Armistice Day at 100

One hundred years ago today, at 11 AM local time, the guns on the Western Front fell silent as World War I’s armistice took effect.

World War I remade the world and set the course for the 20th Century. Its aftershocks are still visible today. For Americans, this was the largest overseas force yet deployed and the largest U.S. Army fielded since the Civil War. It confirmed the United States as a key player on the world stage.

I blogged about World War I connections to the Civil War in these posts:

Civil War Echoes: General PattonĀ 

The Blue & Gray

Bivouacs of the Dead



2 Responses to Armistice Day at 100

  1. The guns on the Western Front may have fallen silent, but for the US the war was not over. President Wilson had agreed to support a vague military mission in Russia with stated intention of re-opening an Eastern Front, or failing that, extracting the “Czech Legion”. To execute the mission, the army created two forces — AEF North Russia and and AEF Siberia. The remoteness of the campaigns from the main theaters of war probably contributed to their obscurity. The campaigns quickly became dragged into the ongoing civil war between “White” and “Red” Russians and are an excellent example of the difficulties in engaging in insurgency warfare. For the troops of AEF Siberia (largely made up of 27th and 31st Infantry Regiments), this wasn’t a new experience. The US had been engaged in a continuous insurgency in the Philippines since the Spanish American War, initially against independence forces on Luzon, and then against Muslim forces on Mindanao. The two forces wouldn’t be finally withdrawn until early 1920.

Please leave a comment and join the discussion!