LEONARDTOWN — At 11 a.m. on Veterans Day, bells at two St. Mary’s County museums will ring for the 27 county natives who died in World War I, part of a nationwide moment of remembrance tied to the hour the guns fell silent in 1918.
The St. Mary’s County Museum Division will toll bells at St. Clement’s Island Museum and Piney Point Lighthouse Museum on Wednesday, Nov. 11, according to a county news release issued Nov. 2. The tolling honors the 116,516 Americans who lost their lives in the war, including those 27 St. Mary’s men.
The timing is deliberate. The armistice ending the fighting took effect at 11 a.m. on Nov. 11, 1918, the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.” The date was observed as Armistice Day in the United States before it became Veterans Day, and it is still marked as Remembrance Day in much of the world.
A national tradition, now in its ninth year
The Bells of Peace program began in 2018 to mark the 100th anniversary of the war’s end. It invites communities, schools, churches and other groups to ring bells together in honor of those who served and died.
The national ceremony is organized by the Doughboy Foundation. This year it will be held at the National World War I Memorial in Washington, where a brass bell will be rung 21 times at 11 a.m. The free event, presented with the Embassy of the United Kingdom, will also be livestreamed starting at 10:45 a.m. The foundation says about 4.7 million Americans served in the war.
St. Mary’s museums have taken part since the first year. The Chronicle covered the county’s participation in the 2018 centennial tolling, in 2024 and again last year, when the museums rang for the same 27 local men.
The county said the tradition serves as a solemn reminder of the sacrifices made by Americans in World War I while also honoring veterans of every generation.
The museums
St. Clement’s Island Museum in Colton’s Point sits across from the island where Maryland’s first colonists landed in 1634. Piney Point Lighthouse Museum stands on the Potomac River at Piney Point. Both are run by the county’s Department of Recreation & Parks.
The bell tolling falls on a full day of Veterans Day observances in the county, including Leonardtown’s annual parade. Information on the museums and other county historic sites is available at museums.stmaryscountymd.gov.
