USA > Massachusetts > Commonwealth history of Massachusetts, colony, province and state, volume 5 > Part 55
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FEDERAL ORGANIZATION
of the men registered. The governor appointed these local boards, calling into this service nearly a thousand public- spirited Massachusetts citizens of the highest calibre, who served without pay for the duration of the war. Theirs was the duty of deciding the always difficult and often heartrend- ing question of who should go and who should be excused. The unselfish and patriotic devotion displayed by the local draft boards should not be passed by without adequate recog- nition.
Rules were prepared in Washington that fixed the classifi- cation of exemptions, dependency, essential occupation, enemy alienage, etc. Each case had to be considered individually, each man examined physically. During August, 1917, some of the local boards heard and decided as many as a hundred cases a day.
The men registered were listed numerically in each city, county or town. On July 20, 1917, in Washington were drawn by lot the registry numbers of the master list, which when applied to the local lists gave the number of each man to be called and the order of priority. The first call was for 687,000 men, and the quota from Massachusetts was 43,034. As a part of these quotas, the States were given credit for such citizens as were on the rolls of the National Guard or who had enlisted in the Regular Army since April 1. On this basis Massachusetts was credited with 22,448 volunteers, so that its net draft quota was but 20,586. This State was twelfth in the list of States in the proportionate number of voluntary enlistments. If credit had been given for the men then in the Officers' Training School and Naval Service, who were for some unknown reason not included in computing the statutory credit, the State would have been third or fourth in total voluntary enlistments.
FEDERAL ORGANIZATION IN NEW ENGLAND (1917-1919)
The Federal military administration of New England was for some time located in New York City. On May 1, New England was made a separate district, known as the Depart- ment of the Northeast; and Brigadier General Clarence R. Edwards came to Boston, took over the command of this dis- trict, and at once began to work out plans for its effective
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organization. It was finally decided to locate the New Eng- land cantonment at Ayer, to be called Camp Devens after General Charles Devens of Massachusetts, of Civil War fame. The camp, planned to house 45,000 men, was ready for the first draft in September of 1917, and thereafter was continu- ally occupied to capacity until May of 1919. Here the Seventy-sixth Division and, later, the Twelfth Division were organized and trained; and many thousands of New England men passed through the camp on the way to France or to other stations. The camp consisted of wooden buildings, hastily but substantially built, with an elaborate steam-heating sys- tem installed to make possible its use during the winter.
THE PEOPLE AWAKENED (1917)
Meanwhile during May, June and July, 1917, while the Army was marking time until officers could be trained and cantonments built, the people of the State were awakening to the meaning of the war, in terms of money, men and per- sonal sacrifice. May 12, Marshal Joffre visited Boston; and the great outpouring which witnessed the receptions to him and the parade which he led through the city, testified to the tremendous enthusiasm which the people felt toward our ally, France, and toward him personally.
Most of the educational institutions receiving men of mili- tary age established schools for officers, Harvard under the tutelage of five able French officers sent by the French govern- ment. Harvard also established a wireless school and a naval training school. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other institutions followed suit in making every effort to supply the deficiency of officer material.
Men of technical training and ability were drawn upon in large numbers as specialists and began to go overseas. The medical schools and hospitals organized medical units as will be noted in this chapter.
A regiment of railroad engineers, the Fourteenth, was organized from the railroad men of New England and sailed on July 26. The Red Cross and Y. M. C. A. enlisted thou- sands of workers and organized for the great service which they rendered both overseas and at home.
In June, 1917, began the first Liberty Bond campaign, to
613
MOBILIZATION
sell the $7,000,000 bond issue which had been authorized by Congress. Massachusetts raised its quota of funds and more; and it is interesting as showing the spirit which existed to note that the National Guard of Massachusetts, awaiting their mobilization, purchased $439,000 of these bonds, an average of $30 per man. A drive for Red Cross funds was also launched, and two and one-half millions were subscribed in Boston alone.
