Died in the meuseargonne area, but there were also some civilians and other soldiers that were brought from other areas . Yes, but basically, most of the soldiers here died during the meuseargonne. The final result was dramatic for that battle. It was over 26,000 soldiers killed, 96,000 wounded, more or less. Of the soldiers are buried in that cemetery. We have a few civilians, maybe we will see some graves later on. Especially nurses, people from the american red cross, ymca, some special graves we will see walking in the graveyard. The cemetery itself were graves that were consolidated from smaller cemeteries. So when soldiers died in battle, they were buried in small cemeteries around the region. And then the American Government had made the decision that they would allow families to repatriate their loved ones after the war. So about 60 70 of the families brought their bodies back to the u. S. The other roughly 30 remained behind, and they were brought to the cemeteries that were now that are now maintained by the battle monuments commission. But the french government had a major say in the land and allowing the americans. Can you talk a little bit about that . Many times people say we are on american soil. Thats not exactly true. The land was given by the french government for free and forever. But it is like a concession in the cemetery, when we buy concession when we die, its the same idea. The land is managed by an american commission, but its still french soil and french law applies on this soil. Why dont we take a look at the chapel and talk about its significance . So the chapel here was established before the cemetery was actually dedicated . Yes because we have a marker on it that says it was built in 1930. And then the cemetery was dedicated later on, 1937. The architects are two american architects called york and sawyer. They designed the chapel and in the entrance, we have two big monuments. An American Eagle on top. They were designed by these architects. The idea is a romanesque style chapel. We have a lot of the world war i american cemeteries with smaller arches. And the double colonnades on both sides. So actually we have the two panels of stained glass that list, by their insignias, all of the american units. But not just in the meuseargonne, but in the entire American Extradition area forces. Yes, and most of the American Expeditionary troops have at least one here, but its true we have from each Division Army corps and army. We have the badges of each of them. We have some that are very famous, the 12th rainbow division. We can see to the left, also on the bottom. We will speak about the lost battalion also, 77, the new yorkers, the left side of this stained glass, third one from the top, and several others. We will see freddiefreddy part of theve, american 93rd, africanAmerican Division. They are on the bottom to the right with a french helmet on it. If we go two badges up, the symbol of the 92nd battalion soldiers along them. And then i noticed over here there is, at the very bottom, the 27th division in the middle. The have the star of orion. They were engaged in another direction. They were part of an offensive that was going on at the same time as the meuseargonne, attacking the canal. Exactly. The meuseargonne is what we know as the american part of a big offensive. But it is a common offensive for all of the allied troops. I think this is a key point. For the first time in a war, we have a combined attack of the british, the french, and the americans altogether. Argonneonne musse0a was most americans, but some divisions were fighting under french or british command, and that was the case for the 27th, for example. And the battle started on the same day almost for everybody. September 26 for the americans here, september 26 for the French Fourth Army, and september 27 for the british around the compound. Why dont we take a walk outside and look at the wall of the missing . Also, there is a relief map showing the movement of the battle. Perhaps we can explain it more. And we can understand it a bit more. Ok. Lets go. As for every American Cemetery, we have one wall of missing. Here, we have a list of soldiers, over 950 of them missing in action. If you look, for example, private robert lee was awarded a french medal. He was part of the 371st. Several were awarded. Its impressive to see over 950 of them. And we dont know what happened there . Most likely they were buried in either isolated graves and that is lost, or perhaps they were buried by artillery shells. Yes, while some of them are still buried in the Argonne Forest or a battlefield, but some are buried in the cemetery, but they have an unknown grave because we found their body but were not able to identify them. So around 500 of them are buried here in an unknown grave. Lets take a look over here. This is that map that shows the progression of the battle. It starts in the Early Morning of september 26, one of the first objectives is now the meuseargonne memorial. The high ground, which overlooked the meuse valley, and admiral pershing was very adamant that the americans take it the first day. But it didnt happen. Why was that such a difficult area for americans to conquer . Its the highest area of the entire meuseargonne. The germans occupied the hills from september of 1914. As soon as they were on top of the hill, they had, and there