November 11th, 1918.
To the Officers and Men of the 42nd Division:
On the 13th of August I addressed you a letter summarizing the record of your achievements in Lorraine, before Chalons and on the Ourcq. On the occasion of my leaving the Division I wish to recall to you your services since that time and to express to you my appreciation of the unfailing spirit of courage and cheerfulness with which you have met and overcome the difficult tasks which have confronted you.
After leaving the region of Chateau Thierry you had scarcely been assembled in your new area when you were ordered to advance by hard night marches to participate in the attack of the St. Mihiel Salient. In this first great operation of the American Army you were instructed to attack in the center of the Fourth Army Corps and to deliver the main blow in the direction of the heights overlooking the Madine River. In the battle that followed you took every objective in accordance with the plan of the Army Commander. You advanced fourteen kilometers in twenty-eight hours. You pushed forward advance elements five kilometers further, or nineteen kilometers beyond your original starting point. You took more than one thousand prisoners from nine enemy divisions. You captured seven villages and forty-two square kilometers of territory. You seized large supplies of food, clothing, ammunition, guns and engineering material.
Worn though you were by ceaseless campaigning since February, you then moved to the Verdun region to participate in the great blow which your country’s armies have struck west of the Meuse. You took Hill 283, La Tuilerie Farm and the Cote de Chatillon and broke squarely across the powerful Kriemhilde Stellung, clearing the way for the advance beyond St. Georges and Landres et St. Georges. Marching and fighting day and night you thrust through the advancing lines of the forward troops of the First Army. You drove the enemy across the Meuse. You captured the heights dominating the River before Sedan and reached in the enemy lines the farthest points attained by any American troops.
Since September 12th you have taken over twelve hundred prisoners; you have freed twenty-five French villages; you have recovered over one hundred and fifty square kilometers of French territory and you have captured great supplies of enemy munitions and material.
Whatever may come in the future, the men of this Division will have the proud consciousness that they have thus far fought wherever the American flag has flown most gloriously in this war. In the determining battle before Chalons, in the bloody drive from Chateau Thierry to the Vesle, in the blotting out of the St. Mihiel Salient, and in the advance to Sedan you have played a splendid and a leading part.
I know that you will give the same unfailing support to whoever may succeed me as your Commander, and that you will continue to bear forward without faltering the colors of the Rainbow Division. I leave you with deep and affectionate regret, and I thank you again for your loyalty to me and your services to your country. You have struck a vital blow in the greatest war in history. You have proved to the world in no mean measure that our country can defend its own.
Charles T. Menoher,
Major General, U. S. Army.