

Rows of white headstones spread across forty acres of the former St. Mihiel Salient, across what had been the battlefields where American forces carried out their first major independent offensive of the war. The St. Mihiel American Cemetery and Memorial contains the graves of 4,153 American service members, most of whom died during the September 1918 offensive that reduced the German-held salient threatening nearby French territory. Paths lined with linden trees divide the cemetery into four plots, while memorial structures, sculptures, and a chapel transform the battlefield into a contemplative landscape devoted to remembrance.

Attribution: American Battle Monuments Commission