Memorial Inscriptions

NPS photo

The following quotations are engraved on the World War I Memorial:

The Great Man

In their devotion, their valor, and in the loyal fulfillment of their
obligations, the officers and men of the American Expeditionary Forces
have left a heritage of which those who follow may ever be proud.

John J. Pershing

Published in Pershing's memoir, My Experiences in the World War (1931).

This quote is located on the east side of the memorial, on the wall behind the statue of General Pershing.

 

The Toll of War

They were mortal, but they were unconquerable.

Willa Cather

From One of Ours (1922), written by Willa Cather in response to the death of her cousin, G. P. Cather, killed in the battle of Cantigny in May 1918. Cather received the 1923 Pulitzer Prize for the work.

Read or listen to the audiobook.

This quote is engraved on a planter on the northeast side of the lower plaza.

 

Diversity in the American War Effort

If this world must become embroiled in a tremendous “war to end wars,”I am glad that I, too, may play a part in it.

Alta May Andrews

From a letter written on December 1 1917, from Andrews, an army nurse, to her mother. Andrews served two years in Europe, first as an American Red Cross nurse then in the Army Nurse Corps.

This quotation is inscribed on a planter on the northwest side of the lower plaza.

 

The Every Man

Never before have men crossed the seas to a foreign land
To fight for a cause which they did not pretend was peculiarly their own,
But knew was the cause of humanity and of mankind.

President Woodrow Wilson

Excerpted from a Memorial Day speech delivered to a group of Americans by Wilson at the Suresnes Cemetery near Paris on May 30, 1919.

It is inscribed on a retaining wall below the flagpole near the northwest corner of the memorial.

 

Peace

Whether our lives and our deaths were for peace and a new hope
Or for nothing, we cannot say, it is you who must say this
They say we leave you our deaths, give them their meaning
We were young, they say, we have died, remember us.

Archibald MacLeish

Excerpted from “The Young Dead Soldiers Do Not Speak” (1940). MacLeish served in World War I as an ambulance driver and artillery officer and wrote this poem while Librarian of Congress for a memorial service honoring all the Library of Congress staff members who had died in the war.

Read the entire poem here.

Located on the west side of the memorial, behind the "A Soldier's Journey" sculpture.