Henderson daily dispatch. (Henderson, N.C.) 1914-1995, 1938-11-11


Aoain this Armistice Day the Arm
Of the United States and World wa
veterans associations will pay nom
ace at the shrine of Americas VI
known Soldier of the A. Il. +. Ou
Nameless Warrior rests in peat
t;ful marble tomb in Arlington Gene
terry across the Potomac from WASH
inoton and on that tomb is inscribed
Here Rests In Honored Glory
An American Soldier
Known But To God
Tr,,lv is che" known but to Goo
Every possible precaution mas peer
taken to insure the Unknown Solaief
perpetual anonymity. No one VIII ever
know who he Is, where he came from
the organization with which he ser
we'd "over there" when struck down
or anything about his pacKgrounu
history or racial strain.
All America knows OF and honois
its Unknown Soldier who Represents
the many hundreds of unidentified
and unidentifiable dead among the
more than $4,000 American soldiers
who made the supreme sacrifice IN
battle action during the World war
But few Americans know just now
when and where this One Unknown
was chosen, and under what impress
sive and dramatic circumstances the
final selection was made.
In France are six military ceme-
+eries of the A. E. F. Another such
Goods Acre" of our overseas fighting
forces is in Belgium, and another IN
England. The six A. E. F. military
cemeteries in France are known as
Aisne-Marne, near Chateau Thierry;
Mesuse-Argonne, near Romagne; Olse-
Aisne, near Fere-en-Tardeonis; SOM
me, near Bony; st. Mlihiel, near
Thiaucourt, and Suresnes, on the out
skirts of Paris. The cemetery in Bel
GUM. known as the Flanders Field
Cemetery, is near Waerghem, and the
hallowed spot in England is located
outside of London and is known as
Brookwood Cemetery.
Most of the little white crosses in
our overseas cemeteries bear an iden-
tifying legend showing the name,
rank, and organization OF him who
sleeps beneath the sod of that country
which he died to help defend. But on
many of those tiny white crosses
there is nothing but a pitiful little
number, and the same legend, Here
Rests in Honored Glory an American
Soldier Known But to God" which
appears on the Tomb of the Unknown
Soldier in Arlington Cemetery, Vir-
ginia.
Late in October, 1921, one body OF
such an unknown soldier was disin
TERED from each of four of these
overseas cemeteries - Aisne-Marne,
Mouse Argonne, Somme, and St.
Mlihiel Tenderly, these four bodies
were conveyed by a special military
guard of honor to the quiet town o.
Chalons- sur Marine, where at the
Hotel de Vile Getty HalD four catafa
ques had been made ready and {.
major of the Quartermaster Corp. :,
u. S. Army, received the caskets con
tanning the bodiess M
AS each officer in charge of body
turned it over to this major he alsc
handed in the form of pertaining tt
its burial. Another officer, in the pre-.
sence of the major, then solemnly de
stroyeds this form containing all the
bare fragments of information abou
the dead man: where, when and how
he was found dead on the field o
battle, what efforts had been made to
identify him, etc., and in what A. E.
F. cemetery he had been buried. Al
the same time the duplicate records
pertaining to each of these unknown
numbers, were destroyed in Paris and
in Washington. Thus even the bare
record was in each instance forever
destroyed. Once the four caskets were
placed upon the catafalques in the
Chalons-sur-Marne City Hall on the
morning of October "a, 1921, it was
impossible for any one even to tell
from which of the four A. E. F. GEM
eteries any one body and casket had
originally come.
Later on the morning of October
oath the Quartermaster officer with
a specially selected detail of French
and American soldiers-the latter
from United States Army units then
stationed in and about Coblerz, Ger
many, with the American forces in
Germany-rearranged the caskets,
placing them about the room in such
a fashion, as they saw fit and thus
further insuring that none could be
identified by its previous location.
The detail then left, and joined the
military guard of honor which, with
a French army band. was drawn up
in hollow square outside the City Hail..
There was, then, no possible way
of telling one unknown soldier from,
another. Each of the four caskets
rested onl like catafalque draped
with an American flag. Palms and
potted trees, and the intertwined
colors of France and the United States
were the simple, impressive decora-
lions in the chamber of the City Hall: