The “Tough ’Ombres” of the Ninetieth Infantry Division saw action for the first time on the bloody battlefields of France on Sept. 12, 1918.

The Great War (no one imagined there might be a second) has all but faded from the national memory.  Ask most Americans what they know about World War I, and they may mumble something about trench warfare, the Lusitania and the Treaty of Versailles.

Teddy Roosevelt split the Republican vote in 1912 with his Bull Moose candidacy, enabling De...