Racine County, Wisconsin - Chapter 5: Racine National Guard Men Called, 1920

FOR eighteen years following the Spanish- American war, Racine county had no representation in the National Guard. Lack of a suitable building for armory purposes was one of the main reasons why Wisconsin's second largest city had not maintained a military company.

The World War broke out in August, 1914. Far-sighted citizens who were interested in National Guard matters to a greater or less degree, began to feel that America might get involved in the conflict and that it would be wise to plan for the establishment of Guard organizations in all of the cities of the state. The matter dragged along for a year and a half. The federal govei-nment apparently hesitated to provide for larger defensive forces. President Wilson constantly urged, with all the eloquence at his command, that the people of America be neutral in thought, word and deed and there was a pretty general feeling that Wilson would keep us out of the war, as he had up to that time.

In 1916 the Mexican situation became too serious to be longer ignored. The Mexican government was powerless to control the bandit and revolutionary forces which swarmed in the mountains and plains near the Texas border, and these bands of armed men made frequent forays on the American side of the Rio Grande, stealing and slaying.

Most of the regular army was sent to the border and the National Guard was told to prepare for a call into federal service in June, 1916. Authority was given to increase the number of companies, and under this order Major Westfahl of Milwaukee offered to allow his battalion of field artillery to be completed by the raising of a Battery at Racine if so desired there.

Immediate steps were taken to see if the battery could be recruited. Captain Henry C. Baker, a veteran guardsman and then chief of police was a leader in the movement. The probability of active service at the border proved a sufficient incentive, and within a few weeks the necessary 110 men had enlisted and been accepted. In June, 1916, the Adjutant General of the state approved the organization at an inspection in the Commercial Club rooms, and the next day the governor commissioned as captain, George W. Rickeman, a veteran officer of the Spanish-American war. James W. Gilson and Richard Drake, were named first lieutenants. Richard G. Bryant was named second lieutenant, and a few weeks later Harry J. Sanders was also named as second lieutenant.

Drills were held twice a week at the Lakeside Auditorium. The older guard organizations from other parts of the state were called into federal service and dispatched to the Mexican border in July. The Racine unit, now known as Battery C, 1st Wisconsin Field Artillery, expected to follow shortly. Its officers and a number of men were detailed to go to Texas and take part in the maneuvres there with Battery A of Milwaukee until their own battery should be called out. They remained three weeks or more, some men staying for several months.

August 14, 1916, the Battery was ordered to Camp Douglas, Wis., but as there were no guns or horses for it, the men spent days in foot drill and then were sent back to Racine. Nothing more was done about providing equipment, excepting uniforms, so these boys missed their first chance to see action. The rest of the Guard returned from the border duty in the vianter.

After quite a campaign of oratory, the people of the city voted at a special election to have the city build a $50,000 armory, and authorized a bond issue of that amount so that the battery could obtain guns and horses from the government. Before it could be built, it was decided by some of the city officials that it would be better to put more money with the $50,000 and erect a structure large enough to use for public auditorium purposes. Eventu- ally this was put up to the people, but the request for authority to issue $100,000 bonds additional was defeated. Before the council could get busy again on the $50,000 building project, the National Guard had started for France and the whole proposition was allowed to drop.

In April, 1917, war was declared against Germany. The National Guard quota was again increased and all organizations ordered to be filled to war strength. Battery C was recruited to 200 men, and it was decided to have another battery in Racine to complete the 1st Wisconsin artillery regiment. The work continued, the Battery C members acting as recruiting agents. There were also three or four public meetings held. One, on the extreme south side, resulted in the enlistment of a score of Polish young men. One at Union Grove added a dozen men to the battery from that village and surrounding tovras.

A month after war was declared the new battery was completed, assigned to the regiment as Battery F, and began drilling three times a week under direction of Battery C officers. On June 16, the governor promoted Captain Rickeman to major, and made the following promotions and assignments:

1st Lieut. James W. Gilson to be captain. Hugo A. Rickeman to be 1st lieutenant. Walter L. Haight to be 1st lieutenant. Harry C. Stearns to be 2nd lieutenant. George H. Wallace to be 2nd lieutenant.

