Duty, Honor, Privilege: New York's Silk Stocking Regiment and the Breaking of the Hindenburg Line

One of the most heroic, and socially fascinating, episodes of World War I; This National Guard unit included the scions of New York society (including Vanderbilts, Roosevelts, Van Burens, Harrimans, Van Rensselaers, and Rhinelanders), artists, actors, writers, editors, and reporters; Dozens of photographs from private collections; A well-told story of a time when wealth and privilege often fueled patriotism and courage On September 29, 1918, a regiment of volunteers from New York State, many of them rich boys from Manhattan, attacked the famed Hindenburg Line, one of the strongest defensive systems ever devised. In the tradition of the Union Army's heroic assaults on Confederate entrenchments during the closing battles of the Civil War, the doughboys hurled themselves at the center of a desperate but still powerful army. At a frightful cost, they broke the enemy and, just as their Union forebears had done, helped bring a terrible war to a close. The regiment suffered more killed that day than any other regiment in American history. Interweaving extracts from letters, diaries, and previously published accounts, Duty, Honor, Privilege follows the patrician 7th New York Infantry Regim