GIUSEPPE CUSANO

GIUSEPPE CUSANO
DERBY'S FIRST
WORLD WAR I
DEATH
POST #12
ITALIAN-AMERICAN
WAR VETERANS
OF THE U.S.
 

Giuseppe Cusano, an immigrant from Italy was the first Derbyite to perish in the "War to end all wars" - WWI. He was actually killed in France on July 15, 1918 about 3 weeks before John H. Collins was killed on August 8 and originally thought to be Derby's first casualty. Ironically both this man and Collins are buried in the same cemetery in Belleau, France.

Cusano was born in Italy in 1889, but his draft registration from June 5, 1917 lists him as living on Eighth Street in Derby and working in a manufacturing company in Ansonia. We don't know anything of his service in the war other than his death in what appears to be the early days of the Second Battle of the Marne. He was a member of the 38th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Division. Years after his death, there was a local Post of the Italian-American World War Veterans of the US  named for him.

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