WOMEN'S WAR WORK (1917-1918)
June 15, a mass meeting of women was held in the State House, to which almost every women's organization in the Commonwealth sent a representative. There was organized the Massachusetts Division of the Women's Council of Na- tional Defense, Mrs. Nathaniel Thayer being chosen chair- man, with subcommittees on child welfare, on agriculture, on women in industry, on social work. An organization was formed, subsidiary to the Women's Council at Washington, one member of which was Mrs. Stanley McCormick of Bos- ton, to coordinate the activities and resources of the organ- ized and unorganized women of the country, so that their power might be immediately utilized in time of need. This council was active throughout the war, and did extremely ef- fective work within its sphere.
MOBILIZATION OF THE NATIONAL GUARD (JULY-AUGUST, 1917)
July 25, 1917, came at last the call to the Massachusetts National Guard. Ready, willing, and equipped to go, the long wait had been hard upon the patience of the men. The de- lay was availed of by the regiments to prepare themselves in complete readiness for any duty, and the technical efficiency and morale of the units was high. The troops assembled in their various armories and proceeded at once to the mobili- zation points; most of the infantry going to the camp at Framingham, the units in the western part of the State to Westfield, the artillery regiments to Boxford. Although the status of the National Guard of the States was fixed by the Constitution of the United States, in previous wars some difficulty had been found in molding the State troops into a
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national army. In the Civil War, after the first duty of three months, the Army was made up of volunteers, either by organizations as a whole or by individuals supplemented by drafted men and substitutes. In the Spanish War, com- plete regimental organizations were accepted as volunteers.
Federal and State legislation had gradually been evolved, working out at last the original theory and plan of the Federal Constitution, whereby the President could call the State troops into Federal duty upon an emergency ; and then, if he so chose, might draft them in their entirety into the national service, substituting thereby a single responsibility instead of their previous dual obligation to State and Nation, and making them a completely Federalized force.
Therefore the President called the troops into Fed- eral service on July 25; and eleven days later, acting under this newly authorized power, he drafted the State troops of Massachusetts and of the other States into the Army of the United States. The National Guard of Massachusetts thereby went out of existence until its reorganization after the war. Five regiments of infantry, one of coast artillery, two of field artillery, a squadron of cavalry, a signal battalion, and a complete medical unit were so drafted-a total of 502 officers and 15,908 men, all passing the most rigid Army tests for physical fitness.
TACTICAL REORGANIZATION (AUGUST, 1917)
The regiments thus nationalized continued their training, waiting for orders to form them into brigades and divisions, and expecting early foreign service. The war, strength of a regiment of infantry under the War Department regulations published April 2, 1917, was 56 officers and 2,000 men. The five Massachusetts regiments had complied with these require- ments. Suddenly, out of a clear sky, the War Department (August 13) issued a new table of organization, increasing the infantry regiment to 105 officers and 3,600 men. Then (August 17) came the War Department order providing for divisional organization, assigning the divisional numbers 1 to 25 to the Regular Army, 26 to 50 to the National Guard, and 76 and above to the national army to be raised from the
From photo by Jules Photo Service GENERAL CLARENCE R. EDWARDS
From a photo by Marceau, Boston BRIGADIER GENERAL CHARLES H. COLE
From a photo by Marceau, Boston BRIGADIER GENERAL JOHN H. SHERBURNE
From a photo by Oppenheim BRIGADIER GENERAL E. LEROY SWEETSER
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YANKEE DIVISION
draft. Each division was to consist of four regiments of infantry, three of artillery, and one of engineers.
THE YANKEE DIVISION (1917-1919)
The numeral 26 was assigned to New England, the division to be made up of the National Guard of the six New England States, Maj. Gen. Clarence R. Edwards being appointed to its command. General Edwards, as the commander of the Department of the Northeast since May, had been indefatig- able in his help to the State troops; and his appointment was highly acceptable. He at once formed a' staff of able Army and National Guard officers, and proceeded with great vigor to organize his division.
Time was of the essence. At that juncture campaigns of the Allies were failing, Russia was breaking down, American reinforcement was urgent; and there were as yet no troops ready to go into the fight. The reorganization of the Infantry to fit the new table of organization presented the great dif- ficulty.
