World War I Remembered Through the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives

Walter-Goulart

August 2014 marks the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War I, in 1914.  The Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives recently received a donation from Rosemary Pereira which includes documents related to World War I soldier Walter Goulart. There are photographs, letters he wrote while attending training camps in the United States, and other documents, all related to the time he served as a member of the armed forces. Private Goulart was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts on February 1, 1895 to Azorean immigrants Antone and Frances (Perry) Goulart; he attended city schools and was called into military service on September 15, 1917. He was a member of the Machine Gun Battalion of the 327th Infantry and was killed in action in the Meuse-Argonne offensive on October 7, 1918, only a month before the end of the war. A memorial was erected in his honor, on May 30, 1923, in the square at Bolton and Rivet streets in New Bedford and was subsequently re-dedicated on May 26, 1997.

For more information on the United States World War One Centennial Commission, including its plans to document all World War I monuments in the United States, please go to http://worldwar-1centennial.org/

Below is a letter from Walter to his brother, Arthur Goulart, Jr., written in January of 1918, before he shipped out to France, and a copy of the Goulart Square Monument Dedication booklet. For more information on this new collection, please contact Sonia Pacheco at spacheco@umassd.edu.

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