The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1921-05-06
CARE OF AMERICAN DEAD
THIRTY THOUSAND BURIED
ON FOREIGN SOIL
Special Observance Memorial
Day In the French
Cemeteries
WEBB MILLER

thousand bodies of American soldiers
will lie forever in French soil. -Four
bits of French soil have been chosen
as the final resting places for the bo-
dies four bits of France that will
remain forever America" The par
manent fields of honor will be Ro-
magne, Belleau, Flanders Field near
Bony, and Suresnes on the outskirts
of Paris.
A commission headed by Colonel &.
c. Pierce, had arrived from the Uni
ted States and approved the choice OF
the four permanent cemeteries. The
commission which IS composed OF
Grenleaf and Major George Gibbs, ar
chitects and artists, are inspecting
the sites with view to recommended
tions for identifying these fields TO
make them the most beautiful burying
places in Europe.
The Romasne Field
The Romagne field will hold the
majority of the bodies OF men kilied
in the Argonne fighting-14 900 in all ::
the Belleau field on the hillside near
Belleau Wood will contain 1000 bodies
Suresnes will hold 1900, including
many bodies of wounded who died in
Paris hospitals, while Flanders Field
will contain 2,100.
At present the American Graves
Registration Service is engaged in
| disen+ering the bodies intended for
shipment back to the United States.
Up to the preseUnt 1856 bodies have
been disintered and shipped. Nearly
five thousand bodies are lying at the
re Ru
all the bodies requested for shipment
back home will have been shipped.
Then the Graves Registration Serv-
ice will begin the task of concentra-
| ting the remaining bodies in the four
! permanent fields.
This task will occupy nearly all OF
next year. The size of the task-and
! incidentally an idea of the debt OF
the allies to Americas more wildly
c. L. Sampson of the Graves Registra-
ton Department than could be told in
| words.
At every point where the body of
an American soldier was buried was
stuck a red pin. The map which
comprises all of France, Belgium and
Luxembourg is literally studded with
red pins-from the Pyrennes to the
Argonne, from the Alpes Maritimes
France is sprinkled with American
dead. Altogether there are $50 pins
on the map-meaning that at $50 dit
ferent points there were buried Amer
erican soldiers, sometimes a lonely
grave, sometimes dozen, sometimes
hundreds. Many of the graves are
hundreds of miles from the fighting
lines. At these places wounded sold
iers died in hospitals or SOL
Ii ~ a
on the spot. The line of American
communications from the ports to the
fighting lines can be traced across
France by the row of red pins indi
eating burial places.
Get Bodies Ready For Shipment
More than 400 Americans are en-
gagged in various parts of France and
Belgium in disintering the bodies for
shipment. By October about $4,000
bodies will have been shipped. The
nearest of kin of 1851 have speci-
n ain in France. The others for which
there is no specific request for ship
ment home will remain also.
When finally completed the perma-
neht cemeteries will resemble the
National Cemeteries in the United
States-long, precise rows of grassy
mounds with spacious walks between.
At the head of each grave will be a
stone marker with the name and or
ganization of the soldier lying be-
meath.
The permanent fields are being de-
signed as shrines for Americans in
Europe for all time to come. Already
hundreds of friends and relatives of
the fallen are flocking to the graves.
The American Army will probably
have a lower percentage of unidenti-
fled dead than any allied country. The
Graves Registration Service expects
eventually to identify all except a
very few bodies.
The Memorial Day Committee o. the
American Legion is already irepar,
ing for the observance of Memorial
Day wnen a wreath will be placed on
every American grave II France.