The Croix Rouge Memorial Foundation

Mission

The Croix Rouge Farm Memorial Foundation remembers the service of the 167^th (Alabama) Infantry Regiment, a National Guard unit of the 42nd “Rainbow” Division of World War I. Through a memorial in France (Fère-en-Tardenois), three memorials in Montgomery, Alabama (Union Station and Maxwell Air Force Base), and literature on World War I, it promotes the memory of American involvement in World War I and, more specifically, the Alabama contribution.

History

The Croix Rouge Farm Memorial Foundation was formed in 2007 by Nimrod T. Frazer for the purpose of establishing a World War I Memorial to the 42^nd “Rainbow” Division on the site of the Battle of Croix Rouge Farm in Fère-en-Tardenois, close to Château-Thierry. The Foundation especially honors one of the “Rainbow” Division’s regiments, the Alabama 167^th, which distinguished itself on this battlefield.  The Foundation was dissolved on June 30th, 2022 and its archives donated to the Alabama Department of Archives and History.

Commemorative plaque on the base of the 42nd Rainbow Division Memorial sculpture.

Click to view the Montgomery, Alabama proclamation celebrating Nimrod T. Frazer

The memorial to the Rainbow Division, a ten foot bronze sculpture of an American soldier carrying a dead comrade, has been erected in this battlefield, on grounds that have remained unchanged since the days of the battle. The foundation purchased what remained of the fortified farmhouse of the Croix Rouge and some of the land where the battle took place. Ownership of the memorial and its hallowed ground have since been transferred to the city of Fère-en-Tardenois. The remainder of the land is now owned by the adjoining Croix Blanche Farm.  The memorial was inaugurated in 2011 and donated to the city of Fère-en-Tardenois in 2012.  Another Rainbow Soldier was gifted to the city of Montgomery and inaugurated in 2017 in front of Union Station from on the 100th anniversary of the day the Alabama soldiers departed from this same station for combat in France.  A second memorial was inaugurated  on November 11, 2021, also at Union Station, and remembers all Alabamians who fought during the Meuse-Argonne campaign.  Another memorial, this one to the American air service, was inaugurated on the 100th anniversary of the entry of the United States in WWI at Maxwell Air Force Base, also in Montgomery.