Antonio Fraetes Tenente was a native of Flores, Azores, where he was born on the 19th of March, 1891. When a young man he came to Nevada, being attracted by the sheep industry, and he became interested in that business in the vicinity of Golconda, Humboldt County. On September 18th, 1917, he entered the service from Lovelock. At Camp Lewis, Washington, where he received his training, he was a member of Company C. 346th Machine-Gun Battalion until March 15, 1918, and afterward of Company D, 347th Machine-Gun Battalion, 91st Division. He was sent overseas on July 6, 1918.

The month of August was spent by the division in training in the Department of Haute Marne. At the end of the first week in September it moved to the vicinity of Gondrecourt from which it was drawn as a reserve for our troops in the Battle of St. Mihiel (September 12-13). Immediately thereafter it was sent to the vicinity of the Argonne Forest, it having been chosen as one of the divisions which was to take part in an offensive on a vast scale. This offensive, which was to claim the life of Private Tenente as well as of thousands of other American boys, began on the 26th of September. It is known as the Meuse-Argonne Offensive from the region on its front, that is, from the center of the Argonne Forest to the Meuse River, eighteen miles to the eastward. The terrain to be covered was for the most part rough and timbered, with open places exposed to hidden machine-gun fire and open to artillery control. It was heavily fortified and manned by the enemy as it protected the vital artery of German supplies, and every foot of it was a target for guns of all calibers.

The 91st Division went into battle from a position south of the Bois de Cheppy and east of the Vauquois Hill. Its lines swept across the mist-filled Valley of the Buanthe and into the timber beyond, driving the resisting Boche from trenches and machine-gun nests, and continued on over rolling hills, creeks, roads, patches of forest, and fortified farms which lie to the westward of towering Montfaucon. On the 29th they drove their front across Gesnes Creek, and Gesnes fell as had Very, Epinonville and Eclisfontaine. But their line was too far north for safety. The divisions to right and left had not been able to keep the pace and were now fighting desperately to hold their captured ground or even falling back. The nature of the Argonne country to the westward had made it impossible to keep the divisions abreast. As the 91st slowly drew back under orders, hundreds of its men still lay where they had fallen on the field. The division had paid dearly for its captured ground, and the necessary withdrawal was not at all to the liking of the troops. Antonio Tenente was killed that day (September 29, 1918) during the fight for the town of Gesnes.

The deceased soldier left surviving him his father, John F. Tenente, who resides in Mostero, Flores, Azores; a brother, Frank F. Tenente, of Elko Nevada; and a sister, Mrs. Frank Lopes, of Lovelock, Nevada. His name is on the roll card of Nevada’s heroes who fought and died for the victory that is ours.