Military History Commons^™

The Poet's Corpus: Memory And Monumentality In Wilfred Owen's "The Show", Charles Hunter Joplin

Master's Theses

Wilfred Owen is widely recognized to be the greatest English “trench poet” of the First World War. His posthumously published war poems sculpt a nightmarish vision of trench warfare, one which enables Western audiences to consider the suffering of the English soldiers and the brutality of modern warfare nearly a century after the armistice. However, critical readings of Owen’s canonized corpus, including “The Show” (1917, 1918), only focus on their hellish imagery. I will add to these readings by demonstrating that “The Show” is primarily concerned with the limitations of lyric poetry, the monumentality of poetic composition, and the difficulties …

Alexander, Fay Sherman, 1896-1972 (Sc 3038), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and typescript (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3038. Letter, 3 June 1918, of Fay S. Alexander to his parents in Ashland, Ohio. Writing from Camp Taylor, Kentucky, he reports on a quarantine due to measles, his meals, leisure and exercise, and refers to arguments among his “jolly bunch” of comrades.

Black Us Army Bands And Their Bandmasters In World War I (Version Of 07/29/2016), Peter M. Lefferts

Glenn Korff School of Music: Faculty Publications

This essay sketches the story of the bands and bandmasters of the twenty seven new black army regiments which served in the U.S. Army in World War I. The new bands underwent rapid mobilization and demobilization over 1917-1919. They were for the most part unconnected by personnel or traditions to the long-established bands of the four black regular U.S. Army regiments that preceded them and that continued to serve outside Europe during and after the Great War. Pressed to find sufficient numbers of willing and able black band leaders for the new regiments, the army turned to schools and the …

Gorham, Fred Jaynes, 1878-1918 (Mss 583), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 583. Correspondence and papers of Fred J. Gorham and wife Ethelyn Gorham of Henderson, Kentucky, chiefly regarding Fred’s Spanish-American War and World War I service, his death, and Ethelyn’s receipt of military benefits thereafter. Some family correspondence and data is included.

Remembering The Somme: This Watershed Battle Of World War I Still Echoes With Honor, Sacrifice And Horror 100 Years Later, Ian A. Isherwood

Civil War Institute Faculty Publications

The Western Front was a cacophonous mixture of men and material. Airplanes buzzed slowly above the thousands of miles of zigzagged trenches carved into the chalky soil. Motorized lorries stalled, started and then plodded behind the lines, bringing up shells, water, tinned beef, bullets and soldier’s rum, etc., everything needed to sustain the armies astride the Somme. [excerpt]

Prospects For Peace: The View From Beijing, Jacqueline N. Deal

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Barr, Edward Wallace, 1887-1962 (Mss 576), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 576. Papers, lecture notes and appointment book relating to Dr. E. Wallace Barr’s training and service as a dentist with the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I; includes a few items of family correspondence.

9 March 1916, Part I: Newton Baker Sworn In As Secretary Of War, Keith J. Muchowski

Publications and Research

This invited blog post explores the appointment of Newton D. Baker to the post of Secretary of War during the Woodrow Wilson Administration.

Bacorn, Almira Louise (Winans), 1838-1920 (Sc 2973), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2973. Letters from Almira L. Bacorn, Gardiner, Montana, to Mrs. E.G. Anderson, Oak Park, Illinois, in which she discusses family matters, mutual friends, and the aging process. In one letter she mentions the wounding of a young man, the son of mutual friends.

Mccallum, Elizabeth Elliott (Cherry), 1890-1985 (Sc 2970), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2970. Three postcards sent by Elizabeth Elliott Cherry while she was serving with the Red Cross during World War I. The cards are sent to her sister David Ellen “Spooks” Tichenor and her nephew Thomas Cherry Tichenor. They discuss sites she is visiting in France and asks that some candy be sent to her as she could “nearly die for sweets.”

Introduction To "Doughboys On The Western Front: Memoirs Of American Soldiers In The Great War", Aaron Barlow

Publications and Research

The First World War existed on paper even as it was being fought. Yes, electronic communications (radio, telephone) played a role, but it was the typewriter and the pen that both recorded the war and, in many respects, made possible the massive organizations it demanded. The American soldier, right down to the lowest ranks, was often both a reader and a writer. Commands and instructions were passed to him in writing—much of his entertainment came that way, too, through books and letters, newspapers and magazines. And he responded with his own pen.

