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Winning a Cause: World War Stories

by John G. Thompson

By John G. Thompson · History · Public domain

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Winning a Cause: World War Stories is a public-domain classic of history by John G. Thompson.

The complete text is on this page and the chapter pages below — all 48 chapters, about 88,395 words (~7 hours of reading), free to read online with no signup.

Winning a Cause: World War Stories at a glance

Author
John G. Thompson
Length
88,395 words · about 7 hours to read
Chapters
48
Price
Free — public domain

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Read Winning a Cause: World War Stories online — full text

Part 1

E-text prepared by Al Haines

WINNING A CAUSE

JOHN GILBERT THOMPSON

* * * * * *

In Flanders Now

(An Answer to Lt.-Col. McCrae)

We have kept faith, ye Flanders' dead, Sleep well beneath those poppies red, That mark your place. The torch your dying hands did throw We 've held it high before the foe, And answered bitter blow for blow, In Flanders' fields.

And where your heroes' blood was spilled The guns are now forever stilled And silent grown. There is no moaning of the slain, There is no cry of tortured pain, And blood will never flow again In Flanders' fields.

Forever holy in our sight Shall be those crosses gleaming white, That guard your sleep. Rest you in peace, the task is done, The fight you left us we have won, And "Peace on Earth" has just begun In Flanders now.

EDNA JACQUES in the Calgary Herald

* * * * * *

This striking lithograph in the movement of its design expresses the compelling force of the American spirit as it entered the World War.

The original oil painting has been purchased by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.]

WINNING A CAUSE

World War Stories

JOHN GILBERT THOMPSON Principal of the State Normal School, Fitchburg, Mass.

and

INEZ BIGWOOD Instructor in Children's Literature, State Normal School, Fitchburg, Mass.

Authors of Lest We Forget

Silver, Burdett and Company Boston ---- New York ---- Chicago Copyright, 1919, by Silver, Burdett and Company.

PREFACE

Lest We Forget, the first volume of World War stories, gave an outline of the struggle up to the time of the signing of the armistice, November 11, 1918, and contained in general chronological order most of the stories that to children from ten to sixteen years of age would be of greatest interest, and give the clearest understanding of the titanic contest.

This; the second volume of the same series, contains the stories of the war of the character described, that were not included in Lest We Forget,--stories of the United States naval heroes, of the Americans landed in France, of the concluding events of the war, of the visit of President Wilson to Europe, and of the Peace Conference. In a word, emphasis is placed upon America's part in the struggle.

This volume should be of even greater interest to American children than the first, for it tells the story of America's greatest achievement, of a nation undertaking a tremendous and terrible task not for material gain, but for an ideal.

No more inspiring story has ever been told to the children of men than the story of America's part in winning the greatest cause for which men have ever contended. President Wilson said in Europe, "The American soldiers came not merely to win a war, but to win a cause." Every child in every home and in every school should be made familiar with how it was won, and with the separate stories which go to make up the glorious epic.

The two volumes of the series give for children, in a way that they will comprehend and enjoy, through stories so selected and so connected as to build up an understanding of the whole, the causes, the conduct, and the results of the World War.

The thanks of the authors and publishers are hereby expressed to Mr. Edwin Rowland Blashfield for the permission to reproduce his poster, "Carry On"; to Mrs. Ella Wheeler Wilcox for "Song of the Aviator"; to George H. Doran Company, Publishers, for "Pershing at the Tomb of Lafayette" from "The Silver Trumpet," by Amelia Josephine Burr, copyright 1918; for "Where Are You Going, Great-Heart?" from "The Vision Splendid" by John Oxenham, copyright 1918; for "Trees" from "Trees and Other Poems" by Joyce Kilmer, copyright 1914; to Collier's for Lieutenant McKeogh's story of "The Lost Battalion"; to Mr. Roger William Riis for his article "The Secret Service"; and to Mr. John Mackenzie, Chief Boatswain's Mate, U. S. S. Remlik, for the facts in the story, "Fighting a Depth Bomb."

