Today’s post is written by Suzanne Zoumbaris, an Archives Specialist in the Textual Records Division at the National Archives at College Park.

On November 11, 1918, before hostilities ended, the 313th Infantry Regiment continued to fight along with other Allied units on the front of the Meuse-Argonne offensive. At 10:59 a.m. only one minute before the Armistice came into force Private Henry Gunther was killed in action. He is credited as being the last American solder to be killed during World War I.

When an individual died during World War I a burial card was created. These cards are a great source of information that contain the name of the individual who died, the unit that they were assigned to, and information regarding the nature of their death. The burial card for Pvt Gunther confirms that he was killed in action November 11, 1918. It also provides information as to his burial arrangements, next of kin, disinterment, and shipment of his remains.

As part of a recent digitization project this series of burial cards is now available in NARA’s online catalog in the RG 92 Card Register of Burials of Deceased American Soldiers (NAID 6943087). These records are arranged alphabetically by name of soldier. To see the digitized records, click on the link “104 file units” when viewing the series description (link above).

This is one of only a few series in NARA’s custody related to World War I records where it is possible to search knowing only the name of an individual. Once a unit has been identified from the burial card it is possible to locate various unit records. While unit records do not generally list names of individuals or contain personnel information, occasionally someone may find information such as general orders that have citations related to an individual’s service.

General Order No. 29 issued May 8, 1919 within records related to the 313th Infantry regiment provides a citation for Pvt Gunther where he is recognized for gallantry in action and meritorious services.

Operations reports for the 313th Infantry Regiment provide details as to what the unit orders were for November 11, 1918 as well as statistics listing that there was one individual killed and seven wounded.

Chapter IV, p3; 313th Infantry Regiment Report of Operations 9/25 – 11/11/1918, RG 120 Chapter IV, p4; 313th Infantry Regiment Report of Operations 9/25 – 11/11/1918, RG 120

We are pleased to announce that our colleagues at the National Archives at St. Louis plan to start a multi-year project to digitize the series Correspondence, Reports, Telegrams, Applications, and Other Papers Relating to Burials of Service Personnel, 1/1/1915-12/31/1939 aka as “Burial Case Files” in RG 92 ( NAID 595318 ). The records contain correspondence, Graves Registration Service forms, headstone applications, Gold Star Mothers’ itineraries, and other pertinent information relating to the burial of members and veterans of the United States military, mainly the U.S. Army. Of the approximately 218,905 files, 30,922 files pertain to soldiers who died during World War I. The World War I files will be digitized first and will be made available in the National Archives Catalog on a rolling basis.

For other related records that were recently digitized, please see The Unwritten Record’s post on the Initial Burial Plats for World War I American Soldiers.

Today (Nov 8th) at 1pm EST, join Dr. Mitchell Yockelson for a Facebook Live on World War I, in commemoration of Veteran’s Day.

Source Notes: