The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
York, Alvin Cullum
1887–1964, American soldier known as Sergeant York, b. Fentress co., Tenn. He was reared on a back-country farm in Tennessee. A conscientious objector at the beginning of World War I, he later agreed to fight and was credited with killing 25 German soldiers, capturing 132 others, and taking a hill in an engagement (Oct. 8, 1918) in the Argonne Forest. York received the highest decorations of the American and French governments and became a popular hero. He later founded a school in the Tennessee mountains.
