Two Fallen SC Soldiers | History of SC Slide Collection

Many young South Carolinians lost their lives in the First World War. This sheet music celebrates two Sumter natives, Robert O. Purdy and Ervin D. Shaw, after whom Shaw Air Base was named. The verse of the song says: "From Sumter there went across the sea / Two boys with purpose true, soldiers to be / In mind they were sturdy with never a flaw / The one was a Purdy and the other a Shaw / Forgetting friends and relatives at home / They died for country's sake across the foam / From dear old Sumter they were first to go / That Sumter was loyal the world must know / So peace to their ashes and then Hurrah! / For Robert O. Purdy and Ervin D. Shaw."

Courtesy of the Sumter County Museum Archives.