I realized that there was a necessary addendum to the blog, subect: my Uncle Josh who served in the 347th Machine Gun Battalion, 2nd Division, out of Camp Lewis. As readers of the blog and my "Family History Blog" and "Primary Sources" posts (to the left) know, Joshua Henry Bates died in the Meuse-Argonne on 4 October 1918 after running orders to an outlying platoon to fall back due to relief by the 32nd Division. Such a loss of an amazing young man (His officers' detailed comments).
In my research, I discovered that the Purple Heart could be awarded posthumously to the fallen or wounded World War I soldiers, starting with 1917 service, if a descendant requested the award. Since I had volumes of documentation (far more than they needed) I applied. What really made the Department of the Army and me happy is that Uncle Josh's records I owned were part of those destroyed in the St Louis, MO Archive fire. Two weeks after I sent the documentation, I received this: