Author: Matthew M. Peek, Military Collection Archivist
Andrew Heartsfield Green Jr. was born on March 25, 1888, in Raleigh, North Carolina, to Andrew Heartsfield and Pennina E. Watson Green. Andrew Green Sr. was a farmer, and he and Pennina (or “Ninna”) had seven children. Andrew Green Jr. was the youngest child. His mother died in January 1902, when Andrew was thirteen years old. Andrew’s sister Daisy took care of the family home following their mother’s death, and Andrew and Daisy appear to have been very close.
Green attended North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (now North Carolina State University) in Raleigh from around 1905 to 1909, and was a member of the Massey Chapter of the Alpha Zeta fraternity. At the time of his draft registration for World War I, Andrew H. Green Jr. was working as a clerk at Commercial National Bank in Raleigh, and was single. He was described as being of medium height and medium build, with brown eyes and dark-colored hair.
Andrew Green Jr. enlisted in the National Guard at Camp Sevier in South Carolina on October 9, 1917, and was assigned to Company F, 120th Infantry, 30th Division, U.S. Army. He reached the rank of corporal on November 1, 1917, but he resigned on December 5, 1917, to accept an officer’s commission as second lieutenant on December 6, 1917, in Company F, 120th Infantry. Green traveled with his unit to Camp Merritt in New Jersey, then was shipped overseas for service in Europe. Green served overseas from May 7, 1918, to January 7, 1919, in France. Green was involved in an engagement at Ypres, Belgium, in July 1918, and was severely wounded on July 24, 1918, on the front lines. He would write that he was not badly wounded, but his military record indicates otherwise. 
Andrew Green Jr. was transferred to an American Red Cross convalescent hospital in Surrey, England, where he remained through the Armistice signing in November 1918. He reports traveling to London and celebrating the end of the war there. His unit returned to the United States, and was sent to Camp Mills in New York before being transferred to Camp Dix in New Jersey to be discharged. When he was discharged on January 15, 1919, Green was reported as being 10% disabled.
After the war, Andrew Green returned to live with his family in Raleigh, where he worked as a clerk. By 1922, he had become an insurance adjustor for the Southern Adjustment Bureau in Raleigh. By 1930, he was working as an adjustor for the Fire Companies’ Adjustment Bureau in Raleigh. Green would never marry, and continued working as an insurance adjustor until his death. Andrew Green Jr. died on December 12, 1940, at the age of 52, and was buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh, N.C.
To learn more about Andrew Green Jr.’s WWI service, check out the collection Andrew H. Green Jr. Papers (WWI 30) held in the WWI Papers of the Military Collection at the State Archives of North Carolina in Raleigh, N.C.
This blog post is part of the State Archives of North Carolina’s World War I Social Media Project, an effort to bring original WWI archival materials to the public through the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources’ (NCDNCR) various social media platforms, in order to increase access to the items during the WWI centennial celebration by the state of North Carolina.
Between February 2017 and June 2019, the State Archives of North Carolina will be posting blog articles, Facebook posts, and Twitter posts, featuring WWI archival materials which are posted on the exact 100th anniversary of their creation during the war. Blog posts will feature interpretations of the content of WWI documents, photographs, diary entries, posters, and other records, including scans of the original archival materials, held by the State Archives of North Carolina, and will be featured in NCDNCR’s WWI centennial blog.