James Alexander Steed

Sergeant James Alexander Steed was killed in action on September 29, 1918 near Bellicourt, France during World War I.  He was 19 years old.

James Alexander Steed was born on December 3, 1898 in  Vance County, North Carolina, the son of James Henry Steed and Mary Florence Satterwhite Steed.

SGT James A. Steed enlisted in the U.S. Army on April 14,1917 in Henderson, North Carolina and served in Company C, 120th Infantry, 30th Division (the “Old Hickory” division, comprised of units from North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee and named in honor of President Andrew Jackson). 

In May 1918 the 30th Division traveled to New York and soon left for Europe. After a two-week voyage, the division landed in England and then departed for France. The 30th Division was assigned to the American 2nd Corps, and attached to the British Army. In June 1918 the division underwent extensive combat training under British supervision and exchanged American for British equipment and firearms.

On July 2, 1918, the 30th Division was sent to the British 2nd Army in Belgium. On August 16, "Old Hickory" replaced British troops on the front in the trenches near Ypres. While there the division attacked and captured German positions with a loss of 37 dead and 128 wounded.

On September 3, the division withdrew from the front and transferred to the British 4th Army. By September 25, the 30th Division held its position opposite the German Hindenberg Line near Bellicourt, France. The Hindenburg Line was an important segment of the German defensive network on the Western Front in Europe during WWI. On the night of September 27, the 119th and 120th infantry regiments (formerly the 2nd and 3rd North Carolina, respectively), moved into the front lines.

At 5:50 AM on the morning of September 29, 1918, the North Carolinians of the 30th Division—then serving under British command as part of the Fourth Army—emerged from the safety of their trenches and formed up in a single line, each man standing shoulder to shoulder, roughly four to six feet apart. In front of them, a slowly creeping Allied artillery barrage pounded the German lines, softening them for the infantry. Then, right down the line, the order to advance came. Their mission was to break the Hindenburg Line.

As they moved across the field under a cacophony of machine gun and artillery fire, the men did their best to stay abreast and maintain unit cohesion. Due to the poor visibility, the difficult nature of the terrain, and battlefield obstacles, however, the lines began to waver almost immediately. Enemy artillery fire punched at the Allied lines as a thick cloud of fog and smoke enveloped the field. “[Y]ou could hardly see your hand before you,” remembered Luther Hall, a Surry County native attached to the 119th Infantry Regiment.

The coordinated attack quickly descended into an assault of fragmented groups. Battlefield orders became way more difficult, if not impossible, to issue. Despite the chaos, the men continued their advance towards the enemy, dealing with the stress in whatever way they could. “[S]ome of the men were singing, some of them cussing,” recalled Surry County native John Collins, a member of Company A, 120th Infantry.

Members of the 119th Infantry reached the Hindenburg Line ahead of schedule, leaving them stranded just in front of the enemy with their left flank exposed. Reinforcements from the 117th and 118th Infantry Regiments moved up in the afternoon to bolster their position but they remained more or less stalled.  The men of the 120th experienced far better success, pushing the Germans from their trenches around 7:30 and becoming the first Allied troops to break the Hindenburg Line. Just two hours later, the 120th marched triumphantly into the French town of Bellicourt. The breaking of the Hindenburg Line was part of a series of Allied assaults known as the Hundred Days Offensive, which led to the Armistice on November 11, 1918.

The September 29, 1918 charge on the Hindenburg Line made that day North Carolina’s deadliest day of the war.  Sgt Raymond B. Crabtree, Sgt James A. Steed,  Corporal Hamet N. Powell (all of the 120th), and Pvt. George S. Debnam (of the 105th Engineers) – all four from Vance County -- were mortally wounded in the action that day.

Sgt James A. Steed is buried in Cokesbury United Methodist Church Cemetery, Vance County, North Carolina.

Last edited: 8 June 2026