Disposition of the remains of Russell Thomas Stewart [I00240] after World War I. This burial record card indicates Russell was buried, then exhumed and reburied twice.

Initially he was in grave 9 in Army Cemetery 717, near the Chateau d'Imécourt in Imécourt, France, where he was killed in action November 2, 1918. Another survey indicates he was in grave 10. Hopefully that was a typographical error, and not some confusion in identifying his remains.

Russell was exhumed the following spring and on April 15, 1919 he was reburied near the area that would become the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial near Romagne-sous-Montfaucon, Lorraine, France.

A photograph, number D-8314, corresponds with the photograph of his grave. It was perhaps mailed to his mother on December 28, 1919. So that was a picture of his second burial site.

Perhaps on January 20, 1920, the family was asked whether they wanted Russell's remains returned to the United States, or interred at the national cemetery in France. They probably thought it would be a greater honor for him to remain in France.

As the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery was being constructed, Russell Stewart was again exhumed and reburied in his third and final resting place on December 24, 1921, three years after he died. The family was apparently not notified of this until June 12, 1923. Unfortunately his mother Mary Stewart had died just two weeks before that notice. It was probably a number of years later before the marble crosses we see today were installed.

France

Source: Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774 – 1985. "Card Register of Burials of Deceased American Soldiers, 1917 – 1922." Record Group RG 92, NAID 6943087. National Archives Catalog (https://catalog.archives.gov/id/6943087 : downloaded 27 May 2019), Stanysewski – Stockhoff, #1363 and #1364.