We're Social
Get Email Updates
At a recent meeting of the Capital Region Salvation Army, Major Roger Duperree, during his prayers spoke of how his family celebrated Memorial Day when he was a youngster, visiting the cemeteries.
His recollection served as a reminder that during World War I The Salvation Army “lassies” traveled to the European front with the American Expeditionary Forces. National Commander Evangeline Booth, with Grace Livingston Hill, published a book in 1919 about the Army in World War I titled, “The War Romance of The Salvation Army.”
There is a section in the book which describes how in 1918, Commander Booth sent flags to the Army lassies to decorate the American soldier graves in France. Here’s the story….
“When the German offensive was definitely checked in Montdidier Sector, the First Division was transferred back to the Toul Sector and The Salvation Army moved with it…..
The first Americans to pay the supreme sacrifice in the cause of liberty were buried in the Toul Sector.
As it drew near to Decoration Day, there came a message from over the sea from the Commander to her faithful band of workers, saying she was sending American flags, one for each American soldier’s grave and that she wanted the graves cared for and decorated….
The day before the thirtieth of May they took time from their other duties to clear away the mud, dead grass and fallen leaves from the graves, and heap up mounds where they had been washed flat by rains, marking each one smooth, regular and tidy. At the end of each grave was a simple wooden cross bearing the name of the soldier who laid there, his rank and regiment and the date of his death….
In the morning, they gathered armfuls of crimson poppies from the fields, creamy snowballs from neglected gardens and blue bachelor buttons from the hillsides, which they arranged in bouquets of red, white and blue for the graves. They had no vases in which to place the flowers but they used the apple tins in which the apples for their pies had been canned.
The centuries-old gray cemetery nestled in a curve of the road between wheat fields on every side. The five American graves were under the shadow of the Western wall, and the sun was slowly sinking in his glory as the company of soldiers escorted the women into the cemetery. The women placed the tricolored flowers in the cans prepared for this, and planted the flags beside them. Then the older woman, who had sons of her own, stepped out and saluted the military commanding officer: ‘Colonel,’ she said, ‘with your permission we would like to follow our custom and offer a prayer for the bereaved.’ Instantly permission was given and every head was uncovered as the Salvationist poured out her heart in prayer to the Everlasting Father, commending the dead into His tender keeping, and pleading for the sorrow-stricken friends across the sea, until the soldiers’ tears fell unchecked as they stood with rifles stiffly in front of them listening to the quiet voice of the woman as she prayed. God seemed Himself to come down and the living boys standing over their five dead comrades cold not help but be enfolded in His Love and feel His presence. They knew that they too, might soon be sleeping even as these at their feet….
When the prayer was finished a firing squad fired five volleys over the graves, and then the bugler played the taps and little service was over. The lassies lingered to take pictures of the graves and that night they wrote letters describing the ceremony, to be sent with the photographs to the War Department at Washington with the request that they be forwarded to the nearest relatives of the five men buried at Treverey.”
Tags: History