CONTENTS

Part 2

1. WHY THE UNITED STATES ENTERED THE WAR 2. AMERICA COMES IN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Klaxton 3. PERSHING AT THE TOMB OF LAFAYETTE . . . . Amelia Josephine Burr 4. AMERICA ENTERS THE WAR . . . . . . . . . . . David Lloyd George 5. THE FIRST TO FALL IN BATTLE 6. FOUR SOLDIERS 7. WHERE THE FOUR WINDS MEET . . . . . . . Geoffrey Dalrymple Nash 8. THE SOLDIERS WHO GO TO SEA 9. WHEN THE TIDE TURNED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Otto H. Kahn 10. A BOY OF PERUGIA 11. REDEEMED ITALY 12. SONG OF THE AVIATOR . . . . . . . . . . . . Ella Wheeler Wilcox 13. NATIONS BORN AND REBORN 14. "TO VILLINGEN--AND BACK" 15. ALSACE-LORRAINE 16. THE CALL TO ARMS IN OUR STREET . . . . . . . . . . W. M. Letts 17. THE KAISER'S CROWN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Charles Mackay 18. THE QUALITY OF MERCY 19. THE REALLY INVINCIBLE ARMADA 20. "I KNEW YOU WOULD COME" . . . . . . Rev. Ernest M. Stires, D.D. 21. THE SEARCHLIGHTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alfred Noyes 22. FIGHTING A DEPTH BOMB 23. THE SECOND LINE OF DEFENSE 24. U. S. DESTROYER OSMOND C. INGRAM 25. JOYCE KILMER 26. BLOCKING THE CHANNEL 27. THE FLEET THAT LOST ITS SOUL 28. THE LITTLE OLD ROAD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gertrude Vaughan 29. HARRY LAUDER SINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dr. George Adams 30. THE THIRTEENTH REGIMENT 31. WHERE ARE YOU GOING, GREAT-HEART? . . . . . . . . . John Oxenham 32. THIS CAPTURE OF DUN 33. BOMBING METZ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Raoul Lufbery 34. THE UNSPEAKABLE TURK 35. THE SECRET SERVICE . . . . . . . . . . . . . Roger William Riis 36. AT THE FRONT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . G. B. Manwaring 37. A CAROL FROM FLANDERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . Frederick Niven 38. THE MINER AND THE TIGER 39. THE LOST BATTALION 40. UNITED STATES DAY 41. NOVEMBER 11, 1918 42. IN MEMORIAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alfred Tennyson 43. THE UNITED STATES AT WAR--IN FRANCE . . General John J. Pershing 44. THE UNITED STATES AT WAR--AT HOME 45. A CONGRESSIONAL MESSAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . Woodrow Wilson 46. PRESIDENT WILSON IN FRANCE 47. SERGEANT YORK OF TENNESSEE

ILLUSTRATIONS

Edwin Rowland Blashfield's poster, "Carry On," used in the Fourth Liberty Loan . . . . Frontispiece

The standard bearers and color guard leading a column of the Fifth Artillery of the First American Division through Hetzerath, Germany, on their way to the Rhine.

"Lafayette, We Are Here!" The immortal tribute of General John J. Pershing at the grave of the great Frenchman.

The religious and military tribute paid to the first Americans to fall in battle, at Bathelmont, November 4, 1917.

Saint George and the Dragon, painted by V. Carpaccio in 1516, Venice; S. Giorgio Maggiore.

Jeanne d'Arc, rising in her stirrups, holds on high her sword, as if to consecrate it for a war of Right.

Memorial Day, 1918, was celebrated abroad as well as at home.

This memorial to the memory of Edith Cavell was unveiled by Queen Alexandra in Norwich, England, at the opening of the Nurse Cavell Memorial Home.

Somewhere in France these Salvation Army "lassies" are baking pies and "doughnuts for the doughboys."

The U.S. Destroyer Fanning with depth bombs stored in run-ways on the after deck.

One of the camouflaged guns of the German shore batteries which raked with fire the Vindictive, the Daffodil, and the Iris when they grappled with the mole, during the night raid.

The British Cruiser Curacao, Admiral Tyrwhitt's flagship, leading out one column of British cruisers at the surrender of the German navy.

From left to right, Admiral Sir David Beatty, Admiral Rodman, King George, the Prince of Wales, and Admiral Sims on the deck of the U.S. Battleship New York.

The heroic American ace, Raoul Lufbery, wearing his well-earned decorations just after an official presentation.

A two-passenger tractor biplane flying near the seashore.

The official entry of General Allenby into Jerusalem, December 11, 1917.

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Contents — all 48 chapters

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