General Pershing in his final report said:
The Second Division then in reserve northwest of Paris and preparing to relieve the First Division, was hastily diverted to the vicinity of Meaux on May 31, and, early on the morning of June 1st, was deployed across the Chateau-Thierry-Paris road near Montreuil-aux-Lions in a gap in the French line, where it stopped the German advance.
Praise and full credit are due the other troops in that sector—the Third Division whose machine-gun battalion held the bridge-head at the Marne, and whose Seventh Regiment fought for several days in Belleau Wood; the artillery and engineers who supported every advance; and all who were engaged in the Chateau-Thierry sector. Though the principal honors went to the Second Division and the Marines, all the Americans in that region fought well and nobly.
President Wilson said they "closed the gap the enemy had succeeded in opening for their advance on Paris," and, driving back the Germans, began "the rout that was to save Europe and the world." Mayors of the Meaux district, who, as they stated, were eye-witnesses of the American Army's deeds in stopping the enemy advance, formally expressed their admiration and gratitude, and Mayor Lugol, in transmitting the resolution, June 26th, wrote:
The civilian population of this part of the country will never forget that the beginning of this month of June, when their homes were threatened by the invader, the Second American Division victoriously stepped forth and succeeded in saving them from impending danger.
After personal investigation, and study of the area, Melville E. Stone, manager of the Associated Press, declared that in spite of heavy losses, the Americans engaged in the operations at and around Chateau-Thierry did three things:
1. They saved Paris.
2. They seriously injured the morale of the best German troops.
3. They set a standard for American troops that none others dared to tarnish.
General Omar Bundy, commanding the Second Division, in General Order No. 41, issued July 10, said: