re 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 Nancrede,
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, '80_l_. 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