| Home State | Civilian Occupation |
| Delaware | Farmhand |
| Branch | Service Number |
| U.S. Army | 32754927 |
| Theater | Unit |
| Mediterranean | Company “I,” 133rd Infantry Regiment, 34th Infantry Division |
| Military Occupational Specialty | Campaigns/Battles |
| 745 (rifleman) | Naples-Foggia and Rome-Arno campaigns |
Early Life & Family
Samuel Agustus Matthews, Jr., was born on December 12, 1924, in Bridgeville, Delaware. He was the fifth child of Samuel Agustus Matthews, Sr. (1894–1964) and Minnie Truitt Matthews (née Dickerson, c. 1893–1968). He grew up with three older sisters, an older brother, and a younger sister. Three other siblings died very young.
The Matthews family suffered from extreme poverty. Minnie Matthews later recalled in a letter c. 1944:
I went through all the aches and pains for to bring him in this world and I his mother worked hard to rais[e] him to be 18 yrs old and sometimes I did not know where I was going to get his breakfast from and would lay an[d] cry because I had nothing to eat for him[.]
In another letter, dated September 21, 1944, Matthews’s father recalled of his son: “He was just a poor boy[.] He worked and helped me to support the family expenses[.]”
Matthews and his family were recorded on the census in April 1930 living on Collins Mill Road in the 3rd Representative District of Sussex County. His father was working as a truck driver at the time. The Matthews family was recorded on the 1940 census living on Road 266 in the 10th Representative District in Sussex County, Delaware. The census enumeration map from that year shows Road 266 as t-shaped with a long segment from Lewes to Nassau (present day New Road) and a shorter, dead-end spur (present day Lynn Road). The census described Matthews as a farmhand with a 7th grade education. He was listed as having worked 50 hours during the week of March 24–30, 1940.
When he registered for the draft on his 18th birthday, December 14, 1942, Matthews was living in Lewes and working for John T. Nitch in the Drawbridge area of Milton, Delaware. The registrar described him as standing five feet, seven inches tall and weighing 132 lbs., with brown hair and eyes. Matthews was Protestant.
Military Career & Marriage
After Matthews was drafted, he was inducted into the U.S. Army on March 20, 1943, most likely in Camden, New Jersey. As was customary for draftees, he was permitted a brief period on inactive duty to take care of his civilian affairs. During this time, Matthews married Laura Beatrice Seabrease (1926–1952) in Bridgeville, Delaware, on March 26, 1943. His bride, nicknamed Betty, was also from Lewes. According to a 1944 letter from Matthews’s mother to the Army preserved in his individual deceased personnel file (I.D.P.F.), he left the following day to report for active duty at Fort Dix, New Jersey.
Oddly enough—especially since news of the wedding was printed at least in the Wilmington newspapers—Matthews’s father told the Army in his 1944 letter that his son married in secret. He wrote that Private Matthews did not mention any wife when he returned home on a 10-day furlough after basic training at Camp Rucker, Alabama. He added they the family only found out when Private Matthews “wrote his little eight year old sister Shirley Ann Matthews and told her if ever the war was over she would have a new sister inlaw [sic] because he was going to bring her home with him.”
Although his personnel file was destroyed in the 1973 National Personnel Records Center fire, a letter from his mother suggested that when Private Matthews signed up for the standard $10,000 life insurance policy available to servicemembers, he earmarked half to his wife and half to his parents.
Private Matthews’s military occupational specialty was 745, rifleman.
Payroll records indicate that Matthews was fined $20 of his pay after being convicted in a summary court-martial for an unspecified minor offense on August 13, 1943, and that he went overseas as a replacement on October 4, 1943. Shortly thereafter, on October 26, 1943, Betty Matthews gave birth to their only child, Carlton Samuel Matthews (1943–1993).
By December 13, 1943, Private Matthews had been assigned to the 133rd Infantry Regiment, 34th Infantry Division. He was further assigned to Company “I,” 3rd Battalion, 133rd Infantry, effective December 14, 1943. Rifle companies typically took the heaviest casualties during combat and there was a constant demand for replacement riflemen. Of the 28 men who joined Company “I” that day, 21 were riflemen including Matthews, and six more were ammunition handlers, which when assigned to a rifle a squad would essentially double as riflemen.
His regiment had seen intense combat in North Africa and Italy. At the time, the Japanese-American 100th Infantry Battalion was substituting for the 133rd Infantry Regiment’s 2nd Battalion, which had temporarily been detached from the unit.
The 133rd Infantry history for December 1943 stated:
The Regiment remained in the rest area, vicinity Alife, Italy, during the period 11–30 December. At the beginning of the period a considerable portion of the time was spent bathing, cleaning equipment and assimilating replacements. After this was accomplished a training program emphasizing physical hardening, scouting and patrolling and the training of specialist [sic] was carried out. Throughout the period troops were sent to the Rest Center in Naples and a continuous program of entertainment was provided for the troops in the area. Movies were shown every night as well as some stage shows.
