Ville-sur-Cousances French national war cemetery

Created in 1916 during the Battle of Verdun, the national war cemetery of Ville-sur-Cousances   contain the graves of 912 French soldiers and the body of an American volunteer. This cemetery was rearranged from 1925 to 1935 to bring together the remains of soldiers initially buried in Lavoye, then in 2008, 60 soldiers from the military cemetery of Blercourt. American Field Service ambulance driver, Harmon Bushnell Craig, nicknamed 'Ham', was seriously wounded by shrapnel falling in front of his vehicle in Dombasle-en-Argonne while transporting four French soldiers evacuated from Cote 304, the emblematic site of the Battle of Verdun on the left bank of the Meuse. Refusing to be treated, until his injured soldiers were transported to a safe place, he died, on 15 July 1917, at the field hospital. The memory of this volunteer is preserved at the University of Harvard, where a plaque commemorating the commitment of this former student, decorated with the French Croix de Guerre with a gold star.