New England had raised eleven regiments of infantry, all recruited to what they had supposed was war strength. Of these only four could be taken. Maine and Connecticut were each called upon for one of these four, and the two Maine National Guard regiments were consolidated into the 103rd Regiment; the two Connecticut regiments into the 102nd. Two places were left for the five Massachusetts regiments. The two senior colonels with their regiments were picked as the nucleus of the new units. The Ninth Regiment, most of the Fifth Regiment, and 175 men from the Sixth became the 101st Infantry, commanded by Col. Edward L. Logan. The Second Regiment, the greater part of the Eighth Regi- ment, and 12 officers and 800 men from the Sixth Regiment became the 104th, commanded by Col. William C. Hayes, later by Col. George H. Shelton.
The three regiments, the Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth, which were not included in the Twenty-sixth Division, had all been in continuous existence since 1855 ; all had served in the Civil War, in the Spanish War, and recently on the Mexican border. The Sixth was the regiment that forced its way through Baltimore in April, 1861. The military necessity for
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the virtual destruction of these regiments was recognized : under the circumstances nothing else could have been done, for it would have taken too long to recruit the two new regi- ments to war strength. But it was hard upon the officers and men involved who had given years of service to build up the spirit and traditions of their units.
MILITARY UNITS (1917-1918)
Brig. Gen. Peter E. Traub, a regular, was assigned to the Fifty-first Brigade, consisting of the 101st and 102nd In- fantry; and to Brig. Gen. Charles H. Cole, of Boston, who had given long service in the National Guard, was assigned the 52nd Brigade, the 103rd and 104th Infantry.
The artillery brigade of three regiments presented little difficulty. The First Massachusetts, Field Artillery, had been designated early in August as the New England representative in the 42nd Division-the so-called "Rainbow Division"- a composite division made up of selected regiments from all sections of the country, which it was supposed would be the first to go overseas. When it appeared that the new Twenty-sixth might be the first to go, this assignment was cancelled and the regiment became the 101st Field Artillery under Col. John H. Sherburne, a National Guard officer ; the 2nd Mass. regiment, a new unit organized during the spring of 1917, became the 102nd Field Artillery, commanded by Col. Morris E. Locke, a regular; the 103rd was made up of batteries from other New England States and from the Coast Artillery. The engineer regiment, the 101st Engineers, was organized during the spring of 1917 from the First Corps Cadets of Boston, its colonel, George W. Bunnell, being a former West Pointer and an engineer in civil life. Massa- chusetts, therefore, furnished five of the eight regiments to the new division. A great many of the auxiliary troops, sig- nal battalions, machine gun battalions, medical units, and trains were also Massachusetts units; and considerably more than half of the officers and men of the new division were Massachusetts citizens.
THE DIVISION IN FRANCE (1917)
No sooner had the new organization been completed than
617
ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE
its opportunity came. Parts of the First Division had gone to France in June and July. No other regulars were ready. The Forty-second Division had not been able to assemble and equip as quickly as had been expected. The Twenty-sixth was ready. Its units were organized, and its men were equipped. The efforts of the military authorities, aided by En- dicott and his committee and the foresight of the Massa- chusetts legislature in procuring supplies in April, 1917, were now fully justified; for the equipment so procured was the contributing factor in the readiness of the new division. Shipping was available, and on September 7 and 8, 1917, the 101st Infantry and the 101st Field Artillery embarked for France, followed during the next month by the other units of the division. By October 24, the whole division was in France, preceded only by the First Division, which was not even then complete. After training under French instruction in the art of warfare as it had developed since 1914, on Febru- ary 5, 1918, the division entered the line of combat; and Bat- tery A, 101st Field Artillery, of Boston, fired the first shot.
ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE (FEBRUARY-NOVEMBER, 1918)
To relate the history of the division in detail is not possible here. From February, 1918, to the Armistice, the division remained in the line of combat. Its first sector was the Chemin des Dames, where the Division served under French command until March 18. Moving to the Woevre, it took over a wide front north of Toul. Here troops of Massa- chusetts (104th Infantry and 101st Artillery) successfully resisted the first attack in force upon American troops, at Apremont, April 10 to 12. For this action the colors of the 104th Infantry were decorated by the French. In July the division was sent to the Marne, near Chateau Thierry, tak- ing position from Vaux to Belleau Woods, the nearest point to Paris, where it prepared to resist the third great German offensive, which was launched on July 15. The full force of the German attack did not fall upon the division, but it was heavily engaged.
