Meuse Argonne Cemetery, Romagne-sous-Montfaucon

This huge cemetery is the largest American War Cemetery in Europe, with more than 14,000 burials. It once contains more than 27,000 graves, but in the 1920s the US Authorities repatriated more than 60% of the dead back to military cemeteries (such as Arlington) in the US or back to family graves across the United States. 

The graves reflect the fighting in the Meuse-Argonne, fought by General Pershing's American Expeditionary Force (AEF) in September - November 1918. There are many graves of men who fell in the Argonne forest, of Black soldiers from the 91st Division, and a number of Congressional Medal of Honor winners.

All visits should start at the Visitors Building, where you can sign the Visitors Book, read the citations of the MoH winners, and trace information on those buried here. 

How To Get There

Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery is located east of the village of Romagne-sous-Montfaucon (Meuse), France, which is 26 miles northwest of Verdun. It may be reached by automobile from Paris (152 miles) via toll autoroute A-4 or highway N-3, to Ste. Menehould, continuing on N-3 to Clermont-en-Argonne (19 miles south of the cemetery) and continuing via Varennes-en-Argonne. It may also be reached from Verdun, where hotels are available, via Consenvoye or Dun-sur-Meuse, distances of 26 or 29 miles. Rail service from Paris (Gare de l'Est) to Verdun takes about 3½ hours. Taxis are available from there to the cemetery.

GPS Location: 49°20'3.10"N 5° 5'23.17"E

Information from AMBC Site:

Within the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial in France, which covers 130.5 acres, rest the largest number of our military dead in Europe, a total of 14,246. Most of those buried here lost their lives during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive of World War I. The immense array of headstones rises in long regular rows upward beyond a wide central pool to the chapel that crowns the ridge. A beautiful bronze screen separates the chapel foyer from the interior, which is decorated with stained-glass windows portraying American unit insignia; behind the altar are flags of the principal Allied nations.

On either side of the chapel are memorial loggias. One panel of the west loggia contains a map of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. Inscribed on the remaining panels of both loggias are Tablets of the Missing with 954 names, including those from the U.S. expedition to northern Russia in 1918-1919. Rosettes mark the names of those since recovered and identified.

The cemetery is open daily to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. except December 25 and January 1. It is open on host country holidays. When the cemetery is open to the public, a staff member is on duty in the Visitor Building to answer questions and escort relatives to grave and memorial sites.

Tracing AEF Service Personnel's Graves

This can be done on the American Battlefield Monuments Commission website. They only retain records of men buried in their cemeteries, and not the 60+% who were repatriated back to the United States. The WW1 search page is found here:

http://www.abmc.gov/search/wwi.php