From The Gallipolis Daily Tribune

By Paul Darst

[for the full article, go to My Daily Tribune]

GALLIPOLIS - On April 21, 1919, an ironic tragedy happened in Gallipolis.

A car loaded with soldiers returning from the trenches of World War I that was traveling from Chillicothe wrecked just outside of town. It flipped end over end several times. A soldier, Sgt. Alfred Mayes, who had made it through the war unscathed, was killed in the crash.

That is one of the stories that captured Aaron Barlow's attention as he was doing research into the 37th Division of the Ohio National Guard. ...

“My great-grandmother kept all of his [Alfred Barlow, Aaron's grandfather] letters from the war and clipped newspaper articles about him,” Barlow said. “She had them in a box and I wound up with it.”

Barlow found the material in the box interesting, but it left him thirsty for more. ...

For much of his research, Barlow used original documents, he said.

“Some of them at the National Archives still had dirt from the trenches in Europe on them,” he said.

The book contains copies of original orders and letters from the War Department, newspaper clippings from the Daily Tribune as well as prose written by the author outlining his findings. ...

During the war, Barlow was severely wounded in battle, losing one of his legs. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for gallantry from the U.S. Army and the Croix de Guerre from the French. ...