This is a repost from 2009. It is my submission for Sepia Saturday's remembrance of World War I. I reference two online folks who were able to fill in some of the lost information about the photo. One of them, Eloh, has been missing in action for many years from her blog. At some point someone has gone in and deleted all the very funny stories she told.
I again thank both of them for providing the information they did.
And I do recall that a writer from Wisconsin or Michigan—I can't remember—contacted me about using the photo in a story she was writing for a local paper. I was told I'd be sent a link to the article. Of course I never was. It's happened many times that I've given folks permission to use something with the stipulation they eventually either send me a copy of the book or a link to the piece. Too often they simply don't follow through with their side of the deal.
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I have no information about this photograph. I don't know if this World War I graveyard is stateside or in Europe. It's sad, mysterious, and just plain interesting. Nothing is written on the back. Perhaps someday someone will stumble across it in Flickr who knows something about it.
I again thank both of them for providing the information they did.
And I do recall that a writer from Wisconsin or Michigan—I can't remember—contacted me about using the photo in a story she was writing for a local paper. I was told I'd be sent a link to the article. Of course I never was. It's happened many times that I've given folks permission to use something with the stipulation they eventually either send me a copy of the book or a link to the piece. Too often they simply don't follow through with their side of the deal.
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I have no information about this photograph. I don't know if this World War I graveyard is stateside or in Europe. It's sad, mysterious, and just plain interesting. Nothing is written on the back. Perhaps someday someone will stumble across it in Flickr who knows something about it.
Click on image to see it larger.
List of names that I was able to clearly read:
- Charles A. Vogt / Pvt 50Co.T.C. 17 Grand Div / Died 1919
- Charles J. Vallier Jr. / Sgt. 311 Engrs / Died Mar. 6. 1919
- John C Zitzmann / Col or Sgt Heqrs Co 312 ??? / Died Oct. 13. 1918
- Macgo Alston / Pvt CoD 304 Labor ??? / Died Jan. 6. 1919
- Robert Illig / Pvt Co A 38 Engrs / Died
- Edward P Bowe?? / Wagoner
- Clarence V. Fanning / Pvt Co D 312 Engrs / Died Jan. 7. 1919
- Michael J Connolly / Pvt Hdqs Co ??? / Died ???
- Walter C Skole / Mechanic CoG 344 Inf / Died ???
- Albert C. Welch / Sgt. CoF 348 Inf / Died Feb. 5. 1919
- Ernest Bisbee / Wagoner Sply Co 348 Inf / Died Nov. 4. 1918
- Eugene B. Ball / Corpl 15 Engrs / Died Mar. 13. 1919
- David L Dosh??? / Cook CoM ??? / Died Feb. 9. 1919
To see the people in the photo even larger click here.
Update: The net is an amazing place. This photo can now be put into context with the world. Eloh, from the hysterically funny blog http://elohssanatahw.blogspot.com/, and Lori, a genealogist from http://www.
From Eloh:
I looked at the larger photo, wow, there is some "silent film" going on isn't there. A whole movie in the expressions and body language.
The woman, possibly Graves Registration? She's wearing what seems to be a campaign ribbon on her lapel. It could be a flower stem or a pencil in her right hand and it looks like papers between her purse and body. I'm stumped with the pockets both full of hankies. They could be scented, but the exhumed remains really wouldn't be that stinky. Maybe she just has a heart, maybe fashion?
The full bird colonel is obviously upset with her. He is used to getting things his way. On his collar is the Engineer insignia and the Combat Infantrymans. Color is a problem with the rank of the other two, but one thing about the Army, some things stay the same. I'll still be guessing that the oak leaf is gold and that Major is the Colonels' Aid. (Personal secretary). Color problems again, and again it would normally be a silver bar of a First Lieutenant, could be a Captain at that angle of the photo, but he is young and not paying attention to his surroundings, he is only interested in what that Bird Colonel wants. He is also wearing Engineer Insignia. I can't make out the patch, left shoulder it would tell us what "Army" he was assigned to.
(7th Army has been in Europe since WWII)
I noticed in your list of names a Junior and thought it the most likely to connect up to something useful. I was lucky as he did have a child.
This is a relocation of soldiers killed in France.
Charles J. Vallier Jr. / Sgt. 311 Engrs / Died Mar. 6. 1919
Born: 10 Jul 1888 Place: Of, Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Died: 6 Mar 1919 Place: , , , France
Wife's Name
Mae MINN
Born: Abt. 1892 Place:
one child listed as still living.
It will be very interesting to find out where his body is today.
I am pretty sure the cemetery is Suresnes, Ile de France, France. The American military cemetery at Suresnes was established in 1917 by the Graves Registration Service of the Army Quartermaster Corps. A majority of the World War I dead buried there died of wounds or sickness in hospitals located in Paris or at other places administered by the Services of Supply. (Many were victims of the influenza epidemic of 1918-1919.) The graves area consists of four burial plots: three of World War I, with a total of 1541 graves, and one of World War II, containing the graves of 24 unknown soldiers, sailors, or airmen.
