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 First Americans Killed in Battle with Germans

 

Private Thomas F. Enright of Pittsburgh, Penn., killed Nov. 3, 1917

**

Corporal James B. Gresham of Evansville, Ind., one of first Americans killed.

**

Private Merle D. Hay, native of Iowa, 21 years old, killed in first American battle.

(Portraits copyright International Film Service)
 
 
 

The First American Soldiers Killed in Actual Mass Fighting With The Germans Are The Three Whose Portraits Are At The Top Of The Page, And Whose Burial Services Are Here Shown.  Killed In Trench Attack Nov. 3, 1917

    (note: Hay's grave is in the foreground)
copyright Committee on Public Information
 
 
 
The graves of Enright and Hay are marked by a French inscription surmounted by the United States flag.  The inscription reads: "Here lie the first Soldiers of the illustrious Republic of the United States who fell on French soil for justice and liberty, Nov. 3, 1917."
copyright Times Photo Service
 
 

 

~source: American Memory Collection, Library of Congress: The war of the nations, portfolio in rotogravure etchings, compiled from the Mid-week pictorial; New York Times, Co., 1919

 

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