Seminar focuses on war deaths, burials

Flag-draped caskets sitting silently in a hanger at Dover AFB in Delaware have only one meaning: America’s veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice are coming home. But Dover is just a way station, a stop on these warriors’ journeys home to their families and loved ones.

“Today, we take for granted that the government sends the bodies of those who die while serving in the military home to their families,” Tracy Fisher said on Monday night, during a seminar on war deaths held as part of the monthlong Tamaqua Remembers campaign.

Fisher earned a doctorate in history from George Mason University in 2016, using the issue of coping with war deaths during World War I as the basis for her dissertation. “I picked the subject matter totally at random,” Fisher explains. “My research led me to letters between families and the government, each heartbreaking in its own right.”

“Most of the Americans who died in war before the Civil War were Army soldiers serving in North America. They were usually buried near where they fell, many in unmarked graves. The sheer number of American deaths during the Civil War profoundly changed ideas on war deaths and the duties of the government, including family notifications and burial choices. For some, there would be no graves, as the weapons used during that war were the first to inflict such destruction as to have men blown to pieces,” Fisher explained.

These deaths and the anguish left behind led President Abraham Lincoln to sign a law creating the national cemetery system, with defeated Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Virginia property turned into what is known as Arlington National Cemetery. Union forces buried more than 300,000 of their 350,000 dead, although close to half were never formally identified. Civil War cemeteries were the first to have individual graves and headstones for all ranks.

When America became involved in World War I in 1917, almost 4 million draftees were added to America’s military forces. For the first time, enlisted men received serial numbers and “dog tags.” This made it easier to keep track of the men and help identify the dead.

Then Secretary of War Newton Baker and Gen. John Pershing, commander of American Expeditionary Forces, disagreed on how to deal with what was sure to be large numbers of casualties. Baker assured families their loved ones would be returned, while Pershing was concerned about the logistics of returning so many bodies and felt permanent battlefield cemeteries should be created overseas, hoping to create a permanent link between the U.S. and Europe.

As the front lines moved back and forth across Europe, combat troops were faced with the unburied and partially buried bodies of their fallen comrades. This started the tradition of sticking a fallen man’s rifle into the ground near the body, with a helmet hanging from the stock, to alert the medics.

In an effort to better deal with the issues, the Army created the Graves Registration Service in August 1917, its members tasked with finding, identifying, burying the dead and recording the location of graves.

By the time the war ended in November 1918, the GRS was responsible for the overseas graves of about 80,000 Americans. The Army’s Adjutant General’s Office was responsible for notifying the next of kin, sending out forms asking families where they wanted their loved ones to be buried. Many families responded with requests for more information on how their loved ones died.

It was these letters Fisher used for her doctorate and for her lecture on Monday. They tell of confusion, anger and heartbreak. After months and even years of back and forth, there was no consensus of opinion. Some families wanted their loved ones brought home, others felt it best to have them remain in their original graves in Europe.

In the end, the U.S. government established six permanent cemeteries in France, one in Belgium and one in Poland.

As Fisher concludes, “These veterans are buried together, with individual headstones, under well-tended grass, under the flag they served. As with the national cemeteries at home, America’s war dead are commemorated, with marked graves that maintain a setting befitting their sacrifice.”