This acclimation period was extremely important. Replacements were far more likely to become casualties than veterans, a situation compounded when they joined a unit already in the line. The regimental history stated that “On the evening of 30 December, the Regiment commenced [its] move to an assembly area in the vicinity of Presenzano, Italy, where it was to be in II Corps reserve.”
There was a blizzard the night of New Year’s Eve. During the first five days of January 1944, the men of the 133rd Infantry performed reconnaissance missions and “Training was continued with special emphasis on scouting and patrolling and maintenance of a high standard of physical fitness.”
Private Matthews first saw combat during the second week of January 1944, when the 133rd Infantry Regiment assaulted a series of five high points on the approach to the Gustav Line beginning on January 7. The regimental history stated:
Objectives were taken in the face of stubborn enemy resistance, very mountainous terrain and adverse weather conditions. The taking of each hill was a battle in itself, the enemy was well dug in and in each case held commanding ground. At times it was necessary to drive the enemy from his positions at the point of a bayonet. The weather was extremely cold and the trails over the mountains were treacherous being covered with snow and ice. There were no vehicular roads, supplies had to be packed by mules and hand for distances up to ten miles.
The 133rd Infantry then consolidated its gains, spending most of January 15–21, 1944, in defensive positions, aside from patrolling and one diversionary mission. The regimental history continued:
On the night of January 21 – 22, the Regiment occupied positions north of its former positions in anticipation of attacking the Cassino Heights across the Rapido River. […]
At 2200 hours January 24th the Regiment jumped off on its attack on the heights north of Cassino. The regiment attacked with three Battalions abreast, First Battalion on the right, 100th Battalion on the left. The Regiment advanced slowly against enemy wire entanglements, mine fields and strongly fortified positions, by evening of January 25th all three Battalions had elements across the Rapido River and were preparing to continue the attack. On January 26th the Regiment continued the attack meeting stiff resistances in the [form] of Machine-gun, Mortar, Small arms fire, mines and wire entanglements. Casualties were heavy and progress slow, that night defensive positions were taken up on the West side of the River. The 100th Battalion held in place until relieved by elements of the 135th Infantry at approximately 2400 hours. The First and Third Battalions outposted the river line and held Line of Departure for the 168th Infantry until 0630 hours January 27th at which time the 168th Infantry attacked through our lines. The Regiment immediately moved to an assembly area in Division Reserve. The Regiment remained in Division reserve until the night of January 29th when it relieved the 135th Infantry taking up their defensive positions.
Private Matthews was reported missing in action as of January 29, 1944. As was typical during the war, family notification was delayed by weeks. In a telegram dated February 26, 1944, the War Department told Betty Matthews that her husband was missing.
It was subsequently determined that Matthews was killed in action after his body was found that summer, one mile north of Cassino. According to the burial report, he suffered fatal shell fragment wounds to his head, chest, and legs.
Officially, Private Matthews was killed in action on the same day he was reported missing, January 29, 1944. The regimental history suggests that it was more likely that he was killed during January 24–27, when the regiment was in the middle of intense combat, though of course it cannot be ruled out that he was killed while the 133rd was relieving the 135th. It could not have been after that, since the 135th was in reserve. Even if an artillery shell struck while he was behind the lines, his body would have been discovered much sooner than July.
It was often difficult for the company clerk to obtain an accurate accounting of casualties when a regiment was in combat, so many casualties were reported only after the unit came out of the line. When possible, a casualty date would be backdated. If that information was not available, though, the casualty would be recorded for a specific and possibly inaccurate date rather than for a range of possible dates.
Private Matthews was buried at a temporary U.S. military cemetery at Marzanello Nuovo, Italy, on July 15, 1944. Despite that, the Adjutant General’s Office did not officially change his status to killed in action until August 5, 1944. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart.
After the war, Matthews’s mother repeatedly requested to the Army that her son’s body be repatriated to the United States. She wrote in part:
I am asking you again as God being my helper for his body to be sent home to me as others [sic] mothers are receiving their boys and it hurts me so bad for who I loved so dearly that to be taken away from me and destroyed and I can’t get his body if he is dead I could goe [sic] where he is if he is brought back here[.] I love my dear boy who ment [sic] so much to me and all I had although I have other children but they never filled his place he was so kind and good to me[.]
Minnie Matthews added that “his little 3 years boy says he wants his [daddy to] come home[.] We have showed him his picture and taught him that was his [daddy.]”
