Back in 1990, a graduate student at Central Connecticut State University, Francis Coan, wrote a thesis that told the story of the Bristol men who headed off to the trenches in France as part of the legendary Yankee Division.
Now a history professor at Tunxis Community College, Coan generously agreed to let me post here the section of his thesis that told the story of the battle of Seicheprey in April 1918, where eight Bristol soldiers died and many others were injured.
Thanks to some sort of glitch with my fax machine, it comes in two PDFs, which you can read online or print off (FYI: the cover page repeats at the beginning of part 2, but it is, in fact, the second half of the Seicheprey section of the paper).
Here's Part 1 of the story of the battle of Seicheprey and
Here's Part 2 of the story of the battle of Seicheprey
There's a ceremony at 11 a.m. Saturday at the World War I memorial on Memorial Boulevard to honor the Bristol troops who lost their lives in that bloody battle. Try to go if you can. There's also a display at the Bristol Historical Society afterward that's well worth seeing.
By the way, if there's an interest, I'll try to post the rest of the thesis another time.
Thank you to Fran for his willingness to share the paper with everyone and to Jack Denehy at the Bristol Military Museum for letting me borrow his copy.
I should also mention that Lori DeFillippi deserves much of the credit for pulling together the ceremony to honor the 90th anniversary of that terrible battle. She's got a passion for history and for honoring the men and women who devoted so much for their country.
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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
16 comments:
Steve great article and facts about this costly battle. I think all Bristol residents should take an hour out of their day tomorrow and go to this ceremony. I heard they found 1 more young man that died in that battle - which will be talked about tomorrow.
Thanks for all those who put this together!
Is this stuff all we ever talk about in Bristol? I swear we read about veterans and memorials every week now.
....Gee 3:12, let's see if I can explain why we often talk about veterans and memorials in simple enough terms so that even you can understand.....
Are you able to give your opinion freely here in this public forum without fear of punishment or retribution? Are you writing it in English?
Think about it for awhile....maybe it'll come to you.
April 18, 2008 3:12 PM:
This is just more of Collins' infatuation with Ward and his political cronies like Lori Di-whats-her-face.
Infatuated with Ward? I guess I'm outed. ;)
And God created the world and gave the life of His only Son to die for the sins of all mankind, but in Bristol we seem to celebrate veterans more often then we celebrate God.
Most of the veterans we hear about are more interested in celebrating themselves. And most of them did not serve to protect freedom, they were either drafted or they joined the service to go on an adventure, or more recently out of economic hardship because they didn't have many other options in life. Not everyone, but most. Anyone old enough to remember and is honest knows what I am talking about. I'll probably get attacked for this, but if you can be honest with yourself and forget about the emotional tugging that these celebrations do, you will know what I say is true.
....12:20, I'll give it one more shot, but I really don't think you're capable of comprehending....
Most people who believe in God celebrate that fact every day. The men and women who gave their lives(whether they were drafted, enlisted or went kicking and screaming into battle)still GAVE THEIR LIVES so that most people who believe in God CAN celebrate that fact every day.
The ceremony today was about THOSE WHO DIED at the battle of Seicheprey during WWI....Other than the fact that the event was sponsored by the veterans, it had absolutely NOTHING TO DO WITH HONORING THE VETERANS THEMSELVES....
I'm not sure what particular grudge you hold against vets (sounds like maybe jealousy or guilt?), but you really do need to get over it. If you're not interested in the "emotional tugging" that these ceremonies cause....THEN DON'T GO. Its a free country (and yes that is because of some of the vets)....
April 19, 2008 12:20 PM:
Agreed, and evidently the celebration was in full swing at the Legion bar afterwords.
April 19, 2008 3:37 PM (aka... the...person...)
"I'll give it one more shot, but I really don't think you're capable of comprehending...."
-It's too bad you aren't comprehending that you're responding to a different person this time....for...your...information...
....Oh, I'm comprehending alright. I'm comprehending that you don't have a valid argument....
Sorry for the confusion. The negative attitude and nastiness of your comments must have thrown me. You sure sound like another one of the negative naysayers. Again, sorry for the confusion, but hey, you have a great day!
the....person
April 19, 2008 6:32 PM: (....aka...)
Again you're obviously confused. I give up trying to explain simple concepts to you.
And again, I'm not the one who posted on April 19, 2008 at 12:20 PM.
Please enjoy the content and excuse the misspellings. I don't know how these errors escaped my scrutiny, as well as the scrutiny of my thesis advisor, but so they did. But such was the world before Spell Check.
It was a different world back then, Fran. Those of us who remember have no trouble forgiving a few typos.
Political cronies? Evidently you don't Defillippi - she has no plans to run for anything. One again a clueless poster who knows nothing about active and caring citizens.
Pete
Props to Professor Coan and to Steve for giving us an interesting history lesson!
Steve, does your wife know how you feel about Artie?
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