USA > Wisconsin > Racine County > Racine county in the world war > Part 5
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L. H. Rohr, chairman, Burlington; A. J. Topp, secretary, Waterford; John J. Wishau, Route 1, Racine; F. A. Malone, Waterford; George Ella, Rochester.
Lewis J. Quinn, Racine, was government ap- peal agent for this board. There were three chief clerks in the course of its history; Louis F. Reuschlein served from July 23, 1917, to
March 26, 1918; J. H. Wards from April 1, 1918 to June 15, 1918; and Florence Strassen from June 15, 1918 to March 31, 1919 when the work of the board was ended. J. H. Wards, entered the military service of the United States on the day his service as Chief Clerk ended.
Although the registrations under the juris- diction of this board were only about three fifths as many as those of either of the city boards, its work was much more difficult because of the natural disadvantages under which it la- bored, which made it difficult to get in touch quickly with its registrants, for the reason that they were widely scattered over the coun- ty on farms and in small communities.
The headquarters of the County board were located in the offices of Mr. Rohr, its chair- man, who contributed their use to the govern- ment during the whole course of the war with- out compensation. They are located on the second floor of the Bank of Burlington Build- ing, on the third floor of which are also located the rooms of the Burlington Business Men's club which the board was permitted to make gratuitous use of for the physical examina- tion of registrants.
The first serious duty that the local boards were called upon to perform was to assign to each registrant an order number, which num- ber determined the order of his liability to call to service. These numbers were assigned in conformity with a master list of serial numbers which had been furnished the boards from Washington. It will not be practicable to make here a detailed explanation of the method by which this master list was made and the order numbers assigned, but it may safely be said that no single official action of any branch of the government was ever before examined with so close scrutiny to detect flaws, or watch- ed with so universal and jealous an interest to insure fairness, as was that first drawing of serial numbers in Washington, on July 20, 1917.
When the drawing was finished and the or- der numbers were assigned, there was universal and complete acceptance of the result. Since that first drawing three others have been made for as many registrations, and none of them caused a ripple of question concerning the wis- dom of the method or the fairness of its opera- tion.
The physical examination of registrants to determine the degree of their fitness for mili- tary service was a matter of the first import- ance. Special regulations governing the meth- od of conducting them were promulgated, which were amended from time to time as ex-
45
RACINE COUNTY IN THE WORLD WAR
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Top Row-W. A. Durstling, H. George, Lawrence J. Schevel, E. L. Hill, A. F. J. Stoffel, H. A. McPherson, J. A. Marck. Second-H. J. Walter Coutu, Konstant Kumiszco, C. K. Nelson, H. N. Gfroerer, L. N. Schnetz, O. Junkhan, R. J. Schnetz. Third-H. C. Helgeson, John Hammiller, B. C. Behrend, F. P. Doonan, John Jacobson, L. T. Krebs, L. M. Metten. Fourth-G. O. Williams, E. G. Loehr, A. C. Christiansen, P. K. Koprowski, G. E. Kuypers, N. E. Jacobson, A. P. Heidenreich. Fifth-Burton Rowley. Chas. B. Sudgen, Robert Connolly, Raimundo Llada, William Reis, John W. Kinsler, Nick Schuit. Bottom-Joseph W. Peil, Louis J. Pitsch, Guy M. Breene, Wm. Musil, Herbert E. Brown, Lester L. Cook, H. Christiansen.
46
RACINE COUNTY IN THE WORLD WAR
perience revealed the need. This branch of the work was under immediate supervision of the physician member of the board, and he was provided with as much assistance as was neces- sary.
Local Board Number One with whose opera- tions the writer is most familiar was fortunate in its staff of examiners. Twenty-two hundred and eight men were examined by them, but the work was so systematized that the great amount of time and labor involved was reduced to a minimum. It nevertheless was an exact- ing and laborious service that they, in common with examiners of other boards, performed as a patriotic contribution toward the raising of an army and the winning of the war, and should be given fitting recognition.
The names of the regular examining staff of board one are:
R. C. Thackeray, H. E. Breckenridge, C. F. Browne, F. B. Marek, John Meachem, A. J. Williams, S. Sorenson.
They were assisted at intervals by the fol- lowing physicians and dentists:
J. T. Corr, Jens Anderson, F. A. Wier, Francis Richards.
What has been said in appreciation of the examiners of board number one, is true also of the other boards of the county. The regular examining board for board number two was composed of the following physicians:
William C. Hanson, E. A. Taylor, Chresten Olson, R. C. Peterson, Peter J. Brown.
