26,000 american deaths. So there are more than 14,200 graves here, many of them who died in the meuseargonne area, but also some civilians and other soldiers brought from other areas . Yeah. But basically most of the soldiers here died during the meuseargonne, the final result which was dramatic for that battle. It was over 26,000 soldiers killed, 96,000 wounded, more or less. Its almost a half percent of the soldiers that are still buried here in france in that cemetery. We have few civilians, maybe well see some of the graves later on. Especially nurses, people from the American Red Cross, from the ymca, some special graves we will see walking in the graveyard. The cemetery itself, 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 to 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 are now maintained by the American Battle monuments commission. The french government had a say in the land and allowing the americans. Can you talk a little bit about that . Many times we say we are on american soil, which is not true. The land was given by the french government for free and forever. Its like by concession when we die. Its the same idea. So the land now is managed by an american commission, but it is still french soil, its french law that applies on this soil. Why dont we look at the chapel and talk about its significance. Yep. So the chapel here was established before the cemetery was actually dedicated . Yes, because we have the marker on it that says it was built in 1930. And then the cemetery as we see it was dedicated later on, 1937. Architects are two american architects called york and sawyer. They designed the chapel and on the entrance we have two big monuments with an American Eagle on top. They were designed by these architects. The idea is to romanists style of the chapel. We have small circular arches, and the double collanades 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 the entire American Expeditionary forces. Yes. Most trues have at least one here, but its true that we have from each Division Army corps and army. We have the badges and insignias here. Some are famous. The Rainbow Division on the left, almost at the bottom. We will speak about the last battalion also. 77, the new yorkers, left side of the stained glass. Third one from the top. And several others. We see fred astairs grave, he was with the american 93rd. AfricanAmerican Division. They are on the bottom to the right with a french helmet on it. We have the symbol of the 92nd battalion soldiers along them. I notice over here at the bottom theres the 27th division in the middle, they have the star of orion. They were engaged in another direction, right . They were part of an offensive that was going on at the same time as the meuseargonne attacking the canal. Yes, exactly. The meuseargonne is what we know of the american part of the big offensive, but its a common offensive from all the allied troops. I think this is the key point. For the first time in the war we have a combined attack from the british, french and americans altogether. Meuseargonne for most americans, but some americans were fighting under british and french commons. Thats the case for the 27th. The battle started on the same day for everybody. 26th of september for the americans here. September 26th for the french 4th army, and september 27th for the british around the town. Why dont we walk outside and look at the wall of the missing, and also theres a relief map showing the movements of the battle and perhaps we can explain more. Yes. Probably we will understand a bit more. Okay. Lets go. 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 metal. He was of the 71st regiment, and it is impressive to see that huge list, over 950 of them. We dont know what happened there. Most likely they were buried in either isolated graves, it was lost, or buried by artillery shells. Yes. Some of them are still buried in the Argonne Forest, some are buried in the cemetery, but they have an unknown grave because we found their body but we were not able to identify them. Around 500 of them are buried here, in fact, but with an unknown grave. Lets look over here. This is the map that shows the progression of the battle. It starts in the Early Morning of september 26th. One of the first objectives is the meuseargonne memorial, the high ground, which overlooked the meuse valley. General pershing was adamant that the americans take that the first day. That didnt happen. Why was that such a difficult area for the americans to conquer . In fact, it is the highest ground of the entire meuseargonne. The germans occupied the hill from september of 1914. As soon as they were on top, they fortified the hill. There are still some german concrete made shelters that was an observation position. Of course, keeping the highest ground is an objective for the germans. That wont make things it easy for the americans to get on top. Instead of reaching the hill in one day, they would need two days, on september 27th the hill was captured by the americans from the 79th. Right. You can see as the battle progressed, one of the main defensive lines the german defensive line here by landos st. George wasnt achieved until much later in the battle. Because the american things started breaking down. Supply routes were blocked because of the roads. The poor weather. Really a lot of it was the german defenses that were keeping the americans from proceeding. Wasnt it true that the germans were bringing up reserves from elsewhere on the front to help block the american advance . Exactly. In fact, if we look at the map, with he have three frontlines. One is starting at the frontline. The american offensive at the beginning is quite effective. The american troops are having quite a huge progression. The germans retreat to a fortified position, and then american troops would start to struggle quite much. If you look around but subdivisions, they are in line for one week, ten days for some of them. They wont move much because they have to face heavy resistance by the germans. Finally most of the american troops, they make their way through. Pershing will ask his troop to reorganize for some days before launching another big offensive. So we have the front line that says october 31st, and on the next day, november 1st, 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. In the last ten days, the american troops will get to the meuse river and to the town of sedon, which we see far north. And then the last front line, along the meuse river is the front line of the armistice, as the meuseargonne is ending on the morning of november 11th. What we dont see on this map to the left or the west of the Argonne Forest is the fighting of the french 4th army along with later 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 mainly by american troops, plus pershing troops, but on the west side we have a combined offensive with the french 4th army. We have American Divisions that fought there, including the 2nd division and the marine brigade, trying and capturing the ridge, which was such an important point on the other side of the Argonne Forest. Then they were relieved by the american 36th division. They fought under french command, close by the american main line offensive. You can see bordering the Argonne Forest is the 92nd division, an africanAmerican Division attached first to the 1st army, led all by white officers, and then later on it would become part of the 2nd army, when pershing split up first army and he reorganized. One of the more famous soldiers was Corporal Freddie Stowers who was killed during the meuseargonne battle and he is buried here in the cemetery. Why dont we go look at his grave . Freddie stowers was an africanamerican soldier from South Carolina who served in the 93rd division, which was a unique division. We talked before that an American Division had 27,000, a little more than that officers and men. It had four 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 steamadores. Not many of them in combat. The army at the time was segregated. 