Geary County Kansas

James Cornelius Jr. Ruddell from Kansas, Geary county.

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Sunday, July 16, 1950
Death details: On the evening of July 15, 1950, the U.S. Army’s 19th Infantry Regiment held defensive positions along the south bank of the Kum River. As dusk approached, North Korean People’s Army (NKPA) tanks appeared on the opposite shore and began firing on the U.S. positions. Although U.S. troops repulsed the attacks that evening, the next morning the NKPA crossed the river and launched a major attack against the 19th Regiment. As the regiment began withdrawing south to Taejon, the North Koreans pushed deep into their defensive lines and set up a roadblock en route to Taejon. When retreating American convoys could not break through the roadblock, soldiers were forced to leave the road and attempt to make their way in small groups across the countryside. Of the 900 soldiers in the 19th Infantry when the Battle of Kum River started, only 434 made it to friendly lines. Captain James Cornelius Ruddell Jr. entered the U.S. Army from West Virginia and served with Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 19th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He was captured on July 16, 1950 during the Battle of Kum River, as his unit was attempting to withdraw through an enemy roadblock outside Taejon. He was marched to various holding camps in North Korea before he was eventually interned at the Apex camp at Hanjang-ni. He died at this camp of exhaustion, malnutrition, and pneumonia in late January or early February 1951, and was buried near Hanjang-ni. His remains were not recovered or identified following the war. Today, Captain Ruddell is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency