April 6, 1917, We’re at War! - Listen - 585 Days, if you're

April 6, 1917, We’re at War!

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For three years, the United States stayed out of the European war. By 1917, however, German submarines regularly attacked American ships and U.S. leaders worried that their longtime friends, France and Britain, were losing the war and would be unable to repay their loans of money. So, in April 1917, President Wilson asked for a declaration of war to “to end all wars.” Asked to register for the draft, North Carolina men responded enthusiastically. North Carolina sent more than 86 thousand soldiers overseas to fight for the United States.

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585 Days, if you're lucky

Published 07/05/17

Postscript: A war to "end all wars?"

In time, the true costs of World War I were revealed. Wounds of war included fourteen million people—civilians and combatants—killed; over $3 billion spent; four empires destroyed; the world map changed by revolution and treaty; and an unknown loss of spirit for many. Twenty years after the...

Published 07/05/17

Postscript, 1919

Although many soldiers did not come home following World War I, the number of U.S. casualties was small compared to that of European armies. Still, the 585 Days between Declaration of War on April 6, 1917, and the Armistice of November 11, 1918, comprised a deadly period in American military...

Published 07/05/17