Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-12-19
VISITS AMERICAN GRAVES
NEAR GERMAN FRONTIER
War Correspondent Also Tells Of
Thanksgiving Day Dinner in
Dugout at the French Front.
Az PAUL SCOTT MOWRER

Cablexram to The Evening Star and
Chicago Daily News. Copyright. 1917.
WITH THE FRENCH ARMIES. De-
cember 18.-I have finally obtained per-
mission to describe a visit which u
paid on Thanksgiving day to the Amer
lean graves In France. SO far as /
know am the first correspondent that
ever stood in their solemn presence.
1 was at a Thanksgiving dinner under
sheilnre with French poilus in the
French first line trenches, which. until
lately were partially held by the Amer
leans. The dinner was carried up from
the wagon kitchens to . dugout In
steaming canvas pals and consisted
of soup. beef stew. bread. jam and cof-
fee Many comrades were survivors Of
the terrible struggle on the Craonne
plateaus-places where. as the Craonne
say. torpedoes fell as thick as crows
mad men who went up to hold the lines
died of old age within a few days. Sit
ting with a tin dish on my knees In
the midst OF these veterans, / listened
to their picturesque battle stories and
rough kindly anecdotes of the foreign
tongued American troops with whom
they had lately been living. These
anecdotes. though slight in themselves
through and through, for they con-
cerned the baptism Of fire of my own
countrymen In the great war; and
after dinner I left the trenches and
made pilgrimage to the graves Of the
first Americans to fall on a battlefield
in France.
In Typical French Village.
The village where they lie is clus-
ter Of square fortress-like farm
buildings. somber and untidy, with
manure piles under the front windows
nothing apparently to distinguish it
from hundreds Of other Lorraine viii
lagos. If you were unaware of the
American graves there you would
At one end of the village behind the
first farm building a treeless pasture
slopes southwark inclosed by high
strong wall. In the farthest corner Of
this pasture and almost lost in its
green immensely are the graves Of soms
forty French soldiers killed in 1914. Not
twenty PAGES away in a single row
close under the dark wall are the
month.
My emotions as I stood before these
f1rst American graves in this lonely
place almost within rife shot of the
German frontier were confused and
hardly defnable. / looked from the
French tombs to the American. The
former were three years old and some
of the latter barely q week old The
former were marked with small white
crosses and were covered with flowers
and bead wreaths. The latter were
raw and bare like fresh wounds Some
were already sunken. Over each arose
q big cross of pine logs, such as befit
the sons of pioneers and farmers.
MI
men have fallen in battle. Our turn is
just beginning. Here lay the first
eleven American dead. Who dares to
say what the toll may be when Thanks
giving day comes again?
First Three Americans Killed.
The first three Americans killed. as
everybody knows. were Thomas F. En-
right, James B. Gresham and Merle D.
Hay. Their graves lie little apart and
are inclosed within a low pine fence.
Before these three graves the French
have erected wooden cross with an
inscription which reads word for word;
ss1ci reposent les premieres soldats
de ffllustree RepubIique des Etats
Unis tombes in terre de France pour
lie justice and pour 10 liberte. lie Novem-
bre, 1917" t"Here rest the first Ameri-
can soldiers of the illustrious republic
Of the United States fallen on the soil
of France for Justice and for liberty.
November 3. 1877
/ walked slowly along the little ROW
lof graves. On a small board each
soldiers name and regiment were paint
ed in crude black letters The ma
were all upside down. deciphered the
names: Thomas F. Enright. Merle Is.
Hay. James B. Gresham. Stanley Jano-
VICE. John r. Cxajka, Abraham Mead
ows. Earl q. Aurand, Peter Moitale-
wicz. Harry Meyers, Charles RissmiIlcr
and Harry L Miller. The last two
were artillerymen and the others in
fantrymen.