Map Showing Every Town and Farm the American Forces went through in the Actual Fighting Zone in France

TO PRESERVE THE MEMORIES AND INCIDENTS OF OUR ASSOCIATION IN THE GREAT WAR’

This ephemeral persuasive map was probably distributed in 1922 to aid in the campaign of William Gaston, running as the Democratic candidate for Senator of Massachusetts against incumbent Henry Cabot Lodge. After failing to win the primary for governorship in 1918, Gannon hoped that garnering support among veterans of World War I would help his chances for election.

The image presents a black and white portion of Pershing’s ‘Secret Battle Map’ of U.S. unit dispositions in France at the time of the Armistice. Division locations, battle lines, and army headquarters are sketchily overlaid atop the base map and three insets are included in the upper left. The bold claim that it shows every town and farm through which American troops passed seems…suspicious, to say the least. A note in the lower margin encourages the owner to “trace with colored pencil your own trip through the Battle Zone and preserve for future reference.”

Referring to the grueling warfare of WWI as a ‘trip through the Battle Zone’ and very few online references to his military service perhaps reflect Colonel Gaston’s rank as a political appointment, rather than martial merit.

The map is rare, with only one reference in OCLC at the Pritzker Library. I’ve also had an alternate version promoting the 1922 campaign of New York State Supreme Court Justice Frank S. Gannon, Jr.

Sources: OCLC; Gaston Biography