American military cemeteries overseas : an honors thesis (HIST 440/HONRS 499)

Abstract

My thesis is centered on overseas American military cemeteries run by the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC). The ABMC is comprised primarily of twenty-four cemeteries around the world, where American war casualties are buried, as well as numerous overseas monuments and memorials. All of them lie outside the US, but are considered property of the United States government and contain the remains of American servicemen and women who died while serving their country overseas.For my thesis, I have gathered a number of relevant sources regarding 21 of the 24 cemeteries, as well as more general information regarding major US battles and conflicts overseas, the results of which created the need for American cemeteries overseas. I have found and organized these sources to allow others to learn more about our military, particularly in World War I and World War II, the cemeteries themselves, and the people interred and memorialized there. These sources provide a wealth of information regarding these topics and create an informational map for future researchers and other interested individuals.In addition, I have taken the information I gathered and used it to create a video-style script, highlighting one specific cemetery and its stories, the Cambridge American Cemetery in England. By doing this and explaining my method, I show how the sources I collected regarding the World Wars, individual battles, and the ABMC cemeteries, can be used to create more specialized works of interest to the general public, as well as researchers and other military hobbyists.