Kansas City is home to the National World War I Museum and Memorial, which is, according to its website, “America’s only museum dedicated to sharing the stories of the Great War through the eyes of those who lived it.” My husband and I have visited the museum several times, and it truly is a national treasure. The museum’s permanent exhibits tell the history of World War I.
In addition, the museum frequently hosts speakers and special exhibits and programs related to the “war to end all wars.” We saw a preview of Downton Abbey there one year—the season opener for the year the show dealt with World War I, so the popular program was relevant to the museum’s mission.
On Sunday, April 15, 2018, my husband and I attended a lecture at the World War I Museum and Memorial on the Battle of Cantigny by Dr. Paul Herbert, Executive Director of the First Division Museum at Cantigny Park, Illinois. Dr. Herbert discussed the role of the Army’s First Division (”the Big Red One”) in the Battle of Cantigny. The theme of his presentation was how the First Division—the first U.S. Army troops sent to France to fight in World War I—prepared for battle and how their planning for the battle transitioned the Army into a modern military force.
I enjoy the human stories behind the facts that make up history. Dr. Herbert did an excellent job of describing the leaders of the First Division, including George Marshall. Marshall assisted with the Big Red One’s mobilization and training in the United States, then with the planning of its combat operations in France. He developed the “operations order” [what such are now called] for the First Division’s role in the Battle of Cantigny. This was the first such order of its kind, and the format of his order is still recognizable to Army officers today. However, modern orders no longer discuss the use of horses and pigeons.
Not only did Dr. Herbert talk about Army leadership in 1917, he also described the farm boys and guerrilla soldiers who made up the troops. According to Dr. Herbert, the soldiers sent to France had been fighting Pancho Villa in Texas and Northern Mexico, and as they were shipped to New Jersey to train and mobilize, they picked up other young men eager to escape their boring lives in the South.
From what Dr. Herbert described, other than the Civil War, the Army before World War I largely focused on fighting Native Americans and Mexicans. I’ve done a little research into the Army of the 1840s and ’50s for my historical novels. I could see from what I’d read that in that era, the military’s primary mission was to guard the frontier and protect settlers. So what Dr. Herbert said fit with what I’d learned.
History is made up of both big facts and little facts. I was impressed by Dr. Herbert’s ability to describe both the minutiae of the First Division’s preparation for battle. But he also set the planning and fighting of the Battle of Cantigny into a larger context. This was the battle, according to Dr. Herbert, that developed the U.S. Army from a 19th-century frontier force to a modern force capable of fighting the most sophisticated armies in the world.
Detail from “Gassed”
After Dr. Herbert’s presentation, my husband and I ventured into a special exhibit at the National World War I Museum and Memorial. The museum currently has on loan from London John Singer Sargent’s painting “Gassed,” which depicts the impact of mustard gas on the troops during World War I. The painting is huge—more than 9 feet tall by 21 feet long. Men are bleeding, blinded, and vomiting from the effects of the gas, while in the background others play soccer.
The special exhibit also contained paraphernalia related to the use of chemical weapons during World War I, such as gas masks, posters warning soldiers to maintain their masks properly, and similar items.
One of Sargent’s drawings
A few of Sargent’s drawings to prepare for his painting were also on exhibit. I’m not an artist, so the studies artists do always intrigue me. It was easy to track how the details in the drawings made their way into the final painting.
But, of course, the most compelling aspect of the “Gassed” exhibit was its relevance a century later. In the days before we saw the Sargent exhibit, the news was full of stories about the recent use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government.
“Gassed” will remain at the National World War I Museum until June 3, 2018. I strongly encourage anyone in the Kansas City area before that time to see this exhibit, as well as the permanent exhibits at the museum, if you have not seen them before.
How do you think World War I and other events of a century ago continue to impact us today?
