Thomas C. Neibaur

Thomas Neibaur was born in Sharon, Bear Lake County, Idaho, the ninth of ten children of James C. Neibaur (1862–1938) and Elizabeth Croft Neibaur (1863–1938). Thomas' grandfather, Joseph W. Neibaur (1835–1927), settled in Paris, Idaho in the 1880s. In August 1907, Neibaur was baptized into the LDS Church. Though his parents and family remained faithful members of the LDS Church, Neibaur drifted from active participation. He always considered himself a believer in God, though he maintained he was not religious. Even though he was not an active member of the LDS Church, he maintained connections to it because of his family. ==Military service==

Neibaur enlisted in the Idaho National Guard on March 30, 1917, a week before the April 6 United States declaration of war against Germany. After completing training and organization at Camp Merritt, New Jersey, the division deployed to France, where it provided replacement troops for other units of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF). Neibaur was assigned to Company M, 167th Infantry Regiment of the 42nd Division. ==Campaigns and battles==

Neibaur was a private and served as an automatic rifleman using the French manufactured Chauchat 8mm automatic rifle using a "banana clip" of 20 rounds. In February he went into the lines on the Lunéville sector, and then later in March at the Baccarat sector. He did not see any real combat except for artillery fire until March 1918, once the German "Ludendorff Offensive" commenced on March 21, 1918. ==Later life==

Neibaur spent several months in field hospitals recovering from his wounds. His last wound by a German machine gun bullet remained in his hip the rest of his life. Neibaur also represented the first private in the U.S. Army to receive the Medal of Honor. On February 9, 1919, at the AEF headquarters at Chaumont, France, Pershing presented the Medal of Honor to him, along with a dozen other officers and soldiers. He married Sarah "Lois" Shepard in November 1919; she was six years older than him and had a son from a previous marriage. Discouraged by his misfortune, Neibaur mailed his Medal of Honor and other decorations to Congress in Washington stating that "I cannot eat them." Local newspapers covered the story. Three days later he secured a position as a night security officer at the state capitol in Boise. His wife Lois died in 1940, at the age of forty-eight from complications of rheumatic fever she had contracted in childhood. His awards and decorations were returned to Mrs. Lillian Neibaur who donated them to the Idaho State Historical Society. ==Military decorations==

;Individual decorations United States of America: • Medal of Honor • Purple Heart • Croix de Guerre (Cross of War) Official Campaign Designations: Information retrieved from Place the Headstones Where They Belong. Somme Defensive March 21, - April 6, 1918 Aisne May 27, - June 5, 1918 (No clasp on Victory Medal) Champagne - Marne 15-July 18, 1918 Aisne - Marne July 18, - 6 August 1918 St. Mihiel 12 - September 16, 1918 Meuse - Argonne September 26, - November 11, 1918 ==Medal of Honor Citation==

Information retrieved at Congressional Medal of Honor Society. ==See also==