Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 60, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 March 1918 — American Soldiers Buried in Special Cemeteries in France, Each Grave Marked [ARTICLE]

American Soldiers Buried in Special Cemeteries in France, Each Grave Marked

Word having come from Washington that a new organization was being formed, known as the Purple Cross association, a body of undertakers who are anxious to go to France to assume charge of the bodies of the dead, the actual arrangements of the army are worth mentioning, writes a war correspondent. s The new association wishes to be allowed to follow the troops to the front line to receive the body of every man who is killed or dies from natural causes and after embalming it, ship it back to the States. This arrangement is impractical, as it would mean that many ships probably would be needed for this work. The American expeditionary force has a grave registration service, which Is a division in the chief quartermaster’s department. At the head of this department is a major of the regular army, who is responsible for the proper burial of the American soldiers who die in France and for the registration and marking of their graves. Two officers and 50 men in each division do this work, and these units will be increased later on. Two American cemeteries have already been laid out in France and several smaller ones have been plotted nearer the front. Each grave is marked with an iron marker and in each is deposited the soldier with proper identification. In addition photographs and descriptions of the spot are made and sent to the soldier’s relatives at home.