C. L. Daniel was an American

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

veteran known for being the first victim of the

Tulsa Race Massacre The Tulsa race massacre was a two-day-long white supremacist terrorist massacre that took place in the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma, between May 31 and June 1, 1921, when mobs of white residents, some of whom had been appointed as ...

identified from remains exhumed from

mass graves A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may Unidentified decedent, not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of exec ...

Tulsa Tulsa ( ) is the second-most-populous city in the state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tul ...

Biography

C. L. Daniel was born and raised in

Newnan, Georgia Newnan is a city in and the county seat of Coweta County, Georgia, United States, about southwest of Atlanta. Its population was 42,549 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, up from 33,039 in 2010 United States census, 2010. History N ...

to Thomas Daniel and Amanda Merriweather. His father died before 1910. He was drafted into the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

in 1918 during

and served until 1919. He was stationed at

Camp Gordon Fort Gordon, formerly known as Fort Eisenhower and Camp Gordon, is a United States Army installation established southwest of Augusta, Georgia in October 1941. It is the current home of the United States Army Signal Corps, United States Army Cy ...

Chamblee, Georgia Chamblee ( ) is a city in northern DeKalb County, Georgia, United States, northeast of Atlanta. The population was 30,164 as of the 2020 census. History The area that would later become Chamblee was originally dairy farms. During the late n ...

, during his military tenure with the 47th Company, 12th Training Battalion, and the 406th Rescue Labor Battalion, Company B. According to an anthropologist at the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...

, he spent 19 days in a base hospital for a possible leg injury.

Death and identification

After the war, Daniel traveled across the United States. He was on his way home to Georgia from Utah when he was killed in the

. In 2020, the city of

began exhuming suspected

related to the massacre. In July 2024, Daniel was the first victim of the massacre exhumed from the graves positively identified. The city offered to help rebury Daniel according to his family's wishes. A memorial service was held in which the mayor of Tulsa G.T. Bynum eulogized Danial and spoke of his relationship to his bereaved mother. A letter from his family was read: "Today represents more than a memorial for C.L. Daniel and those still resting in unidentified graves; it is a long-waited acknowledgement of the lives impacted by the massacre."

References

External links

City of Tulsa press release - July 12, 2024
{{DEFAULTSORT:Daniel, C. L. People from Newnan, Georgia People involved in the Tulsa race massacre United States Army personnel of World War I 1921 deaths 1896 births