Posted on 11/11/2021 1:36:02 PM PST by nickcarraway
Around 10 o’clock in the morning on November 7, 1918 a stressed and exhausted Mayor Walter Stone authorized the ringing of the fire bell in the tower of City Hall to herald the end of the Great War.
The mayor must have been particularly relieved and most appreciative of such excellent news.
For the last six weeks, he presided over a city devastated by the Spanish Influenza and growing increasingly war weary in the face of such devastation. Factory whistles all over the city followed the ringing of the bells, alerting Syracuse’s large manufacturing population to the incredible news from Europe.
Businesses across the city closed. Shortly thereafter, the city schools let out and children, parents, and citizens of all stripes filled the streets as a near delirious atmosphere of gaiety took hold.
Unfortunately for the thousands gathered on Salina Street, and for the millions in other American cities engaged in similar revelries, the celebration was premature. The “war to end all wars” was not actually over.
As it turned out, a cable was sent to the United Press (UPI) from France, mistakenly stating that the armistice between the belligerents had been signed that day at 11 a.m. The wire-service relayed the message to newsrooms across the country, setting off what may be the biggest false alarm in American history.
Four days after the United Press’ monumental error, French leader, Marshall Ferdinand Foch, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, sent out a message that was broadcast from the Eiffel Tower and went out to the world. Dated November 11 at 5:45 a.m., Foch relayed the long-awaited news that at the armistice between the belligerent parties would begin at 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.
The Great War was finally over. This time it was for real.
As it had four days earlier, the city of Syracuse erupted in celebration as the news came over the wire at the Post-Standard building on Montgomery Street at three o’clock that Monday morning.
Within minutes the bells at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church across the street began their clanging, followed in short order by the bells at City Hall.
The Mayor ordered all city schools and municipal operations closed. Most of the city’s factories and businesses did not open. Syracusans had more than earned their impromptu three-day weekend.
Armistice Day
After the United States entered the war in April of 1917, the city became the site of Camp Syracuse, a training facility built by the Army at the State Fairgrounds for tens of thousands of “doughboys” from all over the country.
Just seven weeks before the signing of the armistice, the Syracuse Recruit Camp, as it was now known, became the epicenter of that outbreak of the Spanish Influenza, which spread throughout Onondaga County. Between September 17th and Armistice Day, nearly 1,000 people died, including several hundred recruits.
Included in the initial 18,000 recruits that passed through Camp Syracuse during the first wave of enlistments in the summer of 1917, were the men from the 38th Infantry Regiment/3rd Infantry Division, who distinguished themselves at the Second Battle of the Marne in July of 1918, repelling the final German offensive of the war and earning the nickname, “The Rock of the Marne.”
The commander of the American Expeditionary Force, John “Blackjack” Pershing, called the defensive actions just outside Paris, “one of the most beautiful pages in the annuls of military history.”
The men of the 38th are memorialized by the “Rock of the Marne” statue in Billings Park on South Salina Street in Syracuse. The men paid for the monument themselves as a testament to their gratitude to the people of Syracuse for their hospitality and patriotic support. The monument was dedicated with great fanfare a century ago in 1920. The 3rd Infantry still proudly carries the moniker.
After World War Two and the titanic effort that defeated fascism in Europe and the Japanese in the Pacific, President Eisenhower signed a bill in 1954 officially proclaiming Armistice Day be changed to Veterans Day to honor American veterans from every war.
In 1968, amidst the tumult unleashed by the Vietnam War, Congress enacted legislation that moved the observance of the holiday to the fourth Monday of October to, of all things, increase the number of three-day holiday weekends.
Though strangely coincidental considering the events of 1918, the move greatly angered veterans and citizens alike. Many veterans who saw the Armistice day as a solemn day to honor the sacrifices of those that served, believed Congress’s action cheapened the holiday and was of great insult to the men and women who served in the war.
Spurred by this discontent, states across the union pushed back, essentially boycotting the law.
After years of protests and localities like Syracuse holding parades on November 11, New York joined many of its fellow states and decided to ignore the federal legislation in 1974. President Ford finally settled the issue in 1975, when he signed a bill reinstating November 11 as the observance of Veterans Day.
Robert Searing | Curator of history, Onondaga Historical Association
Veteran's Day came from Armistice Day. I think we should still honor Armistice Day, which is the day World War I ended. World War I started all the other wars and genocides in the century, and all the damage that was done to our country we see today.
I have always called it Armistice Day. And I don’t recall it ever being observed in October.
The Armistice was signed November 11th.
The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.
Well, here's one!
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