Gurkha Soldiers As An Intercultural Moment On The European Battlefields Of The Great War, Frank Jacob

Publications and Research

The article analyzes the role of the Gurkhas during the First World War to explain the intercultural contacts as they were created by the multi-ethnicity of the troops that were recruited for the Great War throughout the British Empire.

Lambert, James Knox Polk, 1864-1960 (Mss 545), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 545. Diaries, speeches, notes and postcards of Simpson County, Kentucky native James Knox Polk Lambert relating to his YMCA work with the American Expeditionary Force at the end of World War I, his tours of Europe thereafter, and his involvement in Freemasonry.

Mason, Mildred A. (Wild), 1899-1997 (Sc 2922), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2922. Receipts, certificates and four pins relating to World War I war bonds and civilian service organizations, issued to supporter Mildred Wild of Latonia, Kentucky.

Anderson, Catherine (Simmons), D. 2008 - Collector (Mss 517), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 517. Chiefly letters written to James Preston Cherry while he was sick and in a Louisville hospital (1913), in school at the University of Kentucky (1915-1917), and while in military service during World War I (1917-1918). Also includes family information related to the Cherry, Phelps, Simmons and Anderson families.

On The Fields Of Glory: A Student’S Reflections On Gettysburg, The Western Front, And Normandy, Kevin P. Lavery

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

I’m very fortunate to have had no shortage of opportunities to get out into the field and put my classroom learning into practice. I am especially lucky to have twice had the opportunity to travel to Europe. Two years ago, I went with my first-year seminar to explore the Western Front of World War I in France and Belgium. This year, I travelled with The Eisenhower Institute to tour the towns and beaches of Normandy where the Allies launched their invasion of Hitler’s Europe during World War II. Having experienced these notable sites of military history, and having taken a …

“Two Wars And The Long Twentieth Century:” A Response, Bryan G. Caswell, S. Marianne Johnson

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Drew Gilpin Faust, president of Harvard University and renowned historian of the American Civil War, authored an article in the New Yorker recently entitled “Two Wars and the Long Twentieth Century.” Taken primarily from her remarks in the Rede Lecture delivered at the University of Cambridge earlier in 2015, Faust’s article takes advantage of the proximity of the anniversaries of the First World War and the American Civil War to advocate for a dialogue of greater continuity between the two conflicts. [excerpt]

A Useable Past: First World War Training Camps On Civil War Battlefields, S. Marianne Johnson

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

When visitors flock to America’s National Parks, the battlefields from the American Civil War are perennially popular. Every summer, thousands come to walk over the serene fields and forests where men suffered unimaginable carnage. These sites have become sacred in the American psyche, places to remember and honor the dead, educate the public, or engage in quiet personal reflection. The rolling plains, dense forests and impressive mountains of Civil War battlefields inspire awe and reverence for what author Robert Penn Warren tagged America’s only “felt history.” [excerpt]

Eugene Bullard: World’S First Black Fighter Pilot, Larry W. Greenly

ERAU Prescott Aviation History Program

In honor of Black History Month, hear the fascinating story of Eugene Bullard the American who became the world’s first black fighter pilot in WW I. Award-winning writer and author of a new book on Bullard, Dr. Greenly will discuss how Eugene ran away to France and enlisted in the French Foreign Legion. He then joined the Lafayette Flying Corps where he was trained and flew combat missions. What happened to this decorated hero later and his eventual return to the U.S will also be covered in this unique talk.

Kirby, Carlisle Wilkins, 1890-1968 (Mss 530), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 530. Note cards, memoranda, and grave registration forms compiled by Carlisle W. Kirby and others for the Veterans’ Graves Registration Project in Warren County, Kentucky, a project created by the Works Progress Administration to identify the graves of war veterans from the American Revolution through World War I. Included are names, service data, and the name of the cemetery, where known. Also includes clippings from the (Bowling Green, Kentucky) Park City Daily News about local soldiers serving in the Korean War.