They were assisted on various occasions by: A. J. Williams, S. Sorenson, N. B. Wagner.
The board of examiners for Racine county board was composed as follows:
W. E. White, John W. Powers, W. A. Prouty, W. A. Fulton, and L. N. Hicks, Burlington; F. A. Malone and M. G. Violet, Waterford; R. W. MeCracken, C. A. Obertin, and H. C. Werner, Union Grove; L. G. Hoffman, Chicago, Illinois.
The regulations governing the first draft provided that every registrant should be phy- sically examined, and that those found fit should be called for service in the order of their liability. Only those were to be exempted who were pronounced physically unfit, or who made claim of exemption, and produced satisfactory evidence in the form of affidavits in support of the claim.
This procedure was early recognized as being cumbersome, slow and otherwise unsatisfactory in practise, and in November, 1917, new regu- lations requiring all registrants, except those already sent into United States service, to answer, execute and file with their local boards, a questionnaire, which was the basis to be used
by the local boards in classifying or fixing the status of the registrant in his relations to the draft were issued.
Five classifications were provided for under these rules: in class one were placed all those who were first to be called. In classes two, three and four were placed all others who were liable to call, but whose call was deferred, and those so classified were to be called in regular order, only when the class above it was exhausted. In actual practice the supply of men in class one was never exhausted, and none in classes two, three, or four were called for service. In class five were placed those who were entitled to complete exemption from call, which in- cluded among others those physically unfit, and aliens.
In the spring of 1918, large drafts were made on the local boards for men to be sent to can- tonments to be trained for over-seas service, and the numbers of those in class one were being rapidly depleted. It was the very evi- dent desire and purpose of the government that none but class one men should be called, and in order to provide for the emergency that threat- ened, a registration of all men who had at- tained the age of 21 years since June 5, 1917 was called for June 5, 1918. Another similar registration was had on August 24, 1918, and the result of these two registrations was the addition to the lists of registered men in Racine county of 738 names, divided as follows:
Local Board No. 1 312
Local Board No. 2 236
County Board 190
The men who came in under the two last registrations were called the class of June 5, 1918, and for very obvious reasons furnished a much larger proportion of class one men than the class of June 5, 1917. They furnished enough at any rate to supply all needs until September 12, 1918, when all men between the ages of 18 and 45 both inclusive, who had not previously reported, were required to register. At this registration 10,191 men reported in the county, divided as follows:
Local Board No. 1 4014
Local Board No. 2 . 3518
County Board .2659
This made a total registration in the county of 19,320, divided among the boards as fol- lows:
Jurisdiction June
June
Sept.
1917
1918
1918
Totals
Local Board One. . 3363
312
4014
7689
Local Board Two .. 3098
236
3518
6852
County Board .1930
190
2659
4779
Totals. .8391
738
10191
19320
47
RACINE COUNTY IN THE WORLD WAR
Top Row -- Aloys Vos, Fred D. Liegler, Earl D. Follansbee, Arthur Lui, Albert J. Wittey, Peter Peterson, D. McElroy. Second-Albert J. Elsen, Wallace White, Carroll Lange, Harold W. Knoedler, W. Dean Mitchell, T. M. Jensen, J. Michel. Third-Felix Hone Jr., Wm. M. Palmer, Lambert Bax, Howard R. Deschler, H. J. Bowman, R. Murphy, L. M. Mullen. Fourth-Frank L. Westrich, J. Harold Graves, Jerome E. Murphy, B. Thompson, G. Oberg, L. S. Nelson, L. C. Stewart. Fifth-Albert T. Jensen, Robert J. Schulte, Victor Falck, Allie M. Zirbes, J. A. Petersen, F. E. Anderson, Arthur Moe. Bottom-Edwin M. Niebler, Martin Smollen, Frank Reis, Emil Nelson, Edward Weber, Ed. C. Murphy, Peter J. Marsch.
48
RACINE COUNTY IN THE WORLD WAR
The mobilization of the men called for serv- ice, including their entrainment for camp, was the culminating feature of the work of the local boards. It was a more or less continuons performance, once it got started. Every en- trainment of newly-made soldiers was an event of compelling, vital interest to a large num- ber of people the number varving with the size of the contingent going to camp.
Except on occasions when very few men were leaving there was always a parade, and the men were escorted to their train by the city and county officials, and military, semi-military and other organizations, accompanied by one or more brass bands. Each occasion was a historic event that will not be forgotten by those who were a part of, or who witnessed it.