In the great allied counter-offensive, July 18, the Aisne- Marne offensive or Battle of Chateau Thierry, the division on the first day took Belleau and Torcy; then, keeping step
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with the great drive, advanced against the best German troops a distance of twelve miles. The Infantry was relieved July 25, but the Artillery went on with the Forty-second and then with the Fourth American Division until August 4, advanc- ing more than twenty-five miles.
The division suffered casualties of more than a fifth of its strength in these operations. After a short rest it was sent to Les Eparges, north of St. Mihiel, where (September 12) it took an important part in the offensive which reduced the St. Mihiel salient. The division was chosen to make the eastward thrust against the salient, and was so successful that it reached the meeting point, Vigneulles, some hours before the troops attacking from the south. After St. Mihiel, the Twenty-sixth Division held and consolidated the new line for a few weeks, and was active in many raids and demonstrations. It was then sent to Verdun, and (October 11) entered the line north of that city, where it remained on the offensive until the Armistice.
On October 22nd, General Edwards was detached from the division and sent back to Boston to command the North- eastern Department. His place was filled temporarily by Brig. Gen. Bamford, then by Maj. Gen. Harry C. Hale, who brought the division home. Several other popular officers were also relieved of their commands at this time, later to be exonerated and reinstated. The division suffered heavy casualties in these last operations and received no replace- ments. The effective strength of the 101st Infantry on Oc- tober 27 was reported as 10 officers and 425 men, and other units were in a similar condition. Yet at 9:30 on the morn- ing of the Armistice the division made the ordered attack and attained its objective.
The five Massachusetts regiments and the other units from the State maintained their identity throughout the war, served effectively and with honor, and lived up to the military tradi- tions of Massachusetts in the past.
SEVENTY-SIXTH DIVISION (1918)
As the first trains of the Twenty-sixth Division passed by Camp Devens on their way to Hoboken and New York for embarkation, they passed the first trains of the draft troops
619
MASSACHUSETTS ORGANIZATIONS
assembling at Camp Devens. The draft had been conducted successfully, and thousands of men-more than 20,000 from Massachusetts-had thus been inducted into the service, re- porting to the designated concentration camp during Septem- ber. From the draft troops and from officers who had been trained at Plattsburg and who had been commissioned about the first of September was formed the Seventy-sixth Division. Of the organizations which composed this division, the 301st and 302nd infantry regiments, the 301st field artillery regi- ment, the 301st field signal battalion and the 302nd machine gun company were accredited to Massachusetts, the greater part of the enlisted men coming from this State.
The first units of the Seventy-sixth Division arrived in France on July 10, 1918, the last on August 8. Shortly after its arrival, the division was broken up, its officers and men being sent in large and small detachments as replacements to every division on the front. The only units to escape this fate were the 301st Field Signal Battalion, which was sent to the Sixth Corps intact, and the Field Artillery Brigade, some elements of which reached the line at Rupt en Woevre just before the Armistice. The 301st Field Artillery, the regi- ment credited to Massachusetts, was assigned as Army artil- lery but did not get into action.
OTHER MASSACHUSETTS ORGANIZATIONS (1918)
The officers and men of the Massachusetts National Guard not taken into the Twenty-sixth Division were assigned to a depot brigade under command of Brig. Gen. E. Leroy Sweet- ser and sent to Camp Green, North Carolina. The Fifth, Sixth and Eighth Regiments were retained as skeleton organi- zations and were converted into the Third, Fourth and Fifth Pioneer Regiments. All of these regiments were recruited to strength by National Army troops raised by the successive drafts, coming mostly from western States. The Third Pioneers was commanded by Col. Willis W. Stover of Everett; the Fourth, by Col. Holten B. Perkins of Boston; and the Fifth, by Col. W. H. Perry of Lynn. In the summer of 1918 the Third and Fourth Regiments went overseas, where they did effective service on the lines of communication.
The company of colored troops belonging to the Sixth Regi-
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ment was attached to the 372nd Regiment of the Ninety- third Division, and served gallantly with the French in the Argonne.
