Lex Anteinternet: Lest We Forget.

Lest We Forget.

Memorials to the veterans of the Great War.  Lest we forget.

World War One Memorial, Episcopal Cathedral, Laramie Wyoming

Memorial at the Episcopal Cathedral in Laramie, WY to the war dead of World War One. This memorial has, unfortunately, been vandalized.

World War One Memorial, Courthouse, Evanston Wyoming

Veterans Park, Casper Wyoming

This is the sign for World War One. This particular sign is unfortunately incomplete in terms of its information, as the sign maker was apparently unaware of the role of the Wyoming National Guard in the war. If you read the sign, you would be left with the impression that the Guard had little or no role, when in fact it was called up prior to the war for the Mexican border crisis, and it served as heavy artillery during World War One.



Indeed, the role of the Army National Guard is sadly lacking at this memorial in general, which is ironic given the strong presence of the Army National Guard in most Wyoming towns during the 20th Century, and the Air National Guard in Cheyenne. Only the Army National Guard's service in the Korean War is really featured in the park's displays.









A World War One trench mortar is on display at the park.

Society of the Military Horse: Great War Memorials

On Society of the Military Horse, Great War Memorials.

Wyoming State Veteran's Home. Buffalo Wyoming

Monument dedicated to the Great War.



Gun monument dedicated to the veterans of all wars.



Gun monument dedicated to the veterans of the Spanish American War.

Roll of Honor, Wyoming State Capitol

This is a monument just inside the doors of the Wyoming State Capitol.



An unfortunate aspect of this memorial is that it is not specific for the war dead it commemorates. Given the number of names, and the lack of a conflict being identified, my presumption is that it commemorates those who were lost in World War One.

Ferdinand Brandstetter Post #1. First American Legion Post in the United States. Van Tassell Wyoming

This is the the memorial for the Ferdinand Brandstetter American Legion Post in Van Tassel, Wyoming.  This was the location of the first American Legion post in the United States.  The town must have been much larger at the time, as it hardly even exists now, and the legion post very obviously no longer exist.  The American Legion was formed in Paris immediately following World War One, for veterans of that war, and had very active participation almost immediately from veterans of the Great War.

World War One Service Memorial, Hanna Wyoming

This is a memorial in Hanna Wyoming dedicated to all from the region who served in World War One.  Hanna is a very small town today, and the number of names on this memorial is evidence of the town once being significantly more substantially sized than it presently is.



The memorial is located on what was the Lincoln Highway at the time, but which is now a Carbon County Highway.  This was likely a central town location at the time the memorial was placed.

State of Wyoming, Veterans Memorial Park, Cody Wyoming

This is the State of Wyoming's Veterans Memorial Park in Cody, Wyoming.  It memorializes all of those lost in war from Wyoming, from World War One on.  Each war from World War one on, has its own section.



It's a really nice memorial park, so perhaps a person shouldn't offer criticism, but it's odd that the Spanish American War is omitted.  Wyoming did loose men during the Spanish American War, and likely did during the Philippine Insurrection as well.  A person might arguably also include the Indian Wars, although there were never any units raised in any fashion during the Indian Wars which participated in them, which is not surprising given the small population in the state at the time.  So the omission of the Indian Wars is not surprising.

World War One

Sweetwater County World War One Memorial, Bunning Park, Rock Springs Wyoming

This is the World War One monument in Rock Springs Wyoming. Dedicated to the Sweetwater County fallen in the war, it is located in Bunning Park, which was dedicated by a mayor of the city for which the park is named.  Perhaps somewhat ironically, Peter  Bunning was German by birth and had served in the German army before immigrating to Denmark, and then on to the United States, where he became a highly successful Sweetwater County businessman.



The doughboy statue itself is of a design that was widely manufactured following the First World War for memorials.



It can't help be noted that there are a surprisingly large number of names on this memorial, given the short amount of time that the United States had troops in action during the Great War, and given that Sweetwater County's population would not have been large.

World War One, World War Two, and Korean War Memorial: Chugwater Wyoming

This is the memorial for men lost in World War One, World War Two and the Korean War from the tiny town of Chugwater, Wyoming.  Chugwater is a very small town in Platte County, although it was probably a little larger during the Great War, World War Two, and the Korean War.

Expressing a unique tragedy, the same name appears on this memorial twice, but as that name was very clearly added for a serviceman of the Korean War after the monument was placed, we would have to assume that this represents two servicemen of the same name, likely father and son.

The memorial is located in a very small park across from the town hall.  Oddly, two figures have been added relatively recently which depict current servicemen, carrying M4 carbines. The figures are out of place and sort of resemble the plastic toy soldiers that kids play with and are an unfortunate addition to the memorial.

Wyoming Veterans Museum: World War One Display

Display dedicated to George Ostron, who was an accomplished armature illustrator and who won a contest to design what became the unit insignia.  A post on this topic is coming up on Lex Anteinternet.

I have a very lengthy photo post on the Wyoming Veterans Museum on this site already.  Normally, when adding to an existing topic, I do just that, but in this case I'm posting a new thread as, like most museums, the Wyoming Veterans Museum updates its displays and it would neither do justice to their new display nor to the prior thread to add to it.  Their new display concerns World War One and is focused on Wyomingites who served in the Great War.  They've done a very nice job with it and its a real credit to the museum.

Ira W. Brannan Memorial Pool, Casper Wyoming.

Not every memorial featured here is attractive. That's not the point of the blog.  Here's one such example.  The Ira W. Brannan Memorial Pool.

Most residents of Casper Wyoming just refer to this as the Washington Park swimming pool.  It's an outdoor pool, not visible in this photograph, that has long served Casper.  Indeed it is no doubt the oldest outdoor swimming pool in the city but is still in use as it gets heavy use.

