The Meuse-Argonne: America's Forgotten Battle
Dr. Eleanor W. Hayes · September 26, 2016
Between 26 September and 11 November 1918, more than a million American soldiers fought their way through the forests and ravines between the Meuse River and the Argonne Forest. The Meuse-Argonne Offensive was the largest battle the United States Army had ever fought — and it remains so.
Forty-seven days
The offensive broke the German defenses and helped bring the First World War to its end, but at a terrible cost: some 26,000 Americans killed and many more wounded in less than seven weeks.
The cemetery
Today the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery at Romagne-sous-Montfaucon holds 14,246 graves — the largest American military cemetery in Europe. Among those remembered here are men of the 1st and 77th Divisions, including soldiers of the famous “Lost Battalion.”
Why we remember
A century on, the battle is little known to most Americans. The names in this archive are part of how we keep faith with the men who fought it.
Dr. Eleanor W. Hayes — Lead Historian & Editor
A historian of the two World Wars, Eleanor oversees the archive's editorial standards and the accuracy of its casualty records.