doughboys in the line...The fire was concentrated, isolating in a box barrage F Company... The box soon closed in on one platoon front. There was nothing now on the face of the earth, which could reach this chosen platoon. The Assault Company, facing it, leaped from their trenches and started across the two hundred meters that separated Americans from Germans. Bangalore torpedoes blasted a path through the wire. The side of the box barrage nearest the Germans now vanished, the other three sides roaring with breaking shells. The platoon first knew of the Germans' presence when grenades burst among them. ... It was over in three dark minutes -- pistols, bayonets, knives. The platoon did not blench. It fought in the dark. There was no mad rush for a communicating trench or a deep dugout. The Assault Company left on a precise schedule, taking their own wounded, together with a Doughboy sergeant and ten men, some of them wounded, too, and all of them stunned; dragging them back through the gaps in the wire as the open side of the box barrage again was closed with forbidding bursts. Another three minutes and all guns ceased....Three men lay dead in the muddy bottom of the trench. Corporal James B. Gresham, Private Thomas F. Enright, and Private Merle D. Hay. They were buried that afternoon near Bathelemont on a little rise of pasturage.

James Bethel Gresham Birth - Aug. 23, 1893 McLean County, USA Death - Nov. 3, 1917, France American Soldier. Corporal Gresham was one of the first three servicemen -– along with Private Merle David Hay of Glidden, Iowa, and Private Thomas F. Enright of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania -- to die in combat in World War I. A native of Beech Grove, McLean County, Kentucky, Gresham moved with his family to Evansville, Indiana, when he was eight. After leaving school he worked in a cotton mill and a furniture factory, then enlisted in the Army in 1914. He served in the 1916 Mexican Border action, and, as a member of the Ragular Army, he was one of the first to be sent to France after war was declared in April 1917. Gresham, Hay,and Enright were all serving in Company F, 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Divison (“The Big Red One”) in trenches in near the village of Bathelémont les Bauzemont in Lorraine, east of Nancy, in what was supposed to be a quiet sector, to allow the division some seasoning before being sent to more active sectors. On the night of November 2-3, 1917, the Germans, suspecting that the Americans had moved into the area, conducted a trench raid on the 16th’s position to capture prisoners for interrogation. Gresham and Hay were killed in the initial attack, not recognizing the Germans soldiers in the dark, and Enright was killed as he resisted being made captive. The Germans left with every piece of American equipment they could lay their hands on, as well as eleven prisoners. The three were buried where they fell, and the French Government erected a monument to their memory, but it was destroyed by the Germans in 1940. Gresham’s body was returned to the U.S. in July 1921 and re-interred in Evansville. The current monument near Bathelémont was erected after World War II.

Merle David Hay Birth - 1896 Death - Nov. 3, 1917 American Soldier. Private Hay was one of the first three servicemen (according to conflicting reports, possibly the actual first) to die in combat in World War I, along with Corporal James Bethel Gresham of Evansville, Indiana, and Private Thomas F. Enright of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In civilian life Hay was a clerk in the Glidden farm implement store, and he enlisted in May 1917 not long after war was declared. Hay, Gresham, and Enright were all serving in Company F, 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Divison (“The Big Red One”) in trenches in near the village of Bathelémont les Bauzemont in Lorraine, east of Nancy, in what was supposed to be a quiet sector, to allow the division some seasoning before being sent to more active sectors. On the night of November 2-3, 1917, the Germans, suspecting that the Americans had moved into the area, conducted a trench raid on the 16th’s position to capture prisoners for interrogation. Hay and Gresham were killed in the initial attack, not recognizing the Germans soldiers in the dark (one story has it that the gold watch Hay's mother had given him was found stopped at 0240), and Enright was killed as he resisted being taken. The Germans left with every piece of American equipment they could lay their hands on, as well as eleven prisoners. Hay, Enright, and Gresham were buried where they fell, the French Government erecting a monument to their memory on the spot, but it was destroyed by the Germans in 1940. Hay’s body was returned to the U.S. in July 1921 and re-interred in his home town. In 1929 the Iowa legislature funded a special monument for Hay in Glidden, as well as a cenotaph in Des Moines. The current monument near Bathelémont was erected after World War II.

Merle Hay Thomas Francis Enright Birth - May 8, 1887 Bloomfield Allegheny County Pennsylvania, USA Death - Nov. 3, 1917, France United States Army Soldier. He was one of the first three servicemen -– along with Corporal James Bethel Gresham of Evansville, Indiana, and Private Merle D. Hay of Glidden, Iowa -- to die in combat in World War I. Born in the Bloomfield neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Irish immigrants, Enright was the first child of his generation born in the U.S. He enlisted in the Army in 1909 and saw service in China, the Philippines, and, in Mexico, in both the Verz Cruz and Pancho Villa expeditions. Enright, Gresham, and Hay were all serving in Company F, 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Divison (“The Big Red One”) in trenches in near the village of Bathelémont les Bauzemont in Lorraine, east of Nancy, in what was supposed to be a quiet sector, to allow the division some seasoning before being sent to more active sectors. On the night of November 2-3, 1917, the Germans, suspecting that the Americans had moved into the area, conducted a trench raid on the 16th’s position to capture prisoners for interrogation. Hay and Gresham were killed in the initial attack, not recognizing the Germans soldiers in the dark, and Enright was killed as he resisted being taken captive. The Germans left with every piece of American equipment they could lay their hands on, as well as eleven prisoners. The three were originally buried where they fell, and the French Government erected a monument to their memory (it was destroyed by the Germans in 1940). Enright’s body was returned to the U.S. in July 1921, and he was given a week-long memorial by the city and citizens of Pittsburgh, including a lying-in-state in the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall. The current monument near Bathelémont was erected after World War II."