Tampa man was first American officer wounded in World War I

LAND O’ LAKES — On a wall at Allie Cone III’s C.C. Marine shop, which repairs boats and sells bait, he displays his grandfather’s bullet-punctured military helmet and news clippings detailing Allie Cone Sr.’s heroism.

It’s his way of honoring the man who enlisted to serve in World War I less than a week after the U.S. joined the global conflict that began 110 years ago. Cone Sr. then had the dubious distinction of being the first U.S. officer injured in war, which, according to the Library of Congress website, totaled 320,000 American deaths and 204,000 wounded.

“He just was one of those men who always wanted to do what was right,” said Cone III, 65. “My family has always been proud of him.”

The Cones are one of Tampa’s pioneering families, with Louis Cone moving there around the time it was incorporated as a city in 1887. Family businesses included a livery, market, real estate, undertaking and a burial ground that would later become part of the Italian Club Cemetery.

Allie L. Cone Sr. was born in Plant City in 1888 and played football for the East Florida Seminary, which was later absorbed into the University of Florida. After graduation, he relocated to Cuba to work as a civil engineer.

World War I began on July 28, 1914, and initially pitted the Allied Powers of Russia, France, Japan and England against the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary.

The United States joined the Allied Powers on April 6, 1917.

“There was a lot of patriotism for the effort in Tampa,” said Rodney Kite-Powell of the Tampa Bay History Center. “A lot of young men, many from prominent families like the Cones, went off to fight.”

Allie Cone Sr. was in Havana at that time “and had a lucrative job,” according to one of the newspaper articles on display at C.C. Marine. But “two hours after he read … that his country was at war, he had his plunder packed … four days later he was on his way to New York to offer his services.”

But he was initially considered too short at 5 feet, 5 inches tall.

“He had to stretch himself to make the necessary height,” the newspaper article reported. “He made it and was the first man to enlist in the Eleventh Engineers, a new regiment that was being formed under the American War Act. He went in as a private, throwing up a $300 a month job to accept one at $30.”

In July 1917, according to the article, the Eleventh Engineers were shipped to France to assist the British forces. By then, Cone Sr. had risen to second lieutenant.

Cone Sr. was injured on Nov. 30, 1917, during the Battle of Cambrai while assisting the British forces in repelling attacking Germans.

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One headline reads, “Florida boy is first officer to be wounded.” Another claims he was the first man with a Cuba connection to be injured in the war.

“When the Germans burst through the British line … a handful of American engineers with picks and shovels and any weapons they could get hold of, flung themselves up on the astounded enemy and held that line,” reads another article. “Lieutenant Cone was in command of a squad of engineers who were supposed to be a non-combative portion of the American army, but no one has ever been able to find any confirmation of that statement from the Germans, French or British.”

Other articles write vaguely of Cone Sr. being the most heroic of the Americans.

“He himself was largely responsible for getting the squad through to safety,” reads one.

Cone III said he’d been told that his grandfather carried wounded Americans before being shot.

A bullet passed through one side of the front of the helmet and out the other side, grazing his forehead. His lack of height, once a detriment, saved him.

“The shortest man in the regiment … if he had been an inch taller, it would have finished him,” reported one newspaper. “While he was going back to the dressing station, his only comment was, ‘Get that tin hat; I want to keep it.’”

While in a French hospital, Cone Sr. was promoted to captain. Once recovered, he was assigned to the newly organized tank corps, an article reported. “Famous for including all the daredevils of the army,” the Germans “admit the tanks paralyzed their offenses and made their defenses mostly untenable.”

After the war ended in 1918, Cone Sr. returned to Havana but later relocated to Gainesville to run a hardware store, according to his obituary in 1955. He died at 67.

Cone III was born three years later. Though they never met, he said, his grandmother often spoke of his grandfather.

“He means a lot to me,” Cone III said. “He was a hero.”