All of Battery F officers had been members of Battery C. Lieutenant Bryant had become the senior officer in Battery C when Captain Rickeman was promoted, due to the prior resignation of Lieutenant Drake. The officers attended a two weeks' school of instruction at Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, the last two weeks in June, 1917.

While the Batteries were being completed. Dr. William W. Johnston of Racine was asked to raise a motor ambulance company in the city to become a part of the National Guard. The work proceeded as rapidly as expected and the full quota of 143 officers and enlisted men was obtained by early in July. Dr. Johnston was commissioned 1st lieutenant and given command, Drs. William Salbreiter, William J. Hanley, Clarence O. Del Marcelle and Luther N. Schnetz, were given commissions as lieutenants and assigned to the company when Lieutenant Johnston was promoted to captain and the company ordered to report at Camp Douglas, Wisconsin, on July 30, 1917.

Batteries C and F left Racine for Camp Douglas on July 2d to join the rest of the artillery regiment, which was composed of Green Bay and Milwaukee units. The occasion was a dramatic one. The country had begun to see that the United States would have to engage in active hostilities against Germany and it was anticipated that the National Guard would be sent overseas as soon as transports could be provided. Parents did not know whether they would ever see their boys again, or if they should, whether it might be years before they would be reunited. The entire city turned out to watch the soldiers' departure.

The batteries answered roll call at the Auditorium at 6 o'clock in the morning. All the recruits, including all of Battery F, were without uniforms. They carried home-made kit bags containing toilet articles and a few personal belongings. None were loaded up with surplus baggage, and most of them showed by their countenances that they realized that the adventure they were starting upon might be a tragic one.

Shortly before 7 o'clock the two batteries, headed by a drum corps composed of members of the two units, marched up Third street to College avenue, then to Seventh Street and east to Main street, going then between two lines of massed humanity to the C. M. & St. P. railroad, where a special train was awaiting them. The G. A. R. and Spanish-American War Veterans acted as escort of honor. Fifteen minutes was allowed in the depot yards for a last farewell. Then came the command to get aboard, and within two or three more minutes the long train had started on its trip to Camp Douglas, with Racine's first contribution - 410 picked young men - to the great war.

Fully 30,000 persons saw the boys depart. Main Street and the vicinity of the railroad depot were a solid mass of humanity. State street and Fourth street bridges were jammed from the girders to overhead arches. Along the railroad right-of-way people crowded near the tracks to shout a farewell to the boys. The fences were lined with men, women and children almost the entire distance to Corliss.

The parading of troops in the streets, the entertainments and the packing up, the good-byes and the drilling, were every day occurrences in the opening days of the war. The batteries recruited up to war strength and spent much time drilling. On the day of departure the men. some in uniform and some in "civvies," all with packs and bags, marched to the St. Paul station to leave for Camp Douglas. The pictures show Milwaukee batteries of the 121st Field Artillery off for war.

As the government had not yet completed the construction of its mobilization camps, the Wisconsin National Guard was kept at Camp Douglas, Wisconsin, the state reservation, for some time. The men were equipped with uniforms, and the Racine batteries began the long period of intensive training that was to fit them for overseas service. The older Milwaukee and Green Bay batteries had obtained four 3-inch field pieces and caissons apiece, and the regiment had some sixty horses, which were utilized by all the batteries in turn for drill purposes.

In addition to the artillery regiment, there were six regiments of infantry and two brigade headquarters, a regiment of cavalry, a battalion each of engineers and signal corps and three ambulance companies. The total strength August 5th was 15,266 men.

Captain William Mitchell Lewis of Racine, who had commanded Company F of this city during the Spanish-American war, offered his services to the state in any capacity desired, and he was commissioned a major and given command of the battalion of the signal corps.

Rev. Frederick S. Penfold of St. Luke's church was appointed chaplain and assigned to the 1st Field Artillery. Dr. Frank H. Fancher was commissioned 1st lieutenant in the dental corps, and Dr. Roy W. Smith was 2nd lieutenant in the veterinary corps, both being attached to the artillery regiment.

