American Battle Graves Archive
U.S. Army seal

WWI · Battle Death Record

Marcellus Chiles

Captain, U.S. Army · Colorado

Medal of Honor

Personnel File — Core Information

Name
Marcellus Chiles
Entered the Service From
Colorado
Rank
Captain
Service
U.S. Army
Unit / Regiment
356th Infantry Regiment, 89th Division
War
WWI
Date of Death
November 5, 1918
Awards
Medal of Honor
Burial / Memorial
Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial, Romagne-sous-Montfaucon, France
Grave
Plot C, Row 31, Grave 23

Their story

On November 3, 1918, near Le Champy Bas, France, Captain Chiles took command of his battalion and led it across a stream under heavy machine-gun fire during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. Though mortally wounded in the abdomen by a sniper, he refused evacuation until he had transferred command and instructions to the next senior officer, dying shortly after reaching the hospital on November 5, 1918.

Compiled from American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) and National Archives (NARA) records and public sources.

This record is one of more than 200,000 in our historical archive. Some information may have been corrupted or lost over decades of data conversion. Corrections are welcome — please contact the archive.