In the Navy a large proportion of the Michigan men were members of the Michigan State Naval Brigade on the U.S.S. _Yosemite_, of which Dean M.E. Cooley, at that time Professor of Mechanical Engineering, was Chief Engineer. The _Yosemite_ was a converted yacht used as a scout and convoy. Within a month after going into commission she was assigned to the task of convoying some 800 marines on the _Panther_ to Guantanamo. It happened that the first load was taken ashore on June 10 by one of the boats of the _Yosemite_ and it is said the first American flag was planted on Cuban soil by a University of Michigan member of the crew. Later in June the _Yosemite_ met a big Spanish mail steamer, the _Antonio Lopez_, with ammunition and supplies for San Juan and succeeded in beaching her under the fierce fire of the shore batteries and after attacks by three Spanish gunboats, which were twice driven into the harbor.
In addition to many graduates and students of the Medical Department attached to the different units, two members of the Faculty, Dean Victor C. Vaughan, Divisional Surgeon at Siboney, and Dr. C.B.G. de Nancrède, Surgeon of the 34th, saw active service in Cuba as Majors on the Medical Staff. Their courage and devotion to duty were mentioned in the Surgeon-General's report.
Michigan was also represented in the war cabinet by its leader, William R. Day, '70, Secretary of State, while the Assistant Secretary of War, a most important post in those exciting months, was George DeRue Meiklejohn, '80_l_. Judge Day was also President of the commission which negotiated the peace at Paris after the war, with Cushman K. Davis, '57, chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, as one of the other members.
According to the latest available records there were at least 12,000 sons of the University of Michigan in service during the World War. Of this number over 229 gave their lives for the principles for which America was fighting. At the Seventy-fifth Commencement, which came the year following the Armistice, the University's service flag, which hung in Hill Auditorium, revealed the fact that at that time the names were known of 10,243 students and alumni in uniform. This figure mounted rapidly in subsequent months, though the difficulties of following the careers of many former soldiers through the period of demobilization have made it very difficult to obtain even an approximately correct estimate. This is particularly true in the case of thousands of students who left the University during the years 1917 and 1918. An analysis of the figures given on the service flag showed that of the total 7,669 were known to be actually in service while 2,747 were in the University, enrolled in the army and navy units of the Student Army Training Corps. As these men were in uniform and regularly inducted in the two branches of service and would all have been sent overseas within a short time had the war continued, their names must be included.