Haunted by an ancestor's tale of near death on a distant battlefield,James Carl Nelsonset out in pursuit of the scraps of memory of his grandfather's small infantry unit. Years of travel across the world led to theretrieval ofunpublished personal papers,obscure memoirs, and communications from numerous doughboys,as well asoriginal interviews withthedescendents of his grandfather's comrades in arms. The result is a compellingtale of battlerooted in new primary sources, andone man's search for his grandfather's legacy in a horrifying maelstrom that is poorly understood and nearly forgotten in the world today. Nelson's account follows the members of Company D, 28th Infantry Regiment, United States First Division, from enlistment tocombat to the effort to recover theirremains, focusing on three major battles at Cantigny, Soissons, and Meuse-Argonne.