Original Item. One-of-a-Kind. On the second day of the Battle of Blanc Mont, October 4th, 1918, Corporal Charles Elmer Sloan was advancing with the 16th Company, 5th Regiment, United States Marine Corps, and suffered a gunshot wound to the wrist. He spent several days in the hospital before returning to his company to fight in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. This is the wound certificate presented to Sloan’s family for his wounds, which during a time when the Purple Heart had not yet been authorized (1932), came close as the next best thing.

Charles Elmer Sloan was born on March 20th, 1894 in Clarion, Pennsylvania. He was enrolled as a student when he registered for the draft in June 1917. While first listing on his draft card that he claimed exemption being a student in New York and he’d “lose all I have worked for”, this reason was scribbled out, and on December 20th, 1917, Sloan enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, spending several months training at Parris Island, South Carolina. On August 27th, 1918, he arrived overseas with a replacement battalion of Marines, arriving to his new unit, the 16th Company, 5th Regiment, just days before the start of the St. Mihiel Offensive, where Sloan would undergo his baptism of fire. Sloan fought in the offensive from September 12-16th, 1918, which was the first American-led Offensive of the war under its own army, the American First Army.

During the Battle of Blanc Mont (Champagne), on October 4th, 1918, Sloan was severely wounded by a gunshot wound to the wrist, sending him to the hospital for several days. He returned to his unit shortly thereafter and continued into the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. He would remain in Europe after the war with the Army of Occupation in Germany, returning stateside after a year of service in August 1919, being discharged from the Marine Corps on August 13th, 1919. Sloan would later move to San Diego, California, where he would work as a singer for a radio station during the 1920’s and 1930’s. In the 1940’s he worked as a funeral director and in the 1950’s, a shopkeeper. Sloan lived to the ripe old age of 93, passing away on July 21st, 1987.

Sloan’s wound certificate is framed and at the bottom reads Charles Elmer Sloan - Marine Corps Served with Honor in the World War and was Wounded in Action.  The frame measures 17 ¼" x 21 ¼”. It hangs via a fixed metal hanger on the top of the frame. The frame and certificate are in great condition overall.

Anything to combat marines from the First World War is very difficult to come by. Here’s a chance to own a great piece of Marine Corps history.