The final fall for Sergeant Black waited for him at the front lines, before his 31st birthday, during his attempt to neutralize gas at the bombardment occurring at Mignéville, France on June 20th. A high explosive shell wounded him by severing the arteries in his ankle while he inhaled the poisonous gas which failed to neutralize. After a transport took him to the Base Hospital he died 16 days later on July 6, 1918. His father received the notice at their residence at 131 West Wheeling Street. SGT. Black was a well-known representative citizen of Lancaster and his death rippled through the circles of mourning communities felt from the impact of the loss from the war. His comrades from the trenches who attended the funeral, his family and friends left behind, and the community all missed their fallen hero, as he and others who didn’t return home left holes all throughout the country and county.

The Lancaster Eagle-Gazette reported the following of SGT. Carroll Black’s service, “Sergeant Black was wounded in action at Mignéville on June 19th [sic] of 1918 and although he struggled hard to keep up the fight for his country, death claimed him on July 6th in the hospital at Baccarat. He was a sergeant in the gas department of the Third Battalion and was one of those men ever ready to answer his country’s call and do his best for the Stars and Stripes. He served with Company L on the Mexican border.” It was noted that all friends and family will remember him “as a true hearted, faithful and brave young man.” Another article written almost one hundred years later by Joyce Harvey references SGT. Black having received wounds on June 20, 1918, from an exploding shell and after he arrived at an evacuation hospital contracted diphtheria causing his death on July 6th. She further noted his parents received the notice from the 166th Infantry Chaplain via letter and his death made the Daily Eagle local newspaper. It further communicated that SGT. Black’s body had been interred among the American section of the French military cemetery in Grave 758, Section 98-A, Prance-Prussian Cemetery in Baccarat Lorraine, France, holding the bodies of those who fell.

After the end of the Great War many Fairfield County families expected to receive their fallen soldiers’ bodies home after receiving telegrams notifying them of the news. The bodies of Privates Andrew Matthew Prentice and John Leonard Dambaugh were expected to arrive over the Hocking Valley Railroad in town by the evening of July 22, 1921. Chauncey and Grace were among those who received a notification from Hoboken, New Jersey, Friday morning giving word that their son, Sergeant Carroll H. Black, who served in Company L, 166th U.S. Infantry of the Rainbow Division, had arrived at the pier in Hoboken safely and would be redirected to Lancaster shortly; no exact date was given. Columbus reported receiving 131 bodies of those who fell, one of the largest they had received since the government established them as a receiving port for Ohio and neighboring states.

After receiving SGT. Black’s body back home and waiting for the double funeral service to commemorate the lives of both SGT. Carroll Hendricks Black and CPL. Harry Franklin Hoffman, the family kept it surrounded by “beautiful flowers and tributes of respect from friends” at their residence on West Wheeling Street. The Rainbow Veterans, the American Legion, and the Rainbow Veterans Auxiliary of Columbus all contributed to the arrangement. It was further noted that “an unusual design was a large service flag made of flowers. It ws [sic] an exact reproduction of Sergt. Black’s service flag, both the blue and gold star being shown on the red and white background.” On the afternoon of Monday, August 1, 1921, at 2:30 p.m. after the planned arrival on the 6:29 Hocking Valley Railroad Train Saturday evening, July 30, 1921, the services were conducted at the Sherman Memorial Armory. Telegrams to both families were received the morning to confirm their arrival.

Rev. Joseph Sittler officiated the service under large American flags and was surrounded by friends and relatives of the two fallen heroes. Rev. Sittler spoke over SGT. Black while Rev. O. G. White spoke over CPL. Hoffman. Several songs were sang including, “The Holy City,” “The Soldier’s Farewell,” “Crossing The Bar,” “Home of the Soul,” and “Jesus, Lover Of My Soul.” The pall bearers were listed as being Sergeants Robert Young, Alexander Richardson, George Blosser, Louis Noice, Bert Lehew, and Clarence Lytle for SGT. Carroll H. Black. Honorary bearers were Captains William J. Belhorn, Otto Kindler, and Leon Miesse, and Lieutenants Ralph Miesse, Howard Carmen, and Grant Lindsey. All listed were members and comrades of the 166th U.S. Infantry, Rainbow Division of Company L. Included for CPL. Hoffman were eight marines as the active pall bearers, Allen Silbaugh, Emmitt Speriky, Henry Blackwood, Paul Aten, Harold Lawrence, John Shull, Ross Turner, and Warden L. Scholl.

The local Lancaster Eagle-Gazette reported a week later that “the horrors of war were more vividly presented to us as we watched the cortage [sic] winding its way a few days ago out Columbus Street to the cemetery beyond” through the “solemnity” that surrounded the bodies of the fallen as they remained covered by flowers in a silent journey to the cemetery. Both soldiers were interred at the Forest Rose cemetery in Lancaster and a firing squad remained present including Dewey and Daniel Stout, Otto and Chas. Corsen, Chas. Evans, James Skinner, George Brenstuhl, Charles Shaner, and Raymond Miskell. Pall bearers Young, Richardson, Lehew, and Lytle lifted the the American flag from the casket.

The Grace Reformed Church also honored its late member, SGT. Black, Sunday morning, September 8, 1918, as many attended to pay honor and respect. During the service, Carroll’s brother Vern, “fastened the gold star on the church’s service flag while the congregation sang ‘America.’”

After SGT. Black and his comrades gave their lives in service to their country to assist in the Great War overseas it came time for the policies to be distributed that the men of Company L took advantage of. It was noted that SGT. Black carried a $1,000 policy in the local Royal Arcanum and $10,000 military insurance, which he made payable to his mother, Grace, in the event he was killed. After his death the insurance policy gave a monthly payment to Grace for $57.50 for a twenty-year period (Equal to $1,174.44 in 1918 and $1,257.73 in 1938 when converted to 2024 dollars).

A few other pieces to note of Carroll Hendricks Black’s life were his gain of further education, some time between his graduation from Lancaster High School and his service in the war, from Columbia Commercial University. His trade was recorded as a stenographer. This perhaps may have been some time in Lancaster or during his time on the Panama Canal as records show stenographers being used there. The only two U.S. Census documents Carroll remained a part of showed him as a student (1900) and painter (1910). He never married or had children of his own and was a member of the Royal Arcanum Lodge. These pieces of his life are only fragments on his life without a timeframe to accompany them. The cross standing proud at the top of the hill in the Forest Rose cemetery forever marks a memory of a true patriot and hero of the United States of America.