museumtom Posted 26 December , 2019 Share Posted 26 December , 2019 I was just mulling around in my head why is it not possible to nail down the U.S.A. casualties with a bit more oomph. Lots of States it seems had their records burnt in various fires, but surely there is a way forward to step over this hurdle and nail it for once and for all. On 'tinternet there are thousands of databases that are free to use and with a focused determination I am sure they could be used to have an end product. Let us see what we have regarding casualties. Soldiers of the Great War is a cracker and if you print it all out you will have 2,200 pages of those who died during the conflict, the problem is that most of those named in it were brought home after the war. If you correlate that with the American Battle Monuments Commission, you will get a kind of a fist of it but there will still be thousands missing. The draft cards, can be accessed free of charge in familysearch.org/ after you register for free. By cross referencing Pershings regular casualty reports with the draft cards and the State Rolls of honor another hurdle will be crossed. Some States had Rolls of Honor, Massachusettes and New York, in my opinion, being the best of them. As I see it, not everyone who had a draft card served, but those who served, if they were not already serving in 1917, had a draft card. Newspapers also have a great input in this, not only the U.S. newspapers but also those in Europe, Australia, etc. I see each State had affiliations with various units and divisions and most of these histories are freely available to download. I have not found a database yet that records the bodies returned to the U.S. after the war but I am sure somewhere such a record exist. Another record which is fantastic is a record of every soldier who died from each State who died in the war, with his date of death, unit and service number. Just thinking out loud lads and lassies, just thinking...can it be done? Kind regards. Tom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaureenE Posted 26 December , 2019 Share Posted 26 December , 2019 One source is American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) website. Includes "Search ABMC Burials and Memorials", which states "More than 200,000 Americans who died in WWI or WWII are honored at an ABMC site" Cheers Maureen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rolt968 Posted 26 December , 2019 Share Posted 26 December , 2019 It's worth remembering that some men who served with the US forces appear on British War Memorials and Rolls of Honour. RM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clive_hughes Posted 27 December , 2019 Share Posted 27 December , 2019 And that some American-born died serving with British or Imperial forces. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carmania Posted 27 December , 2019 Share Posted 27 December , 2019 13 hours ago, museumtom said: I have not found a database yet that records the bodies returned to the U.S. after the war but I am sure somewhere such a record exist. Tom After years of searching I have not come across one. If you find one I'm sure I wouldn't be the only one interested Kind Regards Aled Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
museumtom Posted 28 December , 2019 Author Share Posted 28 December , 2019 Thank you Maureene, clive-hughes and Carmania. I was sure I seen someone, at some point within the past couple of months post a sheet showing returning soldiers and wondering if one of them was returned dead, but I cannot find it now. Perhaps the returning soldiers are listed with the returning bodies? Happy New Year to all. Kind regards. Tom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil andrade Posted 28 December , 2019 Share Posted 28 December , 2019 A significant part of US dead in the Great War did not have to be repatriated because they died at home.....about one third of the total, I would guess. Deaths from the influenza pandemic accounted for a great many of these. phil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
museumtom Posted 28 December , 2019 Author Share Posted 28 December , 2019 Thank you Phil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil andrade Posted 28 December , 2019 Share Posted 28 December , 2019 Pleased to help you, Tom. On my bookshelves I have a volume on casualty figures for wars over the past half millennium , which us compiled by an American expert by the name of Clodfelter, and it contains some meticulous compilations of US casualty data, including, of course, those of the Great War. I’ll be happy to cite any information it provides. Happy New Year to you,too. Phil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4thGordons Posted 28 December , 2019 Share Posted 28 December , 2019 (edited) I have wrestled with this for the best part of two decades AMBC records only account for those graves/memorials under their care (a fraction of the total) The federal structure of the USA means there are sometimes dual sets of records (state/national) but often gaps in both. The US Federal Govt archive of WWI records in St Louis was the victim of a catastrophic fire which punches a huge hole in the federal records State records vary massively in comprehensiveness and detail. Just to give some insight during the war 13% of the US military were "regulars" 10% were National Guard (state troops) and 77% were conscripts ("National Army") On the up side in terms of tracing individuals there are a lot of unit histories (published in the 20s) which contain rosters, and there are lots of local county rolls as many states, and counties within states compiled records however as these were based on self reports they vary considerably in reliability (and coverage -- some counties published records others did not and there are no comprehensive lists) and there are no comprehensive lists of which counties compiled these rolls - I have a list from IL from the 1920s about published and planned honour rolls but how reliable this is up for grabs - I have used it to track down rolls for a couple of dozen illinois counties but it would be a monumental effort to repeat this nationally. You have to dig fairly deeply in US records to distinguish between "battle deaths" in the AEF and "deaths in service" (stateside and in Europe) Officially: the US lost 125,000 lives between declaration of war and July 1 1919 115,660 of these were "overseas" 31% were in the US 36,050 69% were in the AEF 76,610 In terms of the nature of the casualties 50% were disease (57,460) -- influenza/pneumonia accounts for 83.6% of these (meningitis and TB being the other highest at @ 4% each) 43% were battle deaths (50,280)t 7% were "other" (7,920) I have not been able to find any systematic records regarding repatriation of remains (these are sometimes listed on ship's manifests) -- which continued into the mid 1920s. Sometimes the only record (as Carmania can attest...) is local newspaper announcements. Chris Edited 28 December , 2019 by 4thGordons Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
museumtom Posted 28 December , 2019 Author Share Posted 28 December , 2019 Excellent analysis, thank you very much for your experience and sight. Kind regards. Tom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Strawbridge Posted 28 December , 2019 Share Posted 28 December , 2019 Does this help? 13876 from New York State. https://dmna.ny.gov/historic/reghist/wwi/HonorList/?l=any&srch=&f=last&o=asc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
museumtom Posted 28 December , 2019 Author Share Posted 28 December , 2019 What a brilliant resource, I did not find that one. Thank you very much Jim. Kind regards. Tom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 28 December , 2019 Share Posted 28 December , 2019 https://www.worldwar1centennial.org/index.php/georgia-memorial-database.html Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4thGordons Posted 28 December , 2019 Share Posted 28 December , 2019 (edited) THIS IS A DECENT collection of links (National WWI Museum in Kansas City curates it) THIS is the first volume of the state by state listing "Soldiers of the Great War" Chris Edited 28 December , 2019 by 4thGordons add link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
museumtom Posted 28 December , 2019 Author Share Posted 28 December , 2019 Excellent stiletto and Chris, great sites. Kind regards. Tom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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