100 Years Ago Today: Challenging The Christmas Truce, S. Marianne Johnson

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

This holiday season, I made a resolution for myself: DO NOT publicly complain about the rampage of Christmas Truce ridiculousness that is about to hit Great War commemoration efforts. But, resolutions are made for breaking anyways so, when my “100 Years Ago Today” coverage of the Gettysburg Times offered up some challenging material, I couldn’t resist. [excerpt]

Gettysburg Historical Journal 2015

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

No abstract provided.

Learning The Fighting Game: Black Americans And The First World War, S. Marianne Johnson

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

The experience of African American veterans of the First World War is most often cast through the bloody lens of the Red Summer of 1919, when racial violence and lynchings reached record highs across the nation as black veterans returned from the global conflict to find Jim Crow justice firmly entrenched in a white supremacist nation. This narrative casts black veterans in a deeply ironic light, a lost generation even more cruelly mistreated than the larger mythological Lost Generation of the Great War. This narrative, however, badly abuses hindsight and clouds larger issues of black activism and organization during and …

Preserve Or Perish : The Orange County Food Preservation Battalion And Food Conservation Efforts In New York State During The Great War, 1917-1919, Sarah Elizabeth Wassberg

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This thesis examines the role of both private voluntary organizations like the Orange County Food Preservation Battalion as well as city- and state-sponsored organizations in food conservation efforts during World War I in New York state (1917-1919). Society women such as Orange County Food Preservation Battalion chairman Mrs. Theodore Bailey, in conjunction with professional home economists, played an important role early in the war effort in disseminating the patriotic pleas of Herbert Hoover and the U.S. Food Administration, but their efforts were later subsumed by state-run entities such as the New York State Food Commission. Using an unpublished scrapbook kept …

Tolle Collection (Mss 524), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 524. Correspondence and papers of the Tolle family of Barren County, Kentucky. Includes data on the Tolle, Snoddy and Bransford families, William Daniel Tolle’s history of Barren County, and materials relating to his work as a veteran’s pension claims agent.

The British Conceptualization Of Belgium, 1914, Maci Reed

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The complicated political agendas surrounding the various nations’ decisions to enter World War I have led to an ongoing debate about the war’s actual cause. This research project will investigate the effect that Germany’s invasion of Belgium had on Great Britain’s decision to enter the war. I will use the Hansard transcripts of debates in the British Parliament to investigate the extent to which the defense of Belgian neutrality was involved in the pre-war deliberations. A comparison between the transcripts from 28 June to 3 August and those from 4 August will illustrate the change, if one exists, or the …

Soldiers Past And Future: The Civil War And Great War Meet In Gettysburg, S. Marianne Johnson

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Gettysburg, a town already so intimately acquainted with war, was the scene of particularly interesting historical encounters. The still too present memory of the Civil War impacted the way Gettysburgians viewed the Great War. Many veterans of the Civil War were still alive, although very old, and it was not uncommon for The Gettysburg Times to run headlines about the death of a prominent Civil War veteran right alongside coverage of the war raging in Europe. [excerpt]

Lusitania: An Examination Of Captaincy And Seamanship In The Face Of Disaster, Robert J. Goulding

Graduate Masters Theses

The last voyage of the RMS Lusitania is examined. The Cunard liner left New York for Liverpool on May 1, 1915 as the conflict in Europe began to escalate. The research separates the act of war from the actions of the ship's command and control infrastructure and the seamanship of its crew. This distinction is made under a thesis that more lives could have and should have been saved. The central question of the research was therefore: to what extent should the captain and crew of RMS Lusitania be held to account for the elevated loss of life in the …

Students At War: Percy Eichelberger, Class Of 1921, S. Marianne Johnson

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

As a resident of Adams County, Eichelberger spent his childhood growing up in the Gettysburg area. When war came in 1917, 23 year old Eichelberger enlisted with the 4th Infantry, stationed at a training camp on the Gettysburg battlefield for the summer. [excerpt]

A Time To Remember U.S. Rise As A World Power, Ian A. Isherwood

Civil War Institute Faculty Publications

This summer marks the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War. In the United States, the war has been long eclipsed by the other great conflicts straddling it - the Civil War and Second World War - and as a result has been unfairly pushed to the margins in our national memory.

My hope is that the First World War's centennial, starting this summer and ending in 2018, will be an opportunity for Americans to break out of our intellectual isolationism and discover again a conflict that not only transformed world history, but also America's place within it. …