Tovisio Square

in Memory of
Vincent Tovisio, Private
Co. I 308th Infantry
Born: April 8, 1894
Killed in action at Oise-Aisne, France
September 16, 1918

The memorial to Vincent Tovisio stands at the intersection of Franklin and Suffolk streets. It is among the minority of memorials that tells us what unit he served with, which made his story comparatively easy to track down.

Private Tovisio's war was hardcore trench warfare: alternately going over the top into no-man's-land in the face of machine gun fire, or watching the enemy come over their top and coming at you with flamethrowers, and under constant shelling, whether coming, going, or just hunkering down. The 308th fought in a number of battles, but they were all the same. Hold this spot, take that one, see whether you can tell them apart... About a month after his death, part of the 308th (though not Co I) would gain fame as the Lost Battalion, when they were cut off from their own lines and took heavy causualties. But heavy casualties were the order of the day; even before that incident, the unit had more replacements than surviving original troops. 

The history of the 308th is sufficiently well documented that I can say what they were doing the day Private Tovisio died. They had recently been through one major battle; they were shortly to go into another. But shades of All Quiet on the Western Front, on September 16th, they were taking a break. An Italian regiment was moving in to take over their position, and the 308th had the day off - from everything but the shelling. They counted it as an easy, non-combat day, and at the end of it they moved out, but without Vincent Tovisio.