Wayne Miner
Wayman Miner was an American soldier who fought in the Buffalo Soldier regiment during the First World War. He died in the hours between the signing of the Armistice and the symbolic 11 a.m. time it was set to go into effect, after volunteering for a mission to carry ammunition to a machine gun nest.
Early life
Wayman "Wayne" Miner was born in the early 1890s in Henry County, Missouri, to Ned and Emily Minor, both former slaves. The family later moved to Appanoose County, Iowa, where Miner worked as a coal miner before enlisting in the army. Miner married Belle Carter sometime between 1910 and 1918.Service
Miner enlisted in the U.S. Army in October 1917 in Kansas City, Missouri. He completed his basic training at Camp Dodge, Iowa. On June 15, 1918, he was deployed to France with Company A, 366th Infantry Regiment, 92nd Division. This was a segregated African American combat unit, known as the "Buffalo Soldiers", whose shoulder patch insignia featured a charging buffalo and whose motto was "Deeds, Not Words." The 92nd Division was one of two segregated African American combat divisions in the American Expeditionary Forces.Death
During the Meuse-Argonne Offensive on November 11, 1918, Miner volunteered alongside three other soldiers to supply ammunition to a machine gun nest which was under fire. Miner died carrying out that mission, reportedly from shrapnel. His death came after the Armistice was signed but before it went into effect, as the cession of fighting was delayed six hours to coincide with "the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month."Miner was buried in the St. Mihiel American Cemetery in Thiaucourt, France.