Grave marker for Russell Thomas Stewart [I00240]. Initially he was in grave 9 in Army Cemetery 717, near the Chateau d'Imécourt in Imécourt, France, near where he was killed in action November 2, 1918.

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.

This photograph, number D-8314, corresponds to the same number indicated on a burial record card. It was perhaps mailed to his mother on December 28, 1919. So this is 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.

Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial, Romagne-sous-Montfaucon, Lorraine, France

Source: Dennis Stewart, MyHeritage.com, Robert M. Stewart Family (https://www.myheritage.com/site-148784861/robert-m-stewart-family : Downloaded 23 June 2016), Thomas Russell Stewart.