James Carl Nelson's original purpose was to find out more about his grandfather, John Nelson, who, as a private in WWI was wounded by machine gun fire at the Battle of Cantigny and spent the night in a wheat field before being rescued by a couple of Algerian stretcher bearers.

John Nelson then spent the rest of the war in a hospital before returning to his career as a house painter in America. John Nelson was a taciturn man who never talked about the war except for one day a year, July 19th, the day he was wounded, when he took the day off to spend with his wife picnicking. While researching his grandfather, James Carl Nelson became more interested in his grandfather's unit, Company D, 28th Infantry Regiment, United States First Division and wanted to tell its story.

John Nelson arrived in France just in time for the first great battle the AEF, under Black Jack Pershing, was involved in, the Battle of Cantigny. Warfare was different in the 20th Century and it wasn't just the trench warfare with the rats and the lice and the poison gas; soldiers also had to face machine gun fire and much more accurate artillery fire, aided by "aeroplanes" acting as spotters. There were also tanks but they proved to be sitting ducks for the artillery.

Most of THE REMAINS OF COMPANY D is about the doughboys who fought for America in WWI, but there is the occasional mention of historical figures like Marshal Foch, Black Jack Pershing, and Douglas MacArthur.
As Pershing and the other generals arrived in France, the Germans were making a final push toward the Marne and it looked like they might accomplish their goal, but Pershing noticed the middle of the German line was extended much like the Battle of the Bulge in WWII. He convinced Foch and the other Allied leaders that they could cut the Germans off at the neck and bag the whole shebang. This led to one of the greatest battles of the war, The Battle of Berzy-le-Sec, in which the 28th Infantry unit , which was down to, like, 500 men, charged machine gun fire and artillery and superior numbers to take the town. Nelson insists this victory could have ended the war if Marshal Foch had been a little quicker on the uptake. Instead, thousands more Americans and Allied soldiers died during the Battle of Meuse-Argonne.

Nelson provides a picture section of some of the doughboys involved. They include some of the heroes mentioned in the book: Lieutenant Marvin Everett Stainton, Private Rollin Livick, Lieutenant Jason Lloyd Bronston, Lieutenant William Dwight Warren (the last two heroes of Berzy-le-Sec) and Private Leigh Ellsworth Wilson. Nelson combed through newspaper accounts and private letters. One of the most poignant episodes is the case of Private Rollin Livick, who was wounded in the jaw, made it back to an aid station and then disappeared while on his way to Paris for reconstructive surgery. His father wrote letter after letter to the authorities, but never got any satisfaction.

World War I is the world war that time forgot, and James Carl Nelson gives us a better idea of what these true heroes faced. And if I'm not mistaken there's only one WWI veteran left, so it's about time