Sgt. Hardy B. Alligood (April 8, 1916 – February 3, 1945)
291st Infantry Regiment, 75th Infantry Division
by Alison Tanner and Elizabeth Klements
Early Life
Hardy Bryant Alligood was born on April 8, 1916, to Elyer Obelah Alligood (1878) and Rachel Gay Alligood (1880) in Rudy Springs, Laurens County, GA.1 Elyer and Rachel were both born in Georgia, where they married on July 26, 1899.2 They had three children: Bertha (1904), Augustus (1906), and Hardy (1916).3 The family lived and worked on a rented farm in Laurens County until sometime between 1920 and 1930 when Elyer’s occupation changed from farmer to “laborer at a naval store.”4 The family, however, continued to reside in Laurens County.5
Elyer’s occupation change may have been due to his wife Rachel’s death from hypothyroidism complications in 1928.6 The Alligoods suffered many losses during Hardy’s early life; his only sister Bertha died at a young age, sometime between 1910 and 1920, and less than a decade after his mother Rachel passed away, both his brother Augustus and his brother’s wife Aleene died in 1936; Augustus from stomach ulcers, and his wife from typhoid fever a few months later.7
By 1940, Hardy married Lessie Florence, who was also from Laurens County, GA, and the couple moved to Highland City in Polk County, FL.8 There, Hardy worked in the citrus industry, first as a truck driver and later in a warehouse or factory. The couple also moved from Highland City to somewhere in the nearby Volusia County between 1940 and 1943.9
Military Service
Alligood was drafted into the U.S. Army on March 12, 1943.10 He served in Company K in the 291st Infantry Regiment of the 75th Infantry Division, where he eventually earned the rank of sergeant.11 The 75th Division arrived in England on November 22, 1944, and after a short training program, landed in Le Havre and Rouen in northeastern France on December 12, 1944. The division arrived just four days before the Germans launched a counter-offensive in the Ardennes region, on the borders of France, Belgium, and Luxembourg, known as the Battle of the Bulge. It was in this battle that the 75th first saw action.12
Throughout December, the 75th Division helped halt the German advance on the Belgian city of Antwerp, then, in January, it worked with other Allied forces to push the German “bulge” back through the Ardennes.13 In February, the US military leaders assigned the 75th Division to assist the French First Army in retaking the Colmar pocket in the Alsace region, on the French-German border. Alligood died during this offensive, on February 3, 1945, when his 291st Regiment led the charge to take back the German-held village of Wolfgantzen in front of Neuf-Brisach. 14
Legacy
Sgt. Alligood died in battle, at the age of twenty-nine. For his sacrifice, the U.S. Army posthumously awarded him a Purple Heart. He now rests at the Epinal American Cemetery in Lorraine, France.15 He left behind his wife, Florence, and his father. Elyer Alligood, having lost his wife, a daughter-in-law, and the last of his three children, remained in Laurens County, Georgia, where he died in 1956, at the age of seventy-seven.16
1“U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947,” database, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/12684586:2238: accessed May 12, 2021), entry for Hardy Bryant Alligood; “1920 U.S. Census,” database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed May 12, 2021), entry for H.B. Alligood, Laurens County, Georgia; “Georgia, U.S. Marriage Records from Select Counties, 1828-1978,” database, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/1236244:4766: accessed May 12, 2021), entry for O.E. Alligood and Rachel Gay.
2 “1900 U.S. Census,” database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed May 12, 2021), entry for Elliot (Elyer) Alligood, Laurens County, Georgia; “Georgia, U.S. Marriage Records,” entry for O.E. Alligood and Rachel Gay.
3 “1910 U.S. Census,” database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed May 12, 2021), entry for Elliot (Elyer) Alligood, Laurens County, Georgia.
4 “1930 U.S. Census,” database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed May 12, 2021), entry for Elliot (Elyer) Alligood, Laurens County, Georgia.
5 “1930 U.S. Census.”
6 “Georgia, U.S., Deaths Index, 1914-1940,” database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed May 12, 2021), entry for Rachel Alligood.
7“1910 U.S. Census;” “1920 U.S. Census;” “Georgia, U.S., Deaths Index, 1914-1940,” database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed May 12, 2021), entry for Augustus Alligood. For Eleene’s death, see “Augustus Alligood,” Find a Grave, accessed May 13, 2021, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/33193899/augustus-alligood.
8 “U.S. World War II Draft Cards,” entry for Alligood.
9 “1940 U.S. Census,” database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed May 13, 2021), entry for Hardy Alligood, Highland City, Polk County, Florida; “U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records,” database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed May 13, 2021), entry for Hardy Alligood, serial number 34548299.
10 “U.S., World War II Enlistment Records,” entry for Alligood.
11 Raymond Smith, “291st Regiment KIA,” 75th Infantry Division Deceased Roster, accessed May 13, 2021, http://75thdivisiondad.com/kia_roster.htm#3.
12 U.S. Army, The 75th Infantry Division in Combat, 1 – 4, at 75th Division Dad, accessed May 13, 2021, http://75thdivisiondad.com/75ic/75ic1.htm.
13 Ibid, 4 – 17.
14 Ibid, 18 – 24; “U.S. WWII Hospital Admission Card Files, 1942-1954,” database, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com: accessed May 13, 2021), entry for Hardy B. Alligood, serial number 34548299; “Headstone Inscription and Internment Record,” database, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com: accessed May 13, 2021), entry for Hardy B. Alligood.
15 “Hardy B. Alligood,” American Battle Monuments Commission, accessed May 13, 2021, https://www.abmc.gov/decedent-search/alligood%3Dhardy.
16 “Georgia, U.S., Death Index, 1919-1998,” database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed May 13, 2021), entry for Elyer O. Alligood.