The Twelfth Division was organized from the draft at Camp Devens after the departure of the Seventy-sixth. It was ready for foreign service, but before it could be sent over- seas the Armistice came.
The 55th Coast Artillery Regiment was organized as a regiment on December 1st, 1917; its colonel was James F. Howell, and more than half of its officers and men were mem- bers of the First Massachusetts Regiment of the National Guard. It was in action on the Aisne from August 9 to September 9, 1918, and in the Meuse-Argonne offensive from September 19 to the Armistice.
The Seventy-first Coast Artillery was organized from Bos- ton in May of 1918 and went overseas July 30, 1918, but was not equipped in time to get into action.
SPECIAL SERVICES (1917-1918)
The 14th Engineers, Colonel W. P. Wooten, specialists organized for the construction, operation and maintenance of railroads from the railroad men of this section, was among the first organizations to go overseas. It sailed on July 27, 1917, and served with great credit upon the British and, later, on the American fronts.
The 401st Telegraph Battalion, organized by the New Eng- land Telegraph Company in October, 1917, and commanded by Maj. L. W. Abbott, landed in France on March 20, 1918, and was assigned to the First American Army from August 15 to the Armistice. It is credited with battle participation in the St. Mihiel and in the Meuse-Argonne offensives.
The 317th Field Signal Battalion, recruited principally from Massachusetts, was called into service on November 5, 1917, at Camp Devens. It went overseas on July 9, 1918, and was attached to the Fifth Army Corps. The battalion is credited with the St. Mihiel offensive and the Meuse-Argonne, and was cited for exceptional devotion to duty. It returned from overseas on June 6, 1919. The colors of this organization were presented by the senate of Massachusetts.
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THE CITIZEN SOLDIER
MEDICAL SERVICE (1917-1918)
Base Hospital No. 5, made up of doctors and nurses from the Harvard Medical School and associated hospitals, sailed May 11, 1917, under command of Col. Harvey Cushing. It served until the end of the war upon the British front, and maintained a 2000-bed hospital. Base Hospital No. 6, from the Massachusetts General Hospital, under command of Col. Frederic . A. Washburn, sailed on July 11, 1917, and established near Bordeaux a large hospital of more than 4000 beds, where it cared for thousands of American sick and wounded. Base Hospital No. 7, from the Boston City Hospi- tal, Maj. John J. Dowling, was not mobilized until February, 1918. It sailed on July 8th, and established a hospital at Jouez-les-Tours. In these units were many of the leading physicians and surgeons of the State; the service they rendered was of the utmost importance.
THE CITIZEN SOLDIER IN THE WAR
The exclusive direction of military organization and mili- tary operation was given, as it should have been, to the Regu- lar Army. Starved in men and material as that organization had been for years, it was perhaps natural that it should make the most of its opportunity and that, at the beginning, the professional soldier did not have a proper perspective. A deliberate policy was adopted of destroying all State alle- giance and particularly of uprooting the National Guard tradi- tion and the dual system of military organization provided for in the American Constitution. It was hoped that universal military training, the long-cherished ideal and aim of the Regular Army, would follow the war and that State troops would be abolished.
Military necessity might have justified the breaking up of the Seventy-sixth Division, but many similar acts were not prompted by military necessity. Civilian officers and National Guard officers were placed in a position of inferiority, were obliged to wear a special insignia, and were outranked in their grades by any officer of the Regular Army, no matter how young or inexperienced or what the date of his commission was, holding temporary rank in such grade. Promotion also
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was the perquisite of the Regular Army regardless of the efficiency of the one promoted; civilian officers for the most part remained where they were, no matter how able they were as soldiers and leaders. It was almost impossible to obtain commissions for tried and able enlisted men within an organi- zation, and the severe system of discipline imposed upon the men was not adapted to the American character and served rather to irritate than to inspire.
All of this caused dissatisfaction and bitterness, and prob- ably, in the final analysis, lowered the military efficiency of the American Army. It fell particularly heavily upon the Twenty-sixth Division, which got the brunt of it. At the end of the war, those in authority recognized that a great mistake had been made. Every effort was made to undo what had been done, to give promotions, to reassemble organizations, and to send officers back to their regiments; but it was too late to wipe out the bitterness engendered.
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