Name/Title
StereographEntry/Object ID
2023.055.3.0167Description
A black and whtie stereograph. Image is of a village - several buildings have suffered serious damage and/or collapsed, there is rubble in the street, in th distance is a truck that two people stand beside. Above the image "W242 (Star)" is printed, below the image "19248 The Place des Halles, St. Mihiel." is printed, to the left of the image "Keystone View Company COPYRIGHTED Manufacturers MADE IN U.S.A. Publishers" is printed, to the right of the image "Meadville, Pa., New York, N. Y., Chicago, Ill., London, England." is printed. On the reverse the following is printed:
19248
THE PLACE DES HALLES, ST. MIHIEL
Before the war St. Mihiel (pronunciation) was a place of nearly 10,000 people. After having been occupied by the Germans for a few days less than four years it was retaken by the 1st American Army under General Pershing on Sept. 13, 1918, being the largest city acutally captured by American arms during the war. When retaken, parts of the city were almost wholly demolished by shells which had fallen upon if from the French batteries while it was in the hands of the enemy. Other parts were little injured, having been sheltered from fire by some of the numerous high hills that surround the place in almost every direction.
The Place des Halles, or "Market Square," across which we are looking from its western end, is in the center of St. Mihiel and is plainly in the part of the city which suffered under the shells. In this square, on Sept. 13, just after the Germans had left General Petain, commander-in-chief of the French armies, General Pershing, commanding the 1st American Army, and Secretary of War Newton D. Baker, were greeted with wild enthusiasm by the few hundreds of inhabitants of St. Mihiel who had remained there throughout the German occupation. Despite the pitiable conditions of the town and the pillaging to which it had been subjected, the people had contrived to collect red, white and blue bunting and to find or make French and American flags with which they decorated the streets and even the ruined houses. Their joy at the arrival of their deliverers was pathetic. The principal steet of the city, formerly called the "Rue Grande," is now the "Rue du General Pershing," and the name and memory of American will ever be greatefully honored in St. Mihiel.
Copyright by The Keystone View CompanyCollection
Photograph Collection