North Dakota Law Review/Volume 1/Number 6/To Their Memory
TO THEIR MEMORY
As unafraid as they were untrained, as virtuous as they were valorous, as quiet and unassuming as later they proved courageous and resourceful, we saw them go. Without anger, without bitterness, without hatred, but with the pent-up fury of outraged humanity lurking in every crooked grin, they approached their task.
The spirits of our departed heroes saw these new millions springing to arms—saw this race of farmers and fishermen, bell-hops and bill-clerks, go on their crusade for humanity; saw them enter the arena, where yellow waters once more ran red as frothing wine; saw them strike down another citadel of oppression and tyranny, and drive its possessors into inglorious seclusion; saw Belleau Wood and Cantigny, Chateau Thierry and the Argonne, Verdun, San Mihiel and The Meuse become a part of American history, fit to take their places by the side of Little Round Top and Lookout Mountain, Chickamauga and Chancellorsville, Antietam, Shiloh and The Wilderness.
Yes, they went. And may we not forget that these, the instruments of Divine Providence, were men of flesh and blood like ourselves, men and boys from our own communities, men and boys claiming such common, ordinary things as names.