Real Heroes – Blanton, Thomas H.

Private First Class Thomas H. Blanton died in a base hospital at Fort Benning, Georgia, Tuesday morning of an accidentally inflicted bullet wound. Private Blanton, a son of Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Blanton of Cliffside, was a member of Battery “B,” 14th Field Artillery of the Second Army Division.

According to reports, Private Blanton and another soldier, who had been on guard duty, entered their quarters Monday night and prepared to holster their pistols. The gun in the hand of Blanton’s comrade was in some manner accidentally discharged, the bullet striking Private First Class Blanton (March 29, 1922-February 3, 1942). He was taken to the U.S. Army hospital where he died Tuesday morning.

The body will arrive at Cliffside (via Southern Railway according to the Rutherford County News, February 5, 1942) about noon Thursday (today). Funeral services will be held Friday afternoon at three o’clock at the Cliffside Baptist Church, of which he was a member, and interment will be in the Cliffside Cemetery. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Blanton of Cliffside, and six brothers survived him. (Spindale Sun, February 5, 1942)