World War I
It has been 100 years since the armistice was signed at 11 o’clock the morning of the 11th of November, 1918, ending the First World War. The captain of the national guard, Monroe’s Company H, was my grandfather, A.E. Mitchell. Capt. Mitchell kept scrapbooks and photo albums of the time he spent in the military, starting in 1897 when he joined the U.S. Cavalry in South Dakota. He took command of Company H upon promotion to Captain on January 28, 1916, and he led the infantry company in the First World War, fighting with the 127th Regiment of the 32nd Division of the American Expeditionary Force. His photos, post cards, letters, orders, documents, telegrams and books have been source material for these articles, along with letters home from soldiers and other accounts that were printed in the Monroe Evening Times. – Tom Mitchell