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 africanamerican troops to the french, but stowers was not in the battle of the meuseargonne but close by. Can you tell us about where the action was that cost Corporal Stowers his life . Yes. The action did not took place very, very far away from the Argonne Forest. Its on the western side. We enter into a big plain. He was fighting for the french army. He fought close by. His regimen captured several lines. Their target is to capture a hill. When they get to that hill, get close by the german lines, the germans, they put their hands up in the air and they said they were to surrender. Soldiers from this 371 get closer to the german trench. Then the german jump into the trench, back to rifles and machine gun and start to fire. Many officers and many soldiers are killed or wounded in a few seconds. Fred then was in charge of his unit because as a corporal, he was most of the officers died around. He decided to rush to the machine gun german position and was able, with his men, to kill the machine gunners but not only stop on the german first line but decided to go straight to the second line and between the first and second line, he was wounded, bleed and finally died there on the battlefield. Right. But he didnt initially receive the medal of honor. Wasnt it many years later was it 1992 . 1991. 1991 when 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 have been awarded the medal of honor for world war i. Later on, private henry johnson, who was also in the 93rd division, would be awarded the medal of honor by president obama. For another engagement earlier in the american attacks. So were standing in front of the grave of frank luke junior, a second lieutenant. He was in the air service, 27th squadron, 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, balloon were used for observation, of course, as you can imagine. Hilltop were very important. Balloons were way better, in fact. So balloons were flying everywhere over the battlefields. Sometimes going close into the real lines, throwing bombs also on the camps and everything. Is a balloons were used as a weapon and observation. Shooting balloons were 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 that he had been shot down. Do you know where he was shot down . Yes. In fact, a small village close by. Its in that direction around nine or ten miles away. As i understand it, the germans had buried him there in an isolated grave or near a private cemetery. 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. They chose to leave him here. Meanwhile, his exploits were wellknown within the army. Especially the fact that he was one of the top aces. He eventually was honored with the medal of honor. He also received the distinguished service cross. Theres another medal under listed under the medal of honor that im not familiar with. He was awarded the italian. Even though he never felt under italian, they gave to many soldiers from allied troops. Thats the cake for frank luke junior. Douglas macarthur, for example, also. Lets continue further in the cemetery and look at some of the other headstones. Besides the combatants, you also have civilians that are buried here. In the case of elisebeth tyler, she died after the war, february 22, 1919. She was with the American Red Cross had played a significant role in providing help as nurses and medical care. Most of the civilians had probably died of disease, like the influenza epidemic. So this is a grave from harry gibson. If you look, he was part of the ymca. Ymca had a lot during the war, in the real lines, especially built barracks for american soldiers. They also provide doughnuts, any food supply. Many civilian organizations such as ymca, they are not the only one, they helped a lot in the real line giving trying to make the life easier and better for the american soldiers who are fighting so far away from home. Here we have the grave of annie revely who was part of an evacuation hospital. Thats where the troops were evacuated after being wounded in battle. She actually died during the meuseargonne. Its unlikely it would have been a result of a combat wound. But she would have died most likely from the influenza epidemic, which was raging into the whole area on the western front. The second wave of the influenza epidemic had reached france. Would have spread all around to most civilians and all of the combatants, including french and german. Along the unknown soldier buried in the meuseargonne. Three are special. Three first graves from that row are the three american soldiers that were not elected to be the american unknown soldier buried in arlington. In fact, in 1921, it was decided to have one american, a nonsoldier, to symbolize all losses from the war. Four bodies were exhumed from four of the american cemeteries in france. Coffins were sent to a town close by, 70 miles from here. Four coffins from american unknown soldiers. It was asked to one american soldier to choose one coffin among the four to become the new american unknown soldier. One was elected was sent back to the usa. Thats the one in arlington. Three others there on the ceremony and not elected with these three soldiers buried now in the meuseargonne. The closest cemetery was meuseargonne. It is main American Cemetery for first world war, now buried 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. Tonight on American History tv beginning at 8 00 eastern, the cspan cities tour explores the american story with a look at the Great Depression era. Hear stories and visit places around the nation related to this historic economic downturn. Thats followed by cities tour stops featuring the history of chapel hill, north carolina, amarillo, texas, san antonio, texas and college station, texas. Watch American History tv now and over the weekend on cspan3. Every saturday night, American History tv takes you to College Classrooms around the country for lectures in history. Why do you know who Lizzie Borden is . Have you ever heard of the jean harris murder trial before this. The deepest cause where we find the true meaning of the revolution was in this transformation that took place in the minds of the american people. Were going to talk about both of these sides of the story here. The tools, the techniques of slave owner power. We will also talk about the tools and techniques of power that were practiced by enslaved people. Watch history professors lead discussions with their students on topics ranging from the American Revolution to september 11th. Lectures in history on cspan3, saturday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on American History tv, and lectures in history is available as a podcast. Find it where you listen to podcasts. In his new book, talking to strangers, Malcolm Gladwell details why he thinks people make inaccurate judgements about people they dont know. Step on out now. I dont have do step out. Step out of the car. Im going to drag you out of here. You are going to drag me out of my car. Get out of the car shes imprisoned because for resisting arrest. She hangs herself in her cell. A tragic and unexpected result. That exchange that we saw, which goes on and on and on and on. We saw a small snippet of it. That was the kind of when first saw that online, that was when i realized what i wanted to write about. If you break that exchange down moment by moment, you see multiple failures of understanding, of empathy, of a million things. Sunday night at 8 00 eastern on cspans q and a. Up next, a recent online conference from the National Council for history education. The session features Adam Hochschild on domestic unrest in the u. S. During and after world war i, including antigerman sentiment, race riots and arrests of suspected communists. He is the author of to end all wars, a story of loyalty and