On August 28, 1917, Alabama National Guardsmen departed from Union Station in Montgomery for shipment to France as the 167th United States Infantry Regiment of the Rainbow Division. Men from Butler County who were killed in action during 1918 were Rufus P. Hendrix of Greenville, Bryant Price of McKenzie, Claudie Caine of Georgiana, William Alexander of Georgiana, Amos Bush of Greenville, William T. Cheatham of Greenville, Worth Lewis of Greenville, Elbert L. “Lee” Milton of Oakey Streak, Horace Rigsby of Georgiana, Walter Wallace of Garland, Edgar W. Hall of Chapman, Charles Hoomes of Chapman, James L. Sampley of Spring Hill, Burie G. McCormick of Pigeon Creek, Will Frank Williams of Greenville, Eugene T. Brooks of Georgiana, Burkley H. Cook of Georgiana, Comer C. Caine of Georgiana, and George K. Ealum of McKenzie, who fell in the Chateau-Thierry, Croix Rouge Farm, St. Mihiel, and Argonne-Meuse battles. Serving in the 84th Brigade with their sister regiment, the 168th of Iowa, they distinguished themselves in four large operations—Champagne-Marne, Oise-Aisne, St. Mihiel, and Meuse-Argonne—especially at the battle of Croix Rouge Farm and at the capture of Cote de Chatillon. Brigadier General Douglas MacArthur, who commanded them in three operations as Chief of Staff of the Rainbow Division and then as commander of its 84th Brigade, wrote that two battalions of the 167th Infantry, assisted by the 168th Infantry on the left, seized Croix Rouge Farm on the point of the bayonet with great courage and severe losses, and that the gallantry and courage of the assaulting troops had never been excelled in the Rainbow’s history. After suffering 616 killed in action and more than a thousand wounded during the First World War, the 167th returned to Alabama in May 1919 and were celebrated as the “immortals” by the largest crowd ever to assemble on the grounds of the State Capitol.