George Armitage Ball

First Lieutenant George Armitage Ball was killed in action on June 6, 1918 in the Battle of  Chateau Thierry in France. He was 26 years old.

George Armitage Ball was born in Bethlehem, South Africa on May 27, 1892, son of the Rev. William H. Ball who was in South Africa as a missionary of the Church of England for twenty years.

Ball worked for a time in Kittrell, N.C. and enlisted in the National Guard in Henderson, N.C.  He distinguished himself during action on the Mexican border which led to training in the officers’ training school at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia and his commission as a First Lieutenant.

Lt. Ball’s unit, Company G, 30th Infantry, 3rd Division sailed for France on Easter Sunday, 1918. Upon arrival, they were rushed into battle along the Marne near Chateau Thierry to halt a German offensive.  The Battle of Chateau Thierry was fought from late May to early June 1918 and was one of the first actions of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) under General John J. Pershing.  It had been expected that the AEF forces would not be committed to battle until they received additional training on arrival in France; but the German offensive had reached the Marne, only about 50 miles from Paris.  On May 31, 1918, the 3rd Division was deployed to occupy the main bridge on the south bank of the Marne that led from Chateau Thierry to Paris.  On June 1, the Germans advanced into Chateau Thierry from the north, forcing the French to abandon the main bridge.  They succeeded in destroying the bridge with the support of American machine gun fire. From the north of the Marne, the Germans engaged in heavy artillery and sniper fire against the Allies on June 2 in an attempt to take the remaining bridge.  In the following days, they were forced to end the assault as casualties rose.  1Lt Ball was killed in action on June 6, 1918. 

First Lieutenant George Armitage Ball is buried  in the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery and Memorial in Belleau, France.

Last edited: 23 April 2026