So who was he? 

I have no idea and wasn't able to learn who he was.

He was likely a veteran of World War One, given the age of this pool. Washington Park used to feature a variety of caissons right next to the pool that were probably associated with the dedication, but which have since been moved to Ft. Caspar.  Mr. Brannan's name remains on the pool, but as to  he was, well at least to me that's a bit of a mystery.

Lex Anteinternet: Today In Wyoming's History: October 14, 1943. Mat...

Lex Anteinternet: Today In Wyoming's History: October 14, 1943. Mat...: Deer season opens in much of Wyoming today, and apparently has for awhile, which brings us to this interesting item from 1943. Today In W...

TR at Billings, Montana [1918]

Lex Anteinternet: Col. J. W. Cavendar, a Casualty of the Great War. Who was he?

Col. J. W. Cavendar, a Casualty of the Great War. Who was he?

The September 28, 1918 Casper Daily Press in which we learn a fair amount about Joseph J. Cavendar.  What we don't actually learn from this paper is the true circumstances of his death.

From the Wyoming newspapers of September 27, 1918, we learned that Col. J. W. Cavendar had become a casualty of the fighting on the Meuse Argonne.  He was the commander of the 148th Field Artillery, one of the units formed out of Wyoming National Guard infantrymen (as well as the Guardsmen of other regional states, or at least the state of Utah.

But who was he?

It's pretty hard to tell.

What we know, or thought we knew, from the Cheyenne papers of the day is that he was an attorney, and they report him as a local attorney, and hence the problem.

Lawyers may rise to the heights of great fame during their lifetimes, and certainly the ascendancy to high positions has been common, including in a prior era to the command of Federalized National Guard units.  But after they are dead, they are almost always completely forgotten.  The fame of lawyers follows them into the grave.

From what we can tell, the Cheyenne papers that reported him as "local" were a bit in error.  He was a Georgia born attorney who had originally apparently been a shopkeeper. According to the Casper paper set out above, he came to Wyoming at first to enter ranching, but that must not have worked otu as he returned to Georgia and entered the law. After that, he came back to Wyoming, was admitted to the bar here, and then practiced for a time in Carbon County before relocating to Park County.  In 1912, as the newspaper above notes, he was elected as Park County Attorney.

The old part of the Park County Courthouse, which was built in 1912, the year Cavendar became the Park County Attorney.

A little additional digging reveals that he'd been in the National Guard for awhile.  In 1911 he'd been elected, as that's how they did it, as the Captain of the infantry unit in  Cody.  His wife was asked to speak for Spanish American War pensioners as late as 1921, in hopes they'd claim their pensions, so his memory remained that strong at least to that point.  Perhaps more interestingly, given that he was born in 1878, that raises some question of whether he'd served in the Army during the Spanish American War.  He would have been old enough to do so.

He was in command, at least for a time, of the Wyoming National Guard troops that were mobilized for the crisis on the Mexican Border and was a Major in the National Guard by that time.

So we know that Col. Joseph W. Cavendar was a Georgia born lawyer who had relocated to Wyoming twice.  He'd started life as a merchant, and then switched to ranching, then went back to Georgia and became a lawyer.  After that, he came back to Wyoming and ultimately ended up the Park County Attorney.  At some point he'd entered the Wyoming National Guard.  Given his age, he was old enough to have been a Spanish American War veteran and it would be somewhat odd, given his obvious affinity for military life, if he had not been.

At the time of his death he was fifty years old.  Not a young man.  And there's a ting, maybe, of failure to his life.  It's subtle, but it's sort of there.  The law was his third career and Wyoming was his second state of practice.

But perhaps that's emphasized by what we later learn.

Cavendar killed himself.

Indeed, what we learn is that on the very first day of the Meuse Argonne Offensive the Army found the fifty year old Park County Attorney, former rancher, former merchant, wanting and informed him that it was relieving him of his command and giving him the choice of returning to the United States to be mustered out of service or to be reduced in rank to Captain and return to service in that capacity.  Instead he walked over to the hotel where he was staying and killed himself with a pistol.  The Army, no doubt wanting to save his reputation, or perhaps worried that the relief of a National Guard officer (from a state in which powerful U.S. Senator F. E. Warren was. . . Gen. Pershing's father in law, was from) reported him killed in action.

Cavendar had been in front of a board that was reviewing National Guard officers and finding more than a few of them wanting.  Some were higher ranking that Cavendar.  By the time the true story broke, following the war, the sympathies were clearly on the relieved National Guard officers side and the action regarded as an outrage.

Was it?  That's pretty hard to say. Cavendar had been in command of his unit for a good five months at the time he was relieved. But that doesn't mean that his service had been perfect or that there weren't better officers, and potentially younger ones, coming up behind him.  On the other hand, the Regular Army was legendary for containing officer that had a strong, largely unwarranted, animosity towards the National Guard.  Indeed, elements of the Army had openly opposed making the Guard the official reserve of the Army in 1903, an action which if they had been successful in would have lead to absolute disaster during World War One.  Nonetheless, as late as World War Two the Army seemed to retain a strong animosity in some quarters towards National Guard officers and relieved many of them with no clear indication as to why.  No doubt some, perhaps many, warranted removal, but the Army seemed more zealous in its actions than facts warranted.

Whatever happened, apparently Cavendar couldn't bare what he regarded as the shame of it, or perhaps other things combined to push him over the edge. Whatever it was, he shouldn't have done what he did.  Indeed, followers of the blog on Canadian colones in the Great War would note that many of them were relieved and went on to be highly regarded.  Relieving officers in wartime isn't unusual, it's part of the service.  

Well, anyhow, now we know more about Cavendar than we did, sad story though it is.

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