are still some germanmade shelters that was an observation position. Of course, keeping the Higher Ground is an objective for the germans. That wont make things easy for americans. Instead of reaching the hill in one day, they will need two days. On september 27, the hill was finally captured by the americans from the 79th. Right, and you can see as the battle progressed, one of the main defensive lines, the german defensive line here, wasnt achieved until much later in the battle. The american thing started breaking down. Supply routes were blocked because of the roads and poor weather. But really, a lot of it was the german defenses keeping the americans from proceeding. Wasnt it true germans were bringing reserves from elsewhere on the front to help block the american advance . Exactly. In fact, if we look, we have three frontlines. One is a starting frontline. The american offensive at the beginning is quite effective. In a few days, a lot of american troops are having a progression. But as you mentioned, the germans retreat to 45 position, from the hill of the line, for example. Then american troops start to struggle quite much. If you look by division, they are in line for over one week, 10 days for all of them. For some of them. They wont move much because they have to face heavy resistance from the germans. Finally, most of the american make their way to reorganize before launching another big offensive. We have the front line that says october 31. And on the next day, november 1, american troops put more pressure on the germans and the result is the germans have no other line to retreat. So its a big defeat. And in the last 10 days, the american troops get to the meuse river and the town that we see far north. And then that frontline, as we see along the meuse river, is the frontline of the meuseargonne ending at 11 00 in the morning november 11. What we dont see on this map to the left and the west of the Argonne Forest is where the fighting with the French Fourth Army along with later to american two American Divisions attached. But that was a significant part of this campaign, as well, right . Yes, exactly. Sometimes we say americanfrench offensive because this part was held by Many American troops, plus some french troops under british command. But on the western side of the are going, we of the argonne, we have a combined offensive with the french army. We have an American Division that fought there, including the Second Division of the marine brigade, capturing the ridge that was such an important point on the other side of the Argonne Forest. Then they were relieved by the american 36th division. And they fought other french command closed by the american mainline offensive. Right, and you can see bordering the Argonne Forest is the 92nd division, an africanAmerican Division attached first to the first army, led all by white officers. And then later on, it would become a part of the second army, where pershing split up first army and he reorganized. But one of the more famous soldiers was corporal freddie stauers, who was killed during the meuseargonne battle, and he is buried here in the cemetery. What dont we go take a look at his grave . He was antowers africanamerican soldier from south carolina, who served in the 93rd division, which was a unique division. The American Division had 27,000, a little more than that officers and men. Infantry regiments, artillery regiments. But the 93rd was a composite division, and they served strictly under the french during the war. There were 200,000 africanamericans who served here on the western front. Most of them were in labor battalions or stevedores. Not many of them were in combat. The army at the time was segregated. And general pershing had a difficult time deciding whether or not he wanted to use them in combat. But the french were very eager for americans. And so he essentially pawned off the African American troops to the french. But stowers was not actually in the battle of the meuseargonne, but he was close by. Can you tell us a little bit about where the action was that cost Corporal Stowers his life . Yes, in fact the action took did not take place too far away from the Argonne Forest. On thethe Argonne Forest west side, we enter a big plain. He was fighting under french under a french general under the French Fourth Army. He fought close by. His regiment captured several lines. On september 28, 1918, they had their target is to capture a hill. When they get close to the hill, get close by the german line, the germans, they put their hands up in the air and said they were to surrender. Soldiers from the 371 get closer to the german trench and the germans turned back into the trench and their rifles and machine guns and started to fire. Many officers and soldiers are killed or wounded in a few seconds, and Freddie Stowers was then wounded and shot, he was in charge of this unit because the corporal, multiple officers died around. He decided to rush to the machine gun german positions and was able with his men to kill the gunners. But not only stop the germans first line but decided to go straight to the second line. Between the first and second line, he was wounded, bleed, and finally died on the battlefield. Right, but he didnt initially receive the medal of honor. Manyt it posthumously years later in 1992 . 