JOHN C. PRINCE, MAJ, USA

John Prince '12

Date of birth: February 13, 1889

Date of death: November 1, 1918

Age: 29

Naval Academy Register

John was appointed to the Naval Academy twice, both by Senator Brandegee of Connecticut. The first time was August 20, 1907 with the Class of 1911. His resignation was requested in February 1908 for being deficient in his examinations. (Information from Hartford Courant on February 21, 1908).

In March of 1908 he was reappointed, and he re-entered with the Class of 1912 on June 15, 1908. He resigned a second time on June 9, 1909.

Lucky Bag

John Coleman Prince, "Jack," from Connecticut, is listed as "Unaccounted For" in the 1912 Lucky Bag; he is listed as a "Bilger" in the 1911 edition.

Photographs

Loss

John was lost on November 1, 1918 while leading a raid on the Western Front in France.

Other Information

From The Day (New London, Connecticut):

Maj. John Coleman Prince, the son of a New London dentist, had a similar experience. He attended the Naval Academy for two years but joined the Army in 1911 and served in the cavalry expedition that hunted Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa.
In the closing days of the war, he found himself in the segregated 92nd Division of black troops and mostly white officers called the Buffalo Soldiers Division.
On Nov. 1, 1918, Prince led a raiding party over German lines in search of information. The party was fired on, and Prince was struck. He was captured and died two hours later.
Initially reported missing, he was confirmed killed in a telegram the war department sent to his parents two months later, after the joy of the armistice.

John is buried in France.

Career

In the 1916 Army Register, he was a 2Lt. He began his service as a private and then corporal in Troop G, 11th Cavalry, from 10 February 1910 to 15 August 1912. He became a 2Lt in the 13th Cavalry on 16 August 1912. He transferred to the 7th Cavalry on 1 January 1914 and the 9th Cavalry on 15 November 1915.

Remembrances

From “The Day” newspaper on November 11, 2018:

The celebration of the armistice on Nov. 11, 1918, might have meant the end of World War I but not the end of sorrow for New London families.
In the days and weeks that followed, word continued to come from France of local men who had been killed in the war’s intense final days.
As today is not only the centennial of the armistice but also Veterans Day, it’s worth remembering a New London soldier whose name is familiar to local veterans.
Maj. John Coleman Prince, the son of a New London dentist, was in the thick of the fight in those last days. A soldier since 1911, he had served in the Philippines and at the Mexican border during the hunt for Pancho Villa.
While in command of a cavalry troop in Arizona, he applied for duty overseas and arrived in France in March 1918. In September, when his parents last heard from him, he wrote that he was worried because he hadn’t heard from them in weeks. They cabled him that they were fine.
At the time, Prince, 29, had just completed training at an Army school and was awaiting orders. He soon was assigned to the 365th Infantry Regiment in the 92nd Division. Known as the “Buffalo Soldiers Division,” it was a segregated unit of black troops and mostly white officers. Prince commanded a battalion.
On Nov. 1, he led a raiding party behind German lines and did not return.
A month after the armistice, his parents received a telegram at their home on Vauxhall Street that said their son was missing in action. His mother appealed for help to the Red Cross in the hope that he might turn up at a German hospital or prison.
But another telegram ended her hopes a week after Christmas. It confirmed that Prince had been killed Nov. 1.
It was determined that he had been shot during the raid, was taken prisoner, and died two hours later. In a note of condolence, Prince’s commanding officer wrote that “his life though short in years was complete in things accomplished.”
He was buried in France, but his name would soon gain local immortality.
A few months after the armistice, local men organized a post of a new veterans group called the American Legion. They named it for the highest-ranking New Londoner killed in the war: Maj. John Coleman Prince.