The men were always entrained at the regu- lar passenger platforms at the railroad sta- tions with one exception; this was on July 26, 1918, at 2:00 p. m. when 447 men were sent to Camp Zachary Taylor, Louisville, Kentucky, from the two Racine City boards alone. A special train was provided for them, the yards sonth of the C. & N. W. station were cleared, and one of the largest gatherings of the people of Racine that ever assembled, was there to see them off, and bid them God speed.
The first entrainment by Racine boards was on September 6, 1917, when eleven men were sent to Camp Custer. The last contingent en- trained was on November 11, 1918, (the day the armistice was signed) when 191 men were started for Camp Logan, Texas, by the city boards. They did not get quite as far as Chi- cago, however, being stopped by a telegram from the war department, and they returned to Racine the same day, a disgusted lot of "raw" recruits. They were discharged on No- vember 13th, and given three days pay.
When a call for men came to a local board, accompanied by a train schedule, a list of the correct number of names was made up in the order of their liability to service, and an im- pressive notice was sent to each man to the effect that he had been selected for service, and directing him to appear for roll call at a certain hour of a certain day which was fixed so that it was not less than six nor more than twenty-four hours before the hour of entrain- ment.
A second roll call vas had at board head- quarters an hour or thereabouts before the hour of entrainment and a third at the railroad sta- tion on arrival there. From the hour designat- ed for the first roll call, the inducted man was in the service of the United States whether he had put in an appearance or not. If he failed
to appear for entrainment he was reported as a deserter, which in time of war is a very seri- ous matter.
The total number of men inducted into serv- ice and entrained for camp by the local boards of Racine county was 2881, divided as follows: Board One, Racine. 1088
Board Two, Racine. 1036
County Board 757
All of the local boards availed themselves freely of some very generous and competent voluntary assistance, without which patriotic co-operation their record for efficiency would have suffered. Pupils of the High School, and of Wisconsin Business College, did much valn- able copying for Local Board Number One and some forty or fifty grade teachers in the public schools came day after day and helped in more important work, under the supervision of prin- cipals W. L. Hood of the Winslow school and D. A. Shepard, of the Garfield school.
Besides these there were individuals who helped at various times when the work was crowding, and altogether the volunteer assist- ance was a valuable and much appreciated con- tribution towards the success of the work of the local boards.
At Board Number Two, principal H. U. Wood of the Howell school, with the assistance of Ann Rank and Hazel Wichern did valuable work in October and November of 1918, in mak- ing up reports called for by the Provost Mar- shal General at a time when the other work of the boards was most pressing.
In the late summer of 1918, it appeared to dawn on the military authorities that special preliminary instruction in military tactics, and in many other matters of interest to prospec- tive soldiers,, was desirable and feasible, and in special regulations sent out in August, local boards were directed to appoint Boards of In- struction.
A detailed account of the work of these boards would be an interesting and informing story, but it will be enough to say here that before the signing of the armistice on Novem- ber 2nd, they had had time to demonstrate clearly the wisdom of the plan; each succeeding contingent of men went away better trained, better informed, in better spirits, and in every way better fitted to begin camp life than the preceding one. It is a matter for regret that these boards could not have gotten into action sooner, for the value of the work they did in the little time they had, was not only very great, but promised greater things for the fu- ture had it been necessary to go on.
The board of instruction connected with Local
RACINE COUNTY IN THE WORLD WAR
49
DI
PHOTOS BY LEONARD
Top Row-F. G. Mahler, Fred Dacquisto, E. Kraupa, M. W. Youngs, Bert Fisher, J. Jacobson. Second-F. J. Jadrny, P. J. Henkes, Chas. Frisco, S. H. Roche, Edgar Olson, Thos. Sadowski. Third-George Kloster, Arthur Clausen, P. J. Hartman, S. R. Harrison, H. W. Falk, Joe Kwojeski. Fourth-Neil Bach, Walter Gothe, Einer A. Evenson, J. W. Itzenhuiser, L. L. McConnell, Harry Nelson. Fifth-Walter Remkus, Geo. Dokletor, Lawrence Quirk, Wm. King, Tony Castrovilli, R. P. Bragar. Bottom-G. H. Wallace, Clar. Nelson, C. F. J. Delschaft, E. Peterson, P. Araboglans, H. L. Clemons.
