Meuse

Meuse , department (1990 pop. 196,344), NE France, in Lorraine , bordering on Belgium. Bar-le-Duc , the capital, and Verdun are the chief towns. Its industries include the manufacture of metals, foundry products, wood products, ceramics, and glass. Agriculture is concentrated in the Meuse River valley, where most of the department's people live. Part of the Argonne forest is in the north, and in the forested west and central regions there is extensive animal breeding.

Meuse , Du. Maas, river, c.560 mi (900 km) long, rising in the Langres Plateau, NE France and flowing N past Sedan (the head of navigation) and Charleville-Mézières into S Belgium. It is joined by the Sambre River at Namur. From Namur the Meuse winds eastward skirting the Ardennes, passes Liège , and turns north, where it forms part of the Belgian-Dutch border before swinging westward through SE Netherlands (where it is called the Maas). Near 's Hertogenbosch it branches out to form a common delta with the Rhine River. One branch joins with the Waal River near Gorinchem to form the Merwede River, which flows into the North Sea. The other branch, called the Bergsche Maas, flows into an inlet of the North Sea S of Dordrecht. The Oude Maas (Old Meuse), which is a branch of the Waal, and the Nieuwe Maas (New Meuse), which is a continuation of the Lek River, actually belong to the Rhine estuary. The Meuse is linked with the Belgian port of Antwerp by the Albert Canal and with Rotterdam and other Dutch ports by the intricate system of Dutch waterways; thus it is one of the chief thoroughfares of Europe. The Belgian section of the Meuse valley, especially around Namur and Liège, is an important industrial and mining region. A strategic line of defense, particularly in Belgium and France, the valley has been a battleground in many wars, and most of the cities along its course have been strongly fortified since the Middle Ages.

Meuse-Argonne Offensive (1918) a forty-seven-day campaign in 1918 that was the last, decisive, and costliest one for Gen. John J. Pershing's army. As part of the massive Allied offensive that ended World War I, 600,000 American troops with French support began advancing north across the Argonne Forest, east of the Meuse River, on September 26. Strong German defenses depleted and delayed the advancing column, but more experienced U.S. reinforcements arrived in early October to clear the forest of German soldiers. Ever-mounting casualties, many of them from influenza, forced a defensive posture, until the creation of a 2nd Army, led by Pershing, forced the Germans north of the Meuse. The November 11 armistice, which Berlin was forced to accept as a result of the offensive, halted further fighting. Of the 1.2 million Americans involved in the battle, 117,000 were killed or wounded—roughly half of the U.S.'s total war casualties.