1991, yeah. 1991, under president george h. W. Bush, his family received the medal of honor on his behalf. And at the time, he was the only africanamerican soldier to be awarded the medal of honor for world war i. Later on, private henry johnson, also in the 93rd division, would be awarded the medal of honor by president obama. It was for another engagement earlier in the american attack. Were standing in front of the grave of frank luke jr. , a second lieutenant. He was in the air service, which played a significant role in the meuseargonne area. But frank luke had a unique job, so to speak. He was a balloon buster. Can you tell us a little bit about the balloons in the war and why the americans and the french wanted to shoot them down . Yes, in fact balloons were used for observation. Of course, as you can imagine. Balloons were way better. Balloons were flying everywhere over the battlefield, sometime going close into the rear line, throwing bombs also on the rear camps and everything. So balloons were both used as a weapon and observation, so shooting balloons was something very important. Luke took off on the morning of the 27th on a mission that was not approved. His Commanding Officer didnt know where he was. By the end of the day, he didnt come back. Later on, it was found he had been shot down. Do you know where he was shot down . Yes, it was a small village in that direction around nine or 10 miles away. And as i understand it, the germans had buried him there in an isolated grave or near a private cemetery, and it wasnt until after the war ended that the americans sent a search party to recover his remains. They were brought back and his family was, like all the other families, given the choice of whether or not to send the body back to the u. S. And they chose to leave him here in perpetuity. Meanwhile, his exploits were wellknown within the army, especially the fact that he was one of the top aces. And he eventually was honored with the medal of honor. He also received the distinguished service cross. And there is another medal under the medal of honor that i wasnt familiar with. He was awarded also the italian cross. Even though he never fought under the italians, the italians gave that honor to many allied troops. For frank luke jr. , while he was awarded the italian medal of honor and the italian award. Ok, lets continue further in the cemetery and look at some of the other headstones. Yes. So besides the combatants who were killed at the meuseargonne or in the region, you also had civilians that are buried here. In the case of elizabeth tyler, she died after the war, february 22, 1919. She was with the american red cross, which played a significant role in providing health as nurses and medical care. Most of the civilians had probably died of disease like the influenza epidemic. This is a grave for henry gibson. If you look, he was part of the ymca. The ymca helped a lot in the war. They built barracks for the american soldiers. They also provided doughnuts, any kind of food supply. Anything they could. Many civilian organizations such as ymca, they were not the only one, they helped a lot, trying to make life easier and better for the american soldiers who are fighting so far from home. Here we have the grave of andy everly, part of an evacuation hospital. They were important because this is where troops were evacuated after being wounded in battle. She actually died during the meuseargonne, but she would have died most likely from the influenza epidemic, which was raging into the whole area of the western front. The second wave of the influenza epidemic had reached france and wreaked havoc on american troops and would have spread to both civilians and all combatants, including the french and the germans. Among the unknown soldiers buried in the meuseargonne, three are special. The three from this row were the american soldiers that were not three elected to be american soldiers buried in arlington. In fact, in 1921, it was decided to have one american nonsoldier to symbolize all the losses in the war. Four bodies were exhumed from four of the american cemeteries in france. It was down close by, about 70 miles away from here in the city of champaign. For coffins from american unknown soldiers. It was up to one american soldier to choose one coffin among the four to become the american unknown soldier. The one that was selected was sent back to the usa, the one buried in arlington. But the three others that were there at that ceremony and were not selected are these three soldiers buried now in the meuseargonne. This was the closest cemetery and it was the main American Cemetery for the first world war. Now they are in here. You can watch this and many other programs about world war i at cspan. Org. Type world war i in the search box and browse through hundreds of results. Memorial day on American History tv. We feature 24 hours of military history from the civil war to vietnam, with round table discussions, tour, archival films, and interviews. Exploring our nations past at 8 00 a. M. Eastern on memorial day here on cspan3. American history tv is on social media. History. S cspan all american youth, bring to our peoples constitution for america and freedom. Happy birthday to you. That is what it says. The occasion is the 100th birthday of misses lucy berry smith of louisville, kentucky, and the ame church is the scene. Mrs. Smith makes a wish and