In The Tennessean, on the 100th Anniversary of the end of WWI, Lisa M. Budreau, PhD, Senior Curator of Military History at Tennessee State Museum and author of Bodies of War: World War I and the Politics of Commemoration in America, 1919-1933, (New York University Press, 2010), writes of the ultimate sacrifice paid by Tennesseans and their families during the war.
"Over 100,000 Tennesseans volunteered or were drafted," she writes, "six of them received the Medal of Honor, including Alvin C. York of Fentress County, the most decorated soldier of the day. Nearly 4,000 Tennesseans made the ultimate sacrifice and countless others returned home maimed or suffering with traumatic mental afflictions barely understood at the time."
Read the full essay at The Tennessean.
Budreau is the curator of Tennessee and the Great War: A Centennial Exhibition, on exhibit now at the Tennessean State Museum.