Charles F. Kavaney was not yet seventeen when military authorities placed him under guard in Hoboken, New Jersey. On one sleeve of his uniform were three gold service bars representing his time overseas. On the other were two wound stripes. He had reportedly served along the Mexican border, traveled to France with some of the first American troops, survived being gassed, suffered two wounds, and received a citation for bravery.
He was also accused of desertion.
According to a newspaper account published in January 1919, Kavaney had run away from his South Bend, Indiana, home at the age of fourteen to become a soldier. Somehow, despite being far too young to enlist legally, he entered the United States Army and eventually found himself fighting in France.
Then the war ended, and the young soldier apparently decided that he had endured enough.
Rather than wait for the Army to send him home, Kavaney reportedly left the 18th Infantry and made his own way back to the United States. His unauthorized departure placed him technically “in disgrace” and left him facing the possibility of being returned to France to answer a charge of desertion.
For the moment, however, officials in Washington had intervened. Kavaney remained a prisoner in the Hoboken guardhouse while authorities investigated the unusual case.
His mother, Mrs. James Kavaney, traveled from South Bend to fight for his release.
Youngest U.S. Soldier Quit
Private Charles F. Kavaney, said to be America’s youngest soldier here wearing three gold service bars on his left sleeve and two wound stripes on his right, is technically in disgrace, but Washington authorities have interfered with his return to France to answer a charge of desertion for the present.
He is a prisoner in the Hoboken guardhouse while an investigation of his case is under way.
Kavaney, who will not be seventeen until next May, ran away from his house in South Bend, Indiana, to go to war when he was fourteen. Just as soon as the fighting was over, he ran away from the 18th Infantry to come home, according to his own story.
He saw service on the Mexican border and was with the first troops to arrive in France. Aside from his two wounds, he was gassed once and once cited for bravery.
Mrs. James Kavaney, of South Bend, Indiana, arrived to take up his fight for freedom.
Source: The Daily Banner. Cambridge, Md. January 25, 1919.
