Across The Fence: The Spanish Flu

After three years of world conflict, in 1917 a few countries remained neutral in The Great War, among them were the United States, Sweden and Spain. However, between February and April of 1917 German submarines had torpedoed and sunk seven U.S. merchant ships and President Wilson would no longer tolerate the blatant acts of war against the U.S. And so, on April 6, 1917 the United States Congress declared war on Germany. Twenty-three days later on April 29, my grandfather, Wilhelm Fredrick Gustav Nolting would celebrate his 23rd birthday as a trooper with the 7th U.S. Cavalry at Fort Riley, Kan...