Lunch & Learn: “Baltimore’s Own” Soldiers in World War I: No Longer Lost to History

Registration not required, but encouraged. Please register for the event here.

From the first day Camp Meade opened in 1917 to the last day of World War I, draftees from the Baltimore area—and the rest of Maryland—played a crucial and controversial role in bringing the Great War to an end. Hear the incredible story of the 313th Regiment of the 79th Division as never before, told through the first-hand accounts of the doughboys who went over the top and charged into merciless enemy fire and accomplished what their French ally insisted was simply impossible to achieve. 

Time after time the French stormed the German-hald heights of Montfaucon over the preceding three years. Time after time they failed miserably. The 313th—affectionately dubbed “Baltimore’s Own” by its adoring cigar-chomping colonel—did so in less than two days. But the cost was high and controversy over its battlefield success has followed the regiment for more than a hundred years. Author Mike Martin spent more than a decade meticulously researching and writing this epic story and brings it to life through the penned words these soldiers recorded themselves in tattered diaries, memoirs, and wartime letters from “over there.”  

Mike Martin is a retired long-time Baltimore County high school teacher who was the coordinator of Lansdowne High School’s Academy of Finance program. Affiliated with the National Academy Foundation, Lansdowne was one of only a few Maryland public high schools, and 200 secondary schools in the nation to offer the five-course program in personal finance.  Before joining the teaching ranks at age 50, Martin worked in the private sector. Prior to that he was a journalist, working as an editor for the local weekly paper in his hometown Catonsville community. He also spent time as a reporter for both the Baltimore Sun and News American daily papers. It was his passion for writing, and history that prompted him to write his recently published book, Baltimore’s Own: Courage, controversy and the crucial role of the 313th Regiment to end World War I (2024).

ASL interpretation will be available for attendees.

Presented in partnership with The Maryland State Archives and The Maryland Four Centuries Project.