Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1919-05-22
A. f. F. May Be Brought Back.

America GS3d VIII Dc Carried paSh
10 America or left TO sleep close 10 the
French fields where they gave their
lives for her, according TO whichever is
the expressed wish of the next of kin.
This is the substance of a War De-
partment ruling recently made public.
Meanwhile, the bodies are being lift
ed from the widely scattered, hastily
made graves, dug in the heat and rush
OF battle, and are being assembled in
great cemeteries.
The largest of these is on the edge
of Romagne sous -Montfaucon. II is
there because that spot is the focal CEN
ter of the area which saw the most
violent American effort and the heaviest
American losses.
Approximately $4,000 American
graves will be enclosed within this one
cemetery when il is completed. The
work is being rushed, and visitor TO
Romagne these days would think big
American contractor had embarked on
some mammoth construction project
there.
Acres of mud, unrelieved by so much
as single spear of grass, plank roads
laid to give the trucks some sort of
pathway in and out, and then 4 gently
slopng hillside, alive with the toiling
figures of 5000 negro soldiers. Each
truck sets forth in the morning with its
grave crew, headed by sergeant with
a map and a handful of papers, each
slip giving the co-ordinateS that will
lead to where some Yankee soldier lies
buried.
In the big cemetery the officers will
be grouped at the center Another
part is set aside for the chaplains, nur-
Ses and men of the auxiliary services
who were killed in action. The uni
Identified dead will lie in their separate
portion of the cemetery, but it will not
be big portion, for each days work in
the field reduces, with unexpected sue
cess, the number of nameless graves
which that cemetery must hold
In the center of the camp long bar
racks shelters the papers and recordsof
the Graves Registration Service. One
look at the chart shows why the out
skirts of Romagne was chosen as the
place for the biggest of all our Gem
eterieS. Within a space of ten square
kilometers, 1900 American dead lie
scattered over the most difficult battle
field American troops encountered.
1t is dreary enough panorama now,
the view from the edge of the cemetery,
but in the course of time the ground
will be Smoothed and there will be turf
and hedges and flowers. Probably a
great shaft will rise to honor the dead
and beckon the pilgrims who will come
by thousands from across the sea.
For it may be guessed that the great
er number of these dead will lie there
always No one knows, for no one
can say what will be the mind of the
families at home. Each request is
acknowledged and filed away, and no
body will be shipped back till all that
are ever going can be sent home as
Dort oF opa anternricp
Not only the scattered graves are
being shiften to the main cemeteries,
but also the impractically placed
groups of graves, many of them in
augurated by men who did not know
what conditions would make possible
a decent maintenance, and, above all,
by men who had not consulted the
very rigorous laws of France govern
ing such matters.
Visitors to the battlefelds are likely
0 run across 6 r;ain graves TO which
special attention has been paid, graves
marked of with stones, piled high
with wreaths and perhaps fenced in.
In all such cases it means either that
the French authorities have sought to
express good will or that some friend
or kin of the dead has found his way
to the grave and done the work him.
self.
While the cemetery on the outskirts
of Romagne is by far the biggest Of all,
there is another at Beaumont on the
road to Sedan and still another at
Thiaumont in the St. Mihiel area.
These are under the direction OF the
Neufchateau headquarters. There
is another headquarters OF the Graves
Registration Service at Scissors and
another at Amiens to care for the dead
who fell in battle in Belgium and in
the region between the Somme and the
Aisne.