Battlefield Soil Monument Restored at Arlington National Cemetery

A historic sacred soil marker was restored during a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia, July 5, renewing a nearly century-old symbol of remembrance that honors Americans who fell on the battlefield during World War I.

The ceremony featured representatives from the American Battle Monuments Commission, American Battle Monuments Foundation, American Gold Star Mothers, Arlington National Cemetery, the Embassy of France and the United Veterans War Council.

Robert J. Dalessandro, American Battle Monuments Commission acting secretary, joined French and U.S. officials in commemorating the restoration, underscoring the enduring partnership between the U.S. and France in preserving the memory of those who gave their lives in service.

"This soil is more than earth. It is a physical connection between battlefield and cemetery, between Europe and America, between the fallen and the living," Dalessandro said. "It is a reminder that sacrifice has geography - but remembrance has no borders."

Originally conceived in 1927 by French World War I veteran and sculptor Gaston Deblaize, the sacred soil markers were created to give grieving families a tangible connection to the battlefields where their loved ones fought and died.

Deblaize sculpted the first marker, a small ceramic memorial containing soil from the battlefield at Verdun, France. Versions of the small marker were sold to raise funds to support veterans disfigured during the war.

He created a larger marker, which was placed at Les Invalides in Paris, the world's first veteran care facility, and a second marker was gifted to the U.S. and placed at Arlington National Cemetery by a delegation of French veterans and a descendant of the Marquis de Lafayette, a French military officer who fought with the Continental Army.

Five additional markers were placed in France, including one in the Quiberon Peninsula dedicated to the U.S. Gold Star mothers who made pilgrimages to their sons' graves in the early 1930s. Each marker contains earth collected from former battlefields.

Although the original Arlington National Cemetery marker deteriorated and was removed in 1938, a restoration project has returned this unique symbol of Franco-American remembrance to its rightful place.

A highlight of the ceremony in Arlington was the placement of renewed sacred soil gathered from American Battle Monuments Commission cemeteries and memorials located on former battlefields in France and Flanders, Belgium. The soil was placed into the restored marker by Gold Star mothers.

These women collected the soil during a recent journey to sites across Europe. During that pilgrimage, the delegation visited American military cemeteries and memorials, gathering earth from the ground where U.S. service members fought and made the ultimate sacrifice. The restored marker now permanently unites that soil at Arlington National Cemetery.

At each site, they visited the graves of service members whose stories they learned about prior to the trip. The group collected soil at each site, laid wreaths and had the opportunity to speak with locals and meet French women who also lost their children in war.

"Words often fail us, and our presence and acts of service toward these mothers is the best and most sincere communication of our great sympathy and unwavering devotion to them as individuals and as a nation," said Stephen Munro, Somme American Cemetery superintendent.

World War I Gold Star