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Shawnee County Casualties in WWI
Stories of Valor and Tragedy on the Battlefield

Henry M. WALSH, PFC, B Co., 361st Infantry, 91st Division
Monument to Henry M. Walsh

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Killed in action on Sept 27, 1918 during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. The official American Battle Monuments Commission records show that Walsh enlisted from Idaho but there is a short article by Sarah McNeive in the Shawnee County Historical Society's publication "The Home Front" titled "Henry Walsh Monument in Topeka Cemetery" which places his family in Topeka, Kansas.

In the Topeka Cemetery stands an imposing monument dedicated to the memory of Henry Murphy Walsh, a young soldier who died in line of duty as a "runner" in WWI. His father, Dewitt Walsh, erected the granite and bronze shaft with money he saved from his son's government pension . DeWitt Walsh was the son of Hugo Sleight Walsh, a territorial governor of Kansas. They are buried on each side of the marker. The duties of the runners were hazardous, and it was often a foregone conclusion that many would not survive performing their dangerous tasks. The monument carries this inscription:

In living memory of Henry Murphy Walsh, First Class private "Runner", Co. B, 361st Infantry, 91st Division, born February 7, 1893. Killed in Battle in the Argonne Sept 27, 1918, and in honor of every "runner" that lost his life in the service of the AEF, this monument is erected

Henry Murphy Walsh's body remains in the Argonne. His father stated, "That was where he was killed and that is here his body belongs. A soldier should rest where he falls."

Henry Murphy Walsh is buried in the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, France Plot H Row 17 Grave 27

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