At least one of the names (Ernest Bisbee) on the list is buried there. I didn’t find any family trees looking for Charles Vallier.Thanks to both of you for helping to fill in the pieces. Perhaps someday someone looking for information about their ancestors will find this photo online.
Update: Thank you to Natalie Karst for finding and sending the following two newspaper clippings relating to Walter C. Skole in the list above. Because of her sleuthing we now know the cemetery was Carbon Blanc and that it is possible the woman in the photo is Edith Wilson, wife of President Woodrow Wilson.
It's always so rewarding when I post something and even more comes back to me than I initially posted. I can't thank those who participate enough. It's a little thread of history.
Click on images to see them larger.
To see another post about a U.S. soldier who lost his life during war please visit my link to the Sgt. C. E. Mower which now contains many new images from the shipboard newsletter from the 1940s provided by reader D. Kauffman.
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Posts
Found a lovely article about a French boy who looked after the grave of Walter Skole in France and wrote to his parents.
ReplyDeleteThank you Natalie! I have posted both of the clippings you found.
DeleteWalter Skole's body returned to Oshkosh WI Nov 13, 1920, and was buried there the next day. He had several siblings. That cemetery seems to have been Mont Blanc.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this. Gives some finality to one of the men.
DeleteMake that Carbon Blanc
ReplyDeleteI love it when you can put information or images out there and have people find you who can fill in the gaps. Fascinating image.
ReplyDeleteI agree. It's my favorite part of blogging.
DeleteMy interest was caught by those who died after the war had ended. Some, perhaps, because of influenza; but some likely died of injuries sustained during the war. The two I found most poignant were John C Zitzmann / Col or Sgt Heqrs Co 312 ??? who died Oct. 13. 1918 - just 29 days before the end of the war; and Ernest Bisbee / Wagoner Sply Co 348 Inf who died Nov. 4. 1918, only 7 days before the end of the war. Not that their deaths were any less sad than all who died in the war (over 17 million!), but to come so close to making it out of the war alive... You just have to shake your head at the obscurity of fate sometimes.
ReplyDeleteIt does make me think of John Kerry's quote: How do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?
DeleteInteresting... the French boy's letter mentions "Mrs. Wilson" coming and viewing the cemetery. That could be First Lady Edith Wilson in the photo. Kind of looks like her.
ReplyDeleteYup, I can see the resemblance, but certainly can't find any photos of her with this expression to make it positive.
DeleteI always find military cemeteries to be so sad. A damning indictment on human kind and it's so-called intelligence and it being civilized.
ReplyDeleteI agree and yet they are often the most beautiful. Punchbowl in Hawaii was the first one I remember visiting. Each year as school children we were required to bring a lei to be placed at a headstone for Memorial Day.
DeleteHistory is nothing less than an enormous mountain of little details. Within months of the war's start and continuing long afterward, the various governments had to deal with the remains of hundreds of thousands of soldiers who died in the conflict. Each nation formed separate grave commissions which created different cemeteries and memorials. The cost of bringing remains back was prohibitively expensive and in many cases impossible due to the use of mass graves. And now the continuing care of graves 100+ years later is another frustrating consequence of war.
ReplyDeleteEdith Wilson was a very remarkable woman. A widow, she married Wilson in 1915 after the death of his first wife. In 1919 she handled many of the president's responsibilities when Wilson was incapacitated by a stroke. The post-war world would have been a different place if he had recovered to fight for his peace initiatives and stop the repressive reparations placed on Germany.
I don't even want to imagine the horror of seeing so many dead. I remember walking around the cemetery at Gettysburg and imagining all of the bodies that were below suddenly scattered all over the ground. Pure insanity.
DeleteThank you for bringing the lives and deaths of so many into our consciousness. Interesting also to have all the follow-up of other Sepians.
ReplyDeleteI think the best part of the net is the sharing of information that might otherwise get lost. Sepia Saturday is such a fine example of this. I too enjoy when people add to my posts. It's exciting.
DeleteWhat an interesting photograph and how wonderful that others have added details. Perhaps the pocket full of hankies were to mop up the tears - a sad business indeed.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. A lot of tears had to been shed there.
DeleteFascinating! You never know who will see something in your blog and get in tough with a connection or explanation. I've had a couple of people contact me after my blog on my uncle who spent an evening out at a NY nightclub while training there for WW2. They were connected to 2 of my uncle's friends who were also in the nightclub photograph.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing how connections are made through old photos. I had a family contact me a few years ago about some WW2 photos I'd posted. A man in one of the photos had actually known my great uncle who died in '58. I stupidly didn't stay in touch with the people to find out what they knew about Uncle Roy. He'll always be a mystery.
Delete