“Your brave son’s sacrifice”

Nearly four years after the war ended, a letter written by a young English woman — a complete stranger to the Bakers — arrived at the family home on College Hill.

The woman introduced herself as Miss Marie G. Young of London, and described a recent visit to the Meuse-Argonne military cemetery, the resting ground of Baker and more than 14,000 American soldiers.

The sight of field after field of meticulously maintained graves, each marked with a white cross and an American flag, overwhelmed her.

“There lay before us that hidden harvest of beautiful youth — but gathered together in such peace and beauty that the heart felt a strange comfort, even though tears came,” Young wrote in the letter dated July 22, 1922.

Young also revealed why she sent the letter to the Bakers. She recounted how she saw a military officer heading into the cemetery carrying a large wreath on each shoulder. Two families had bought the wreaths to lay on the graves of their fallen loved one.

“I begged him to let me carry one,” Young wrote.

The officer consented, and allowed her “the honor” of placing the wreath on the grave she carried it to — that of Elbert Baker.

“I felt that your brave son’s sacrifice was partly for me, and my gratitude for the protection he and his mates gave to us all filled my heart,” she wrote.

In subsequent letters to the family, Young would tell the Bakers how 21 of her relatives had fought in the war and that the dead included her “dearest cousin.”

Though, Young quickly noted, she knew the pain she felt could never be as profound as the Bakers’ loss.