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War-related sites are clearly marked with roadside signs. We chose to make the small town of Marre, about 6 miles northwest of Verdun, headquarters for our stay in the region. Our room was in an old stone barn converted to a two-star hotel, complete with a gourmet restaurant. From there we set out to the sites east of the Meuse, including the Bayonet Trench, where the French 137th Infantry regiment was buried alive; Fort Douaumont, captured by the Germans in early 1916 but retaken in October of that year by the French; and the Ossuary, where the remains of 130,000 unidentified French soldiers are entombed.

Crossing to the west bank of the Meuse, we found the little town where my grandfather Carder was mustard-gassed on the last day of the war. According to our research, HQ company of the 314th Field Artillery moved throughout the region from September to November 1918. In mid-October, the men were near Montfaucon at Septsarges, then moved to Curel, Nantillois, Romagne and, on Nov. 10, 1918 - the day before the armistice ending the war - Mont-devant-Sassey.

It was at Mont that my grandfather was wounded. The tiny farming community is built on the side of a hill, graced by an 11th-century Romanesque church which overlooks the quiet fields and pastures of the valley. I pondered, standing within mere feet (for all I knew) of the place the 30-year-old corporal ducked for cover from incoming gas shells, what thoughts must have raced through his mind. As the gas seared his lungs, did he pray for another chance to see his bride and his family back in Muses Bottom? Did he think his life was over before he had started a family or fulfilled his professional goals?

Thankfully, it wasn’t, and after a long recovery he returned, had four children and embarked on a long, distinguished career as an educator and college professor. Leaving Mont, we drove through some of the other little towns where HQ Company had encamped during the bloody autumn of 1918. Each town square, it seems, has a monument to those who served and died in the war. The thought that little villages of barely a hundred people could lose as many as 10 or 12 young men was sobering. Millions of soldiers died in the Great War, tens of thousands a week. Truly, we who live in the 21st century have not seen anything like it in our lifetime.

While the 80th Division still was en route to the Meuse, about the time they passed through Bar-le-Duc in mid-September of that year, Bakich’s 42nd Division and Vitas’ 26th were in the St.-Mihiel salient southeast of Verdun. They attacked German forces on Sept. 11 and, a few days later, drove them north to St.-Benoit. The battlefields of that section can be seen from the impressive white stone American monument on Montsec Hill, east of the town of St.-Mihiel. From the 950-foot high hill, one only can imagine the scene - the noise, the smoke, the frenzied activity - as today the countryside east of the monument is quiet, with only bright yellow mustard fields and grazing cattle where once shells whizzed and thousands of muddy boots trod. I had to wonder how the cousins felt about returning to Europe to fight a battle so close to their hometown of Perjasica - probably only 650 miles - while so far from their Ohio Valley homes.

After the St.-Mihiel victory, the 42nd was ordered on Oct. 1 to the Meuse-Argonne front. The 26th moved north from St.-Mihiel to occupy the Troyon sector, where it stayed until joining the 42nd and 80th divisions in the cold, rainy Meuse-Argonne in mid-October. They arrived at the Montfaucon woods and, along with the over a million Allied soldiers, seized the heights of Cunel and Romagne. Bakich was gassed but not seriously wounded around Oct. 15, receiving his second Purple Heart. The Allies, led by the 42nd, then drove the German troops north to Sedan, near the Belgian border.

The bloody offensive is commemorated at the American cemetery at Romagne, near Montfaucon, the largest U.S. military cemetery in Europe. Each of its 14,426 graves, row after somber row, is marked with a marble cross or Star of David. Nearby, the 200-foot-tall Montfaucon Monument commemorates the French-U.S. victory in the Meuse-Argonne offensive, and from its observation platform may be viewed most of the battlefield.

As we made our way to Paris from Verdun and, ultimately, back home to Brooke County, we pondered all that our Ohio Valley relatives - and their millions of allies - had experienced in this awful war. Our trip to honor them was accomplished so easily, with online bookings, comfortable hotels and a zippy little rental car to drive on perfectly smooth highways. The cousins and my grandfather endured miserable weather, long marches, fierce battles, supply shortages, hunger and pain - and the constant realization that their lives could end in the next instant - in fulfilling the vow of the George M. Cohan song, “We won't come back till it's over, over there” - and for that we are grateful.