Allen Peck – Parade to Cemetery
Tours, France – 1 November, 1917
"2 Nov 1917 – Yesterday after breakfast orders came in that our fifty men would have to participate in a French parade in the afternoon , so your letter had to wait. November first is a National Holiday in France, similar to our Decoration Day in the States, on which they decorate their soldiers’ graves and commemorate in general the soldier dead. It was a wonderfullty impressive afternoon for us.
Imagine a dark, gray day with a steady rain falling and you will have the setting in which it took place. Trucks carried us into the city and to the point where we fell into the procession. The parade itself was a very small one, probably about four of our city blocks in length, and headed by a very good French military band and a squadron of French cavalry. We were the only Americans in line, and were about in the center. There were some French infantry, soldiers carrying floral wreaths, civilians, men and women in black and several other military organizations..
We marched through the city in streets lined with people, mostly all in mourning, with the band playing
“Le Matelol” a now famous charging song, with the French at the front and a very stirring piece too, winding up at a very large cemetery outside of the city. [anybody know where this is?/what cemetery?] We halted at the entrance for a few minutes,
then the band started a funeral dirge and we proceeded into the cemetery and through it at this slow dragging step of the funeral march. The cemetery was very old in parts, and tall, gaunt bare trees towered into the gray skies, dripping rain steadily with that steady murmur of rain on trees. The sides of the paths through which we marched were thronged with people in deep mourning, mostly women, who were openly weeping. And with the horribly weird, mournful music it made about as impressive an affair as I care to visit, and least of all participate in.
On arrival at the other end of the cemetery we were halted facing, in company front, some speakers platforms. Several speeches were made and flowers placed on some newly made graves. Suddenly the band swung into those ever stirring strains of the
Marseillaise.
“Present Arms” cracked from our lieutenant, the military came to the salute, and the civilians all uncovered, all of which is undoubtedly as stirring a sight as you will ever see. The Marseillaise over, another speech was made and directed to us, it was in French so I did not get it but was clearly complimentary to the American nation. This over, during which we were held at attention, I saw, out of the corner of my eye, the band leader raise his hand, and bang came the old
Star Spangled Banner, and simultaneously
“Present Arms! from the lieutenant again. I never saw men come to
“present arms” with more snap in my life. Personally, I felt like throwing my gun in the air and letting out a few good yells. I don’t think anything ever sounded better than that old homelike music to us, as we stood there surrounded by a foreign people in a foreign land. This over, we marched out to the drums and were dismissed.”
11 December 2005, 11:39 AM
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