On a recent visit to a cemetery, I visited several family ancestors buried in the very small community of Bellfountain, Oregon. Bellfountain lies in the southern part of the Willamette Valley. Amongst the graves, I found one particular headstone near the family ancestors mentioning the man’s service in World War 1 as part of the 361st Infantry Regiment.
The American Army mushroomed almost overnight with the country’s entrance into World War 1 in April 1917. Selective Service – conscription – was brought back for the first time since the American Civil War. One of the units raised, mostly from draftees from Washington and Oregon was the 361st Infantry Regiment, 181st Infantry Brigade, 91st Division.
Flags of the Allied Powers in the Chapel at Meuse-Argonne ABMC Cemetery
THE CEMETERY
Meuse-Argonne ABMC Cemetery is by far the largest of the cemeteries administered by the American Battlefields and Monuments Commission from the First World War. In fact, the cemetery is the largest ABMC cemetery in Europe, second in size in the World only behind the giant cemetery on the south side of Manila.
The Meuse-Argonne ABMC Cemetery is located directly in the heart of the area American soldiers fought and died for from 26 September 1918 until the end of the war on 11 November. It was the longest and hardest campaign the American Expeditionary Force was tasked with during the war. Success came, but only after long struggles as the AEF learned what it meant to wage an industrial scale war. The learning curve we see in evidence among the 14,246 men buried here.
The Meuse-Argonne ABMC Cemetery from the ABMC brochure.
Quick facts you can pick up from the cemetery brochure: There are 22 sets of brothers included among the dead; the cemetery covers 130.5 acres; 268 Stars of David and 486 graves of soldiers whose identity remain unknown; 954 names are inscribed on the Tablets of the Missing – men whose remains were never recovered.
Because of the sheer size of this cemetery, I am going to take a couple of blog posts to try and cover a few of the stories lying here.
There are also nine men here who were awarded the Medal of Honor, eight died as a direct result of their actions. They will be whom I concentrate my thoughts upon today.
General John J. Pershing resisted calls from the British and French to insert incoming American units as replacements for existing units. Pershing and President Woodrow Wilson both wanted American units to fight as an amalgamated unit on the Western Front. They wanted a true American army to provide a backbone for the future. But then came the German Spring Offensives of 1918. These offensives shook the Allied front, then threatened to push the British back to the Channel Coast and the French beyond Paris. Considering this emergency, Pershing relented, finally allowing some of his units to fight with the French and the British. Some of the consequences of their work with the British are in evidence here at Somme ABMC Cemetery – American Battlefields and Monuments Commission.
The politics involved bringing American forces to fight alongside British and Commonwealth units is the stuff for another post. Today, we concentrate on the end results – the cemetery.
