Veteran’s Day 2018

Honoring those who served

In the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918 — one hundred years ago today — the guns fell silent.

On the battlefields of Europe, where war had raged for more than four years, the survivors breathed a sigh of relief.

It was over.

The War to End All Wars, it was called.¹

Of course, it wasn’t that, not at all, and the toll of its carnage was staggering: more than nine million dead, more than 21 million wounded² — and that’s only the combat numbers. When you add in all causes of death, that war took the lives of somewhere between 5.2 and 6.4 million troops on the Allied side and 3.4 to 4.4 million troops from the Central Powers.

From the United States, more than 53,000 combat deaths. From Canada, more than 56,000. From Australia, more than 61,000. From the UK, 744,000. From France, 1.15 million. And those were the “winners.” On the losing side, from Austro-Hungary, 1 million. From Germany, 1.8 million.³

Among them, on that losing side, my grandfather’s brother, my grand uncle Arno Werner Geissler, killed in Galicia on 22 June 1915.⁴ And his brother-in-law Franz Oskar Oettel, who died 21 July 1915 in a battle on the western front called the Barrenkopf.⁵

It was — as all wars are — a terrible war.

And it gave rise to what today is called Veterans Day.

First proclaimed in November 1919 by President Wilson,⁶ Armistice Day became a national holiday by statute in 1938.⁷ In 1954, the name of the holiday was changed to Veterans Day.⁸

It joined the list of three-day-weekend holidays in 1968⁹ but was returned to its original date of November 11th by statute passed in 1975, effective in 1978.¹⁰

And so, today, November 11th — Veterans Day¹¹ — The Legal Genealogist joins those who pause to thank every man and woman who has ever served this nation, wearing the uniform of its military services.

So many of them from my own family.¹²

Among them, my brothers, sister and nephew-in-law:

Evan H. Geissler, U.S. Air Force
Diana M. Geissler McKenzie, U.S. Air Force
Frederick M. Geissler, U.S. Army
Warren H. Geissler, U.S. Air Force
William K. Geissler, U.S. Marine Corps

My mother’s siblings and first cousins:

Billy R. Cottrell, U.S. Navy
Monte B. Cottrell, U.S. Navy
David F. Cottrell, U.S. Navy and U.S. Army
Jerry L. Cottrell, U.S. Air Force
Michael V. Cottrell, U.S. Air Force
Philip Cottrell, U.S. Marine Corps (killed 1943)
Frederick Merledon Gottlieb, U.S. Army
Sam Walter “Pete” Harris, U.S. Army

Among what we call the outlaws (my mother’s brothers-in-law and my nephew-in-law):

J.C. Barrett, U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force
Miller (Ray) Childress, U.S. Navy
John C. Epps, U.S. Army
Thomas T. Williams, Jr., U.S. Air Force (Reserve)
David Tolliver, U.S. Navy

And those who went before:

Clay R. Cottrell, U.S. Army, World War I
Gilbert F. Cottrell, U.S. Army, World War I
Jesse Fore, fifer, Captain Michael Gaffney’s Company, South Carolina Militia, War of 1812
Elijah Gentry Sr., Private, 1st Regiment, Mississippi Territorial Volunteers, War of 1812
Elijah Gentry, Private, 1st Regiment, Mississippi Territorial Volunteers, War of 1812
Boston Shew, Private, Captain Carlton’s Company, North Carolina Militia, War of 1812
David Baker, Corporal, 3d Virginia Regiment, Continental Line
William Noel Battles, Private, 10th Virginia Regiment, Continental Line
John Pettypool, 1771, Militia, Granville County, NC
William Pettypool, 1701-02, Militia, Charles City County (Va.) Dragoons
Nicholas Gentry, cir 1680, Militia, Mattapony (Va.) Garrison

SOURCES

Image: “War Is Over,” Rogue River (Ore.) Courier, 11 Nov 1918, p.1; digital images, Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress (https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ : accessed 11 Nov 2018).