Within a year after peace was declared a plan was under way for a Memorial Building in memory of the graduates of the University who had fallen in the war. A committee appointed by the Alumni Association presented the matter to the Board of Regents, but they were unable to take any action. The project was never forgotten, however, and was brought up year after year in alumni gatherings until in 1903 a committee under the Chairmanship of Judge C.B. Grant, '59, a former Colonel of the Twentieth Michigan, was appointed. This committee was so successful in its efforts that the Memorial Building was eventually dedicated in May, 1910. A large tablet by the sculptor A.A. Weinman bearing the inscription given on the following page, was placed, in June, 1914, on the right wall just inside the entrance.

A further investigation of the war records of the graduates of the University revealed many more names than were known when the tablet was designed, so that now the total in the morocco bound volume which is conspicuously placed in the building carries the records of 2,424 who served in the three wars.

THIS HALL ERECTED ANNO DOMINI 1909-1910
UNDER DIRECTION OF THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION BY THE ALUMNI
AND FRIENDS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN IS DEDICATED
TO THE MEMORY OF HER PATRIOTIC SONS WHO SERVED IN
THREE OF HER COUNTRY'S WARS NAMELY
TWO IN THE MEXICAN WAR A.D. 1847
ONE THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED FOURTEEN
IN THE CIVIL WAR A.D. 1861-1865
FOUR HUNDRED TWENTY SIX IN THE SPANISH WAR A.D. 1898
A RECORD OF THEIR NAMES AND MILITARY HISTORY IS
DEPOSITED IN THE ARCHIVES OF THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

THE WORLD WILL LITTLE NOTE NOR LONG REMEMBER WHAT WE
SAY HERE BUT IT CAN NEVER FORGET WHAT THEY DID HERE—
LINCOLN AT GETTYSBURG

Though the number of Michigan men in the Spanish-American War was naturally much smaller, the total mounted to very nearly four hundred, of whom eight lost their lives, including one member of the Rough Riders, Oliver B. Norton, '01m, killed by a shell at San Juan Hill. The contingents from at least fifteen states included Michigan graduates, but the greater number were to be found in the five Michigan volunteer regiments, particularly the 31st and 32nd, though there were a number in the 33rd and 34th that formed with the 9th Massachusetts the Brigade commanded by Brigadier-General Henry M. Duffield, '58-'59, which was one of the few volunteer units to see active service in Cuba.

In the Navy a large proportion of the Michigan men were members of the Michigan State Naval Brigade on the U.S.S. Yosemite, of which Dean M.E. Cooley, at that time Professor of Mechanical Engineering, was Chief Engineer. The Yosemite was a converted yacht used as a scout and convoy. Within a month after going into commission she was assigned to the task of convoying some 800 marines on the Panther to Guantanamo. It happened that the first load was taken ashore on June 10 by one of the boats of the Yosemite and it is said the first American flag was planted on Cuban soil by a University of Michigan member of the crew. Later in June the Yosemite met a big Spanish mail steamer, the Antonio Lopez, with ammunition and supplies for San Juan and succeeded in beaching her under the fierce fire of the shore batteries and after attacks by three Spanish gunboats, which were twice driven into the harbor.

In addition to many graduates and students of the Medical Department attached to the different units, two members of the Faculty, Dean Victor C. Vaughan, Divisional Surgeon at Siboney, and Dr. C.B.G. de Nancrède, Surgeon of the 34th, saw active service in Cuba as Majors on the Medical Staff. Their courage and devotion to duty were mentioned in the Surgeon-General's report.

Michigan was also represented in the war cabinet by its leader, William R. Day, '70, Secretary of State, while the Assistant Secretary of War, a most important post in those exciting months, was George DeRue Meiklejohn, '80l. Judge Day was also President of the commission which negotiated the peace at Paris after the war, with Cushman K. Davis, '57, chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, as one of the other members.

According to the latest available records there were at least 12,000 sons of the University of Michigan in service during the World War. Of this number over 229 gave their lives for the principles for which America was fighting. At the Seventy-fifth Commencement, which came the year following the Armistice, the University's service flag, which hung in Hill Auditorium, revealed the fact that at that time the names were known of 10,243 students and alumni in uniform. This figure mounted rapidly in subsequent months, though the difficulties of following the careers of many former soldiers through the period of demobilization have made it very difficult to obtain even an approximately correct estimate. This is particularly true in the case of thousands of students who left the University during the years 1917 and 1918. An analysis of the figures given on the service flag showed that of the total 7,669 were known to be actually in service while 2,747 were in the University, enrolled in the army and navy units of the Student Army Training Corps. As these men were in uniform and regularly inducted in the two branches of service and would all have been sent overseas within a short time had the war continued, their names must be included.