A Community of Soldiers

A Community of Soldiers follows individual lives in Lincoln County, South Dakota, from the farm, classroom, and store to the training camps of World War I. From the camps to the ships, both large and small. From the ships to the killing fields of France. And then, from France, home again on over 100 different ships.

Primarily within a year's time-1918-750 soldiers and thousands of civilians from Lincoln County participated in "the war to end all wars." Knut Hill, one ordinary soldier from a homestead family-and uncle to the author-put on a uniform and within twelve weeks was in France. But his life there was cut short by the horrific and devastating influenza.

He returned home on a funeral ship, which, during several voyages, brought home most of the fatalities from the deadly experience of combat and disease. Through the microcosms of Knut and the Lincoln County community, readers can get a unique and personal view of how World War I and the concurrent influenza pandemic changed individual lives as well as the world.

Extensively researched and meticulously documented, A Community of Soldiers is a good book for both the historian and the general reader.