Died in the meuseargonne area, but there were also some civilians and other soldiers brought from other areas. Yes, but basically, most of the soldiers here died during the meuseargonne. It was grammatical for that battle. It was over 26,000 soldiers killed, 96,000 wounded, more or less. Almost half a percent of the soldiers are buried in that france cemetery. We have a few civilians, maybe we will see some graves later on. Especially nurses, people from the american red cross, ymca, graves we will see walking in the graveyard. The cemetery itself were graves consolidated from smaller cemeteries. 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. 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 maintained by the battle monuments commission. The french government had a say in the land and allowing the americans. Can you talk 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 theres a concession like 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 . 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. 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. Romanesque style on the chapel. We have smaller arches. 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, most 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. You can see that on the left 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 see someone part of the american 93rd, africanAmerican Division. They are on the bottom to the right with a french helmet on it. Up, the two badges 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 going on at the same time as the meuseargonne, attacking the canal. Exactly. The meuseargonne is what we thought of as americas big offensive. But it is a common offensive for all of the allied troops. 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. Some American 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 army, andrth 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. We can explain it more. Ok. 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. 371st. Part of the several were awarded. Its impressive to see over 950 of them. And we dont know what happened there . Most likely they were buried in isolated graves and that is lost, or perhaps they were buried by artillery shells. Yes, while some of them are still buried in the 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. Around 500 of them are buried grave. An unknown 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 muse the meuseargonne memorial. The high ground, which overlooked the meuse valley, and admiral pershing was very adamant americans take it the first day. But it didnt happen. Why was it a difficult area for americans to conquer . Its the highest area of the meuseargonne. The germans occupied the hills from september, 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, it was 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. Really, a lot of it was the german defenses keeping the americans from proceeding. Wasnt it true germans were bringing reserves from elsewhere to help block the american advance . Exactly. In fact, we have three frontlines. One is a starting frontline. The american offensive at the beginning is quite effective. Also, the american troops are progressing. But the germans retreat to 45 position, from the hill of the line, for example. Then american troops start to struggle quite much. As they are in line for over one week, 10 days for all of them. They wont move much because they have to face heavy resistance from the germans. Finally, the troops make their way through. First thing, we have to reorganize before launching another big offensive. We have the front line that says october 31. And on the next day, 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 americans get to the muse river and what 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 of the French Fourth Army along with later to two American Divisions attached. 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 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. Other fringe command french command closed by the american mainline offensive. Right, and you can see bordering in 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 the first army and reorganize. And reorganized. But one of the more famous soldiers was corporal Freddie Bowers that 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 a 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 where the action was that caused Corporal Stowers that cost Corporal Stowers his life . Yes, in fact the action took not too far away from the Argonne Forest. We enter a big plain. He was fighting under french general under the French Fourth Army. He fought close by. His regiment captured several lines. On september 28, 1918, they hill. Target to capture, a when they get close to the hill, the germans 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 german turned back into the trench and their rifles and started to fire. Many officers and soldiers are killed or wounded in a few rs wass, and freddie stowe 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 to kill the gunners. But not only stop the germans s 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. But he didnt initially receive the medal of honor. It was posthumously, years later, 1992 . 1991, yeah. 1991, under president george h. W. Bush, his family received the medal of honor on his behalf. 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 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 junior, a Second Lieutenant 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 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. As you can imagine. Balloons were flying everywhere over the battlefield, sometime going close into the rear line, and throwing bombs also on the rear camps and everything. Balloons were used as a weapon and observation, so shooting balloons was something very important. The morning off on of the 27th on a mission that was not approved. His Commanding Officer didnt know where he was. At the end of the day, he didnt come back. Later on, it was found he had been shot down. Do you know where he had been shot down . Villageit was a small in that direction around nine or 10 miles away. And as i understand it, the germans had buried him there in an isolated grave 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 was another metal another medal under the medal of honor that i wasnt familiar with. He was awarded also the italian cross. The italians gave that honor to many allied troops. For frank luke junior, 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. He was part of the ymca. 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 onlyca, they were not the one, they tried to make life easier and better for the american soldiers fighting so far from home. Here we have the grave of andy everly, part of an evacuation hospital. 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 western area of the front. The second wave had reached france and wreaked havoc on american troops and would have spread to civilians and all combatants, including the french and the germans. Among the nonsoldiers varied in the meuseargonne, three are special. The three american soldiers that were not elected to be american soldiers buried in arlington. In 1921, it was decided to have one american nonsoldier to symbolize all the losses in the war. Four bodies were exhumed from cemeteries in france. It was down close by, about 70 miles away from here in the city of champaign. Four american nonsoldiers. It was up to one american soldier to choose one coffin among the four to become the american nonsoldier. Selected waswas sent back to the usa, the one buried in arlington. The three others that were not selected are these three soldiers, buried now in the muse euseargonne. This was the closest cemetery and it was the main American Cemetery for the first world war. Now they are here. You can watch this and many other programs about world war i on cspan. Org. Type world war i in the search box and browse hundreds of results. Watch cspans daily unfiltered coverage of the government response to the coronavirus pandemic, with briefings from the white house, congress, and governors from across the country, plus join in the conversation on our live call in program, washington journal. You can also watch anytime on demand at cspan. Org coronavirus. 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 mrs. Louis berry smith of louisville, kentucky, at the 15th street memorial ame church. Mrs. Smith makes a wish and blows out 100 candles. Mrs. Berrys grandson gets the