EXCERPT from book in progress -- “Brief History of James J. Ballentine and the Minneapolis VFW, Post 246”

EXCERPT from book in progress -- “Brief History of James J. Ballentine and the Minneapolis VFW, Post 246” by Nicholas Garbis 

November 11, 1918. One hundred years ago today at 11:00 on the 11th day of the 11th month, the Armistice was declared that ended the Great War. 

This was the final Armistice with Germany, though in the preceding days, newspapers throughout the United States had been printing bold headlines that the Great War was over.  It was not yet a fact, but the rapid collapse of the Central Powers was in motion as all of them except Germany had already signed armistice agreements with the Allies in the previous month.  The end of the horror was nearing, and the excitement was difficult to contain. 

On November 11th the guns went silent and the the relief and elation spread around the world.  The war that had claimed millions of lives had finally ended.  

The news arrived almost instantly via transatlantic telegraph communications which had been in place since the mid-1800’s.  And with the news, celebrations rolled across the nations of Europe, and across the Atlantic to the Americas.  Crowds gathered in the streets.  

By four in the morning, the streets of downtown Minneapolis were filled with people celebrating the end of the war.  The boys (and women) from ‘over there’ would soon be coming home.  The mayor declared it a holiday and requested that all businesses close at 2pm to honor the day.

By morning the news was reaching the families of deployed soldiers.  A great sigh of relief but with limited and censored communications with their loved ones at the front, the news could only provide a breath of reprieve -- the greatest dangers of the war had passed, but for so many of them, even as they celebrated the day, there was a grey cloud of uncertainty hanging above them.  

Their daily ritual of waiting for news about their loved ones would be briefly interrupted by celebrations and parades of the coming days and months. Only letters from the front contained clear evidence that their loved ones had survived. Only the lists of the deceased or the sparingly worded government telegrams would confirm their worst fears. Most days provided neither.

For the Ballentine family of South Minneapolis, on the 11th of November, there was no news regarding sons James and Fred who had both enlisted in May of the prior year shortly after the US had declared war on April 2, 1917. James had been deployed to France immediately after basic training, and Fred was sent soon after.

Their younger brother John, a student of South High School like his brothers before him, having recently reached the age of eighteen was registered but not yet drafted. He was living in Minneapolis with their parents, Helen and Stuart, in the family home at 36th Street and Harriet Avenue South.

It would be over a month before the Ballentine family would learn that James had been killed just five weeks before the end of the war near Madeleine Farm, just a few kilometers from what later became the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial.

In a battle on October 9th, in heavy fighting, James had stayed back to help a fellow soldier that had been injured by shrapnel in his leg.  After ensuring he was okay, James proceeded ahead to rejoin his section which was advancing across the field ahead toward the German lines.  

It was there in the land that lay between that he was killed. In between helping his fellow soldier and rejoining the advance of his section. He was buried nearby, then moved once to another larger American cemetery, then finally brought home to rest. His headstone is on a small hill just above Dupont Avenue in Lakewood Cemetery.