Rouge Bouquet Fighting 69th Memorial Service World War I March 1918

Rouge Bouquet is a part of the Forêt de Parroy near the village of

Baccarat Baccarat or baccara (; ) is a card game played at casinos. It is a comparing card game played between two hands, the "player" and the "banker". Each baccarat coup (round of play) has three possible outcomes: "player" (player has the higher score ...

, France. It was the site of a German artillery bombardment of American trench positions on 7 March 1918 at 15:20 on the Chausailles sector of the Western Front during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

.Duffy, Francis Patrick. Father Duffy’s Story. (New York: George H. Doran Company, 1919), 350. The bombardment resulted in the burial of 21 men of the 165th Infantry Regiment (originally the 69th Regiment of the

New York National Guard The New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs (NYS DMNA) is responsible for the state's New York Army National Guard, New York Air National Guard, New York Guard and the New York Naval Militia. It is headed by Adjutant General of New ...

), 42nd Rainbow Division of whom only a few survived. The 22 men, including their platoon commander 1st Lieutenant John Norman, were assembled in a dugout when a German artillery shell landed on the roof of the dugout. Major William J. "Wild Bill" Donovan quickly began a rescue attempt to dig the men out, but the effort were hampered by mud-slides and continued enemy shelling.Harris, Stephen L. Duffy's War: Fr. Francis Duffy, Wild Bill Donovan, and the Irish Fighting 69th in World War I (Washington, DC: Potomac Books Inc, 2007). Two men were rescued and five dead were recovered before efforts had to be halted. The voices of other men could be heard for a while, but the remaining fifteen men died before rescue efforts could resume. Donovan was awarded the French

Croix de Guerre The ''Croix de Guerre'' (, ''Cross of War'') is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was first awa ...

for his actions during the attempted rescue. Poet and literary critic

Joyce Kilmer Alfred Joyce Kilmer (December 6, 1886 – July 30, 1918) was an American writer and poet mainly remembered for a short poem titled "Trees" (1913), which was published in the collection ''Trees and Other Poems'' in 1914. Though a prolific poet who ...

, a

corporal Corporal is a military rank in use in some form by many militaries and by some police forces or other uniformed organizations. The word is derived from the medieval Italian phrase ("head of a body"). The rank is usually the lowest ranking non ...

at that time, wrote the 1918 poem " Rouge Bouquet" (also called "The Wood Called Rouge Bouquet") as a eulogy to commemorate the soldiers in his regiment who died. The poem was first read by

Chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a Minister (Christianity), minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a laity, lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secularity, secular institution (such as a hosp ...

Francis Duffy at "the funeral service held at the collapsed dugout, the tomb of the regiment's first men slain in battle" a few days later. It first appeared in print in the American servicemen's newspaper ''Stars and Stripes''—published two weeks after Kilmer died in combat in the

Second Battle of the Marne The Second Battle of the Marne (french: Seconde Bataille de la Marne) (15 July – 18 July 1918) was the last major German offensive on the Western Front (World War I), Western Front during the World War I, First World War. The attack failed wh ...

on 30 July 1918.United States Army. Army Expeditionary Force, 1917-1919. (New York: G.P. Putnam's sons, 1919), 78-80.

References

{{reflist World War I United States in World War I Battles of World War I involving Germany Battles of World War I involving the United States Battles of the Western Front (World War I) 1918 in France Western Front (World War I) World War I sites in France