First Americans Killed Overseas in World War I-- Part 7: Ex- President Theordore Roosevelt's Response to the Attack

Lt. Fitzsimons was not the only American soldier to lose his life that night.

Privates Oscar Tugo, Private Rudolph Rubino and Private Leslie Woods were also killed in the raid.

There is no doubt that the raid was deliberate.  The German fliers even dropped German coins to show the Americans who had bombed them.

On a page one editorial in the Kansas City Star on September 17, 1917, former President Theodore Roosevelt blasted Germany for Fitzsimons' death saying that they had demonstrated "calculated brutality" and "carried on a systematic campaign of murder against hospitals and hospital ships."

After the war, the U.S. government had a program to enable parents and family to visit the graves of their family overseas.  On July 5, 1930, Lt. Fitzsimons' mother, Catherine Fitzsimons, visited his grave at the Somme American Cemetery and Memorial in Picardie, France.

--Cooter