Bullets whizz over head as several enemy soldiers fire on your position. Your situation isn’t a good one, over half of your squad is dead, you’re stuck behind enemy lines and rescue isn’t likely. As the other survivors hide where they can you alone have a decision to make, surrender or fight?

Early Life

Alvin Cullum York was born to William and Mary York on December 13, 1887 in Pall Mall, Tennessee. He was the third of eleven siblings and grew up in a two room log cabin. The family survived by subsistence farming and hunting, York only received three years of schooling before dropping out to help with the family farm. During this time he became a hard worker and an excellent marksman, skills that would help him much later in life.

In 1911 his father died, leaving York the head of the household. He became a hard drinker and gambler, often participating in fights and came to be known as a very rowdy character to local residents. York originally only attended church because it was the one place he could socialize with the girl he liked. That girl, Gracie Williams, would influence York and help him to experience a religious conversion where he became a deeply devout fundamentalist christian. York was so serious about his beliefs that he quickly became an assistant pastor and church elder to the Church of Christ in Christian Union. This specific sect of Christianity was founded during the American Civil War to protest the violence brought on by it. Through the churches teachings York became a strict pacifist and would often preach on the matter. During this time he led a relatively peaceful life of working on the farm, preaching, and working as a part time blacksmith, but that would all change in 1917.