The Battle
of Cantigny

An article from a 1918 Stars & Stripes concerning the battle of Cantigny (May 28 – 31, 1918), which was America’s first division sized engagement during the First World War; George Marshall would later opine that the objective was “of no strategic importance and of small tactical value”. General Pershing was hellbent on eradicating from the popular memory any mention of the A.E.F.’s poor performance at Seicheprey some weeks earlier, and Cantigny was as good a battleground in which to do it as any. Assessing the battle two weeks after the Armistice, Pershing’s “yes men” at the Stars & Stripes wrote:

“But at Cantigny it had been taught to the world the significant lesson that the American soldier was fully equal to the soldier of any other nation on the field of battle.”

An article from The New Republic recognizing that 1914 marked the end of an era.