Charles White Whittlesey (born January 20, 1884; disappeared November 26, 1921) was a United States Army Medal of Honor recipient who led the “Lost Battalion” in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive during World War I. The Lost Battalion is the name given to the nine companies of the 77th Division, roughly 554 men, isolated by German forces during World War I after an American attack in the Argonne Forest in October 1918. The final casualty count lists 107 killed, 190 wounded, and 63 missing out of the 554 men who engaged in the defense. The U.S. Army award the Medal of Honor to three soldiers involved in the siege, including Major Whittlesey, who was also immediately given a battlefield promotion to lieutenant-colonel immediately. He was presumed to have committed suicide by drowning when he disappeared from a ship en route to Havana on November 26, 1921, at age 37.
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