Racine County, Wisconsin - Chapter 8: Training Camps in America, 1920

THE mobilization camp for the National Guard of the states of Wisconsin and Michigan was Camp MacArthur, just the city of Waco, Texas. The National army cantonments to which the majority of Racine selectmen were sent were Camp Grant, Rockford, 111.; Camp Custer, Battle Creek, Mich.; Camp Zachary Taylor, Louisville, Ky.; Camp McClellan, Anniston, Ala., and Columbus Barracks, Columbus, Ohio. Men were sent to the camps near their homes when practicable, but when replacements were needed elsewhere they were forwarded direct or transferred from cantonments which had an oversupply.

The local boards always appointed one of the selectmen as captain of the contingent leaving home, and other men were named as non-commissioned officers, these appointments being for the period of the journey only. The train schedules were provided by the government. Upon arrival at a cantonment, the contingent was met by camp officers who guided them to their section. The men undressed and were put through a rigid medical examination. They passed thirty or forty doctors in turn, each one examining but one organ or function. Each physician would examine two or three men a minute. Following this, clerks would examine the men as to their occupation in civil life, preference as to branch of service, qualifications as to military work, education, mental ability, etc. By the time the examination was concluded each recruit was pretty thoroughly classified.

Uniforms and full equipment was then furnished and he was assigned to a barracks, and a company or detachment. On about the second or third day in camp his regular schedule of military training began. The company officers in the National army were generally graduates of the Reserve Officers Training camps. Non-commissioned officers were appointed as rapidly as possible, and if they proved inefficient there was no hesitancy in reducing them to the ranks and naming their successors.

Following is a typical schedule of calls for one day in a training camp: A. M. .5:45 First call. 5:.55 Reveille. 6:00 Assembly for roll call and setting-up

On Saturday afternoon in most camps there were athletic events in which all men were required to take part. Sunday morning was given over to inspection of equipment and clothing, and church. On Sunday afternoons and evening the men were free from duty excepting for their turns as guard, kitchen police or other fatigue work. Non-commissioned officers generally attended school two or three evenings a week. Details of such matters varied in the different camps, however.

Camp barracks were two-story frame buildings, capable of housing from 200 to 300 men each. There was one large room upstairs and one large room and a small office room downstairs. The men slept on cots. The buildings were well heated. The camps were laid out to hold from 25,000 to 30,000 men and were constructed in sections, each section having its own mess halls, drill grounds, officers quarters, etc.

the soldiers for sleeping quarters, but the severity of northern winters made this out of the question at such camps as Grant or Custer. In all camps, however, there were frame mess halls with screened doors and windows. Garbage incinerators were provided, and great attention was paid to sanitation.

Had it not been for the terrible epidemic of Spanish influenza which swept through Europe and America in 1918, the death rate from disease in the war would have been kept to a very low figure. Thousands died in almost every large city and military cantonment as a result of this dread disease.

Every recruit in the military and naval service was vaccinated against smallpox and innoculated against typhoid fever. As a result there was almost an entire absence of these diseases, which usually take such heavy toll of lives from armies in war time.

It was the original intention to raise a complete combat division of approximately 27,000 men in each cantonment. In most cases the plans went awry, as constant requisitions were made on the cantonments for replacements to be sent to divisions already in the field. For that reason the National Army organizations were frequently broken up and scattered just as they were becoming well trained.

This usually happened after the company and higher officers had worked diligently to create a fine spirit of pride in the organizations. The war department's disregard for the morale of units was one of the greatest causes for complaint and dissatisfaction on the part of men and officers. It was only after most heart rending protests on the part of divisional and regimental commanders in France that General Headquarters would lend any assistance to soldiers desiring to return to their old commands after having been separated from them for a time, due to Mlness, wounds or other causes. At no t'me was it easy for them to do so. This was the first time in American history that the war department failed to make an effort to foster pride in regiments and divisions, and its policy in this respect was unquestionably a serious error, although it may have been a means for saving some expense.

Some of the National Army necessarily had to become replacement outfits, under the system which abolished voluntary enlistments for the Regular Army and National Guard. Before a good plan was perfected to provide these replacements without destroying the effectiveness of whole new divisions, the war was ended.

The 8.5th division, formed at Camp Custer, is a good example. It was organized and trained. Then a large number of its men were sent to other divisions as replacements. New men were sent to the 8.5th and there was more training. The division went to Europe, and one whole regiment of infantry was sidetracked and sent to Russia, while the rest of the division went to France. There on the eve of going into the lines, a call for army replacements depleted almost every unit in the division again to the point where they could hardly be termed organizations at all.

The rules at the training camps were quite severe. The strictest observance of the military forms and courtesies was insisted upon. During drill hours, only ten minutes rest was permitted out of every sixty, and usually no smoking was allowed on the drill field at all. Passes to leave the camp area were seldom given, general permission to do so being granted only for the hours between evening mess and taps, without a pass. The government required the closing of saloons in the vicinity of all cantonments, and the selling of liquor to men in uniform was prohibited all through the country. Immorality of all kind was severely frowned upon and limited in every possible way. Weekly inspections of all men in service was one of the many methods adopted to insure the maintenace of a high standard of physical health among the troops.

The army Y. M. C. A. had "huts" at every camp, where men were encouraged to gather for entertainment, and to write letters home. Stationery was furnished free. "Sings" were held frequently, when thousands of men would attempt en masse to raise the very roof with the power of their more or less harmonious choral efforts, under the direction of song leaders. Moving pictures were exhibited at camps, and there was a general policy of attempting to keep the new soldiers in a cheerful and contented frame of mind during their periods of recreation. The Knights of Columbus did excellent social service work through their field secretaries, and the Y. W. C. A. established "hostess houses" where relatives of soldiers could rest while on visits to the cantonments. Books were donated by citizens all over the country and most camps, hospitals and ships had quite large libraries for the use of the men> especially toward the end of the war.