Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1921-07-11
DEAD HEROES
H0N0REDU UPON
H0b0KEN PIER
Memorial Services Are
Held Over Bodies Of
1864 Fallen Yanks.
Senator Lodge and Gen
eral Pershing Chief
Speakers on Program.

Hoboken, July 1O-Leaders of the
! nation Sunday mourned the country S
| war dead at memorial services ON the
army piers here, where lay the bodies
of 1854 men who made the supreme
sacr ce on the fields of France.
| Congress sent a joint committee
who spoke at the service. The army
was represented by Assistant secre.
tary of War Wainwright and General
Pershing, who declared the freedom
of mankind was the battle cry of the
fallen warriors. The bodies of those
who fell lay in rows Of flag draped
coffins withA the massive piers from
which many of them had embarked for
France. =
Scores of gold star mothers and
hundreds of war veterans attended.
Every unit that saw service in France
was represented among the dead.
First Three TO Die.
Directly in front of the speakers
were the caskets of the first three
United States soldiers to die in battle
against Germany, Corporal Herbert
D. Gresham, of Evansville, Ind. Pri-
vate Thomas F. Enright, of Pitts
burgh, Pa, and Private Merle ID. Hay,
of Glidden, Iowa-all members of the
10th Infantry, First division, and all
killed in November, 1917, in the
Luneville sector of Lorraine.
"They fought for eternal right and
justice, as did the founder of this
great republic" said General Pershing.
II saw them go forward wearied of
body, yet intrepid, resolute and
cheerful of spirit. Scornful of dan
ger, they advanced with undaunted
courage to save a well-nigh lost cause.
Only those who fought with them can
ever know the heights of religious de-
votion and patriotism to which they
rose"
SoIons Dread War.
Senator Lodge said that 'to few
of us, there is peculiar poignancy
in this silent array of the dead. be-
cause we are among those upon
whom fell the grievous responsibility
of declaring the war in which these
precious lives were lost. None who
has not suffered that experience can
realize the pain and distress it
brings"
BE assured" he continued, that
there are no men in this country who
SO dread, so hate war, as the SEN
ators and representatives in congress
upon whom is imposed the duty of de-
claring war, if war must come
All Religions There.
Funeral hymns and the national
anthem were sung at the service and
prayers were said by Protestant
clergyman, a Catholic priest, and a
Jewish rabbi. General Pershing and
Maurice Casenave, French high
commissioner, laid wreaths upon the
coffins of Corporal Gresham and Pri-
Yates Enright and Hay.
When the solemn speeches and the
songs of mourning had ceased bngler
played "taps" AS the last note
sounded pent up emotions of hundreds
of men and women were released in
sobbing.
And then the relatives and the
friends of many of those whose bodies
had been brought back from the mill
tary cemeteries of France, began to
look for the coffins that bore the
bodies of their loved ones. Each
casket was numbered, and attendants
directed kin and friends to the sec
tion which was the temporary tomb Of
their dead.
Scenes Of Tenderness. /
Always. when the soughtfor coffin |
was found, there would be z scene of
pathetic tenderness. A grey-haired |
mother dressed in the black of sorrow
would look along the floor for the
number which identified the coffin Of
her loved one among the thousands.
Finding it, she would gently lift the
flag that covered the name. and
sometimes the mother would break I
down upon finding the casket of her
boy; sometimes she would bear up in
silence. Often those who looked for
the coffins were veterans Of the war,
and these could be heard to say as
they found the box they sought, "he
was my buddie."