There were also quite a number of Racine men who enlisted in Milwaukee companies of the National Guard because they preferred other branches of the service to the artillery.

Members of the guard went through the required physical examinations, innoculation against typhoid and para-typhoid, and vaccination against smallpox. On July 15th both batteries were mustered into federal service and during the month that followed the entire guard went through the same ceremony. On August 5th an act of congress disbanded the National Guard as such and all members were drafted into the United States army, although National Guard units continued to be designated by that title for several months in offcial orders. The following spring all distinction between regulars, guardsmen, reserve officers in service and selective service men was dropped officially, as the frequent shifting of men due to the enlarging of units, replacement of casualties and changes in organizations made it impossible to keep the regiments filled with men from the various parent bodies. For instance, 1,500 men from the Wisconsin Guard regiments were transferred in a body to the 1st division, generally termed a Regular Army division, before that organization, went into a battle.

After six weeks at Camp Douglas, Battery F was selected as one of a number of organizations to precede the rest of the Guard to Camp MacArthur, Waco, Texas, and prepare the camp there for the balance of the troops. It had but two days' notice of the plan, and most of the boys did not have time to say good-bye to their folks, although many people visited Camp Douglas from Racine during the training period there. On September 12th the rest of the 1st Artillery regiment, including Battery C, arrived at Waco and by the latter part of the month the Wisconsin contingent was all present and had been joined by the Michigan National Guard. State officials of both states had protested against taking the men so far away from home for training, but the war department believed it was the better policy as no provision could be made for housing men at Camp Douglas. At Waco tents were comfortable for most of the year. The climate was mild all year around excepting for occasional freezing spells in winter and frequent dust storms in the autumn.

The Wisconsin and Michigan units were combined into the 32nd division, U. S. army. The regiments were enlarged and renumbered. The Wisconsin infantry regiments formed the 127th and 128th infantry, as well as portions of the divisional supply, sanitary and ammunition trains, and military police companies. The 1st Wisconsin Field Artillery regiment became the 121th Heavy Field Artillery, and the 1st Wisconsin cavalry was transformed into the 120th Field Artillery. There was much mourning over the loss of old regimental identities, particularly in the infantry, and at the wholesale shifting of officers entailed. But the government declined to consider personal desires or sentimental arguments.

For the next three months the division drilled steadily for six days a week from sunrise to sunset and were not entirely idle on the seventh day. At Christmas time it was declared ready for combat service, and was the picture of efficiency and strength. As yet the artillery had not received its guns, which were to be furnished in France.

Transports were not ready, however, the division waited impatiently until January when the entrainment for Camp Merritt began. The artillery and ambulance companies left in February, the batteries entraining February 5th.

a month, during which many of the men were quarantined for scarlet fever or mumps. Most of them were released by March 1st, but a number were left there and went to France in casual detachments a few weeks later.

Some of the first units of the division sailed in January on the transport "Tuscania," which was torpedoed and sunk off Ireland. Thirty Wisconsin lives were lost in the disaster. The artillery brigade, including the Racine batteries, boarded the transport "Leviathan," formerly the giant German liner "Vaterland," and sailed for France March 4, 1918.

They landed at Liverpool six days later, entrained for a rest camp at Winchester, England, crossed the English channel from Southhampton to LeHavre five days later, and after three days at Camp Sanvic entrained for Guer, in Brittany, where they were provided with French 155 mm. howitzers. For two months they studied gunnery and the science of artillery under French instructors, firing every day. on the range. They were then ordered to join the rest of the division, which had been scattered through various training camps in France. On June 8, Battery F entrained for Belfort and on June 11th its guns were in position near Bretton, across the frontier in old Alsace, with the remainder of the personnel at Ettonfont-lebas, the rear echelon position. From that time on its history is closely connected with that of the 32nd division, and is given more in detail in later pages of this book.

Battery C, like certain other selected units of the brigade, was ordered to report to an officers' training camp to act as school battery temporarily. The ambulance company from Racine preceded Battery F into the Belfort sector. Their records also will be recounted on other pages.