The first American to die on the battlefield in World War I died before the US entered the conflict

Missing from chapters on World War One in most U.S. textbooks is the name of Edward Mandell Stone, a 27-year-old Harvard graduate from Chicago who made history with his death as a machine gunner in France 100 years ago this month.

Stone was not fighting for his country. The United States initially refused to take sides and was two years from sending soldiers to the Western Front.

His death on February 27, 1915, from shrapnel wounds in the trenches near the Aisne River, made him the first American killed in action, according to writer Gary Ward in VFW Magazine, the official publication of the U.S. Veterans of Foreign Wars.