Matthews’s mother accused her daughter-in-law of remarrying, which would have voided her status as Private Matthews’s next of kin. Betty Matthews denied that accusation and in 1948 requested that her husband’s body be buried in a permanent cemetery overseas. In accordance with her wishes, he was reburied at Nettuno, Italy, at what is now known as the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery.
On an unknown date, Matthews’s widow remarried to another soldier, Harvey Rice. Matthews’s son, Carlton “Beau” Matthews, served in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Vietnam War and later became a lieutenant for the Bethany Beach Police Department.
Notes
Middle Name
All known sources which give Matthews’s middle name spell it Agustus. Some records pertaining to his father give the elder Matthews’s name as Agustus, while others use Augustus.
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to Matt LeMasters for a morning report that provided Private Matthews’s M.O.S. and those of his cohort of replacements.
Bibliography
“1940 Census Enumeration District Maps – Delaware – Sussex County – ED 3-1 – ED 3-57.” Enumeration District and Related Maps, 1880–1990. Record Group 29, Records of the Bureau of the Census. National Archives at College Park, Maryland. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/5829592?objectPage=2
Census Record for Samuel A. Matthews, Jr. April 28, 1930. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Record Group 29, Records of the Bureau of the Census. National Archives at Washington, D.C. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GR4Z-L75
Census Record for Samuel A. Matthews, Jr. Undated, c. April 1940. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Record Group 29, Records of the Bureau of the Census. National Archives at Washington, D.C. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89MR-M96V
Certificate of Birth for Samuel Agustus Matthews, Jr. August 22, 1940. Record Group 1500-008-094, Birth Certificates. Delaware Public Archives, Dover, Delaware. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9YQM-QWLC
Certificate of Marriage for Samuel A. Matthews Jr. and Laura B. Seabrease. March 27, 1943. Delaware Marriages. Bureau of Vital Statistics, Hall of Records, Dover, Delaware. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-6BB9-F7R
Draft Registration Card for Samuel Agustus Matthews, Jr. December 14, 1942. Draft Registration Cards for Delaware, October 16, 1940 – March 31, 1947. Record Group 147, Records of the Selective Service System. National Archives at St. Louis, Missouri. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2238/images/44003_03_00001-00125
Headstone Inscription and Interment Record for Samuel A. Matthews Jr. Headstone Inscription and Interment Records for U.S. Military Cemeteries on Foreign Soil, 1942–1949. Record Group 117, Records of the American Battle Monuments Commission, 1918–c. 1995. National Archives at Washington, D.C. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/168957208?objectPage=1796#object-thumb–1796
“History 133rd Infantry Regiment 34th Infantry Division From 1 December 1943 to 31 December 1943 Incl.” Undated, c. January 1944. World War II Operations Reports, 1940–48. Record Group 407, Records of the Adjutant General’s Office. National Archives at College Park, Maryland.
“History 133rd Infantry Regiment 34th Infantry Division From: 1 January to 31 January 1944 incl.” Undated, c. February 1944. World War II Operations Reports, 1940–48. Record Group 407, Records of the Adjutant General’s Office. National Archives at College Park, Maryland.
Hospital Admission Card for 32754927. January 1944. U.S. WWII Hospital Admission Card Files, 1942–1954. Record Group 112, Records of the Office of the Surgeon General (Army), 1775–1994. National Archives at College Park, Maryland. https://www.fold3.com/record/704876547/blank-us-wwii-hospital-admission-card-files-1942-1954
Individual Deceased Personnel File for Samuel A. Matthews, Jr. Individual Deceased Personnel Files, 1939–1953. Record Group 92, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774–1985. National Archives at St. Louis, Missouri. Courtesy of U.S. Army Human Resources Command.
Morning Report for Company “I,” 133rd Infantry Regiment. December 15, 1943. U.S. Army Morning Reports, c. 1912–1946. Record Group 64, Records of the National Archives and Records Administration. National Archives at St. Louis, Missouri. Courtesy of Matt LeMasters.
“Mrs. Laura Beatrice Rice.” Journal-Every Evening, January 2, 1953.” https://www.newspapers.com/article/152202579/
“Pay Roll of Company ‘I’, 133rd Infantry Regiment For month of November, 1943. November 30, 1943. U.S. Army Muster Rolls and Rosters, November 1, 1912 – December 31, 1943. Record Group 64, Records of the National Archives and Records Administration. National Archives at St. Louis, Missouri. https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/st-louis/rg-064/85713803_1940-1943/85713803_1940-1943_Roll-1719/85713803_1940-1943_Roll-1719_08.pdf
“Seabrease-Matthews.” Journal-Every Evening, April 2, 1943. https://www.newspapers.com/article/152197737/
“Soldier Reported Missing.” Journal-Every Evening, March 14, 1944. https://www.newspapers.com/article/152186694/
Last updated on September 8, 2024
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