The 102nd Missouri General Assembly has appropriated $30,000 to fund repairs to the monument which commemorating Missourians who fought and fell in the Great War and is situated in the area in which the most Missouri troops were engaged.
The monument, named Victory, was sculpted by Nancy Coonsman Hahn of St. Louis in 1922. Atop a granite pedestal is a bronze statue of a woman staring at the sky, holding an olive branch in her left hand and raising up a laurel victory wreath with her right.
On the front of the granite pedestal is a French inscription with the corresponding English translation, "Erected by the state of Missouri USA in memory of her sons who died in France for humanity during the great war 1917 – 1918" on the back. The base of the monument is decorated with the Missouri state seal that reads "United we stand divided we fall".
The monument honors the 35th Division, which consisted of National Guardsmen from Missouri and Kansas. On September 26, 1918, the first day of the Meuse-Argonne offensive, the 35th broke through enemy lines between Cheppy and Varines where they faced Prussian soldiers and heavy machine gun fire. Two members of ther 35th, Private Nels Wold and Capt. Alex Skinker were awarded the Medal of Honor for bravery on the 26th, during which they were both killed.
The State and National Guard of Missouri are to be commended for maintaining the memory of America in the Great War.
Photos from American War Memorials Overseas, Inc.
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