50
RACINE COUNTY IN THE WORLD WAR
Board for Division Number One was organized September 18, 1918, as follows:
Date
Number
Camp
Sept.
6, 1917
11
Custer
Sept.
26, 1917
117
Custer
Nov.
19, 1917
112
Custer
March
30, 1918
107
Custer
April
27, 1918
110
Custer
May
1, 1918
24
Columbus Bar.
May
27, 1918
217
Grant
June
28, 1918
39
Ft. Riley
July
6, 1918
117
Columbus Bar.
July
16, 1918
114
Columbus Bar.
July
24, 1918
27
Greenleaf
July
25, 1918
20
Valparaiso
July
26, 1918
447
Taylor
The board of instruction connected with Local Board for Racine County was as follows:
August
2, 1918
125
Taylor
August
4, 1918
12 (negroes)
Custer
August
6, 1918
39
Jefferson Bar.
August
6, 1918
35
Syracuse, N. Y.
August
9, 1918
13
Shelby
August
13, 1918
46
Kansas City
August
14, 1918
4
Iowa City
August
15, 1918
13
Wisconsin Univ.
August
15, 1918
5
Indianapolis
August
15, 1918
4
Beloit, Wis.
August
15, 1918
10
Peoria, Ill.
August
27, 1918
22
Sherman
August
30, 1918
20
Dodge
Sept.
1, 1918
7
Indianapolis
Sept.
3, 1918
51
Grant
Sept.
5, 1918
46
Greenleaf
Oct.
2, 1918
18
Jefferson Bar.
Oct.
15, 1918
16
Wisconsin Univ.
Oct.
15, 1918
6
Beloit College
Oct.
21, 1918
109
Shelby
Oct.
25, 1918
36
Jackson Bar.
Nov.
11, 1918
259
Logan
Henry C. Baker, Chairman; Charles A. Ryba, Secretary; Fred Haumerson, John Olson, John H. Liegler.
The board of instruction connected with Local Board for Division Number Two was composed as follows:
Wm. C. Hood, Chairman; L. C. Brooks, Sec- retary; Paul Matson Henry Clark, E. A. Tay- lor, Chris. Krogh, Wallace Loomis.
July
29, 1918
15
Syracuse, N. Y.
William E. Smieding, Jr., Racine; E. John Wehmhoff, Burlington; F. L. Witter, Burling- ton.
As the members of the local boards review the labors of the twenty-two months of war service, there is one feeling that dominates, and that compensates for all the weariness and the worry, and that is a sense of gratitude that we have had the privilege of helping in a small but more or less vital and effective way to win the great war. Nothing else matters much in comparison. All else will pass. That will re- main.
The following gives the date, number of men and cantonment camps, to which selective men were sent from Racine in groups under call of Provost Marshall Crowder:
CHAPTER VIII
TRAINING CAMPS IN AMERICA
T HE mobilization camp for the National Guard of the states of Wisconsin and Michigan was Camp MacArthur, just outside the city of Waco, Texas. The National army cantonments to which the majority of Racine selectmen were sent were Camp Grant, Rockford, Ill .; 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 govern- ment. Upon arrival at a cantonment, the con- tingent 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, quali- fications 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 fur- nished and he was assigned to a barracks, and a company or detachment. On about the sec- ond or third day in camp his regular schedule of military training began. The company of- ficers in the National army were generally graduates of the Reserve Officers Training camps. Non-commissioned officers were ap- pointed as rapidly as possible, and if they prov- ed inefficient there was no hesitancy in reduc-
ing them to the ranks and naming their suc- cessors.
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 exercises.
6:30
Mess.
7:00 Police and sick calls.
7:30
Drill.
11:30
Recall from drill.
12:00
Mess.
P. M.
1:00
Drill.
4:30 Recall from drill.
5:00
Guard mount
5:30 Retreat and parade.
6:00 Mess.
7:30 Officers' School.
9:30 Call to quarters.
10:00
Taps.
On Saturday afternoon in most camps there were athletic events in which all men were re- quired 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 ex- cepting for their turns as guard, kitchen police or other fatigue work. Non-commissioned of- ficers generally attended school two or three evenings a week. Details of such matters vari- ed in the different camps, however.
Camp barracks were two-story frame build- ings, capable of housing from 200 to 300 men each. There was one large room upstairs and one large room and a small office room down- stairs. 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.
In the southern camps, tents were used by
52
RACINE COUNTY IN THE WORLD WAR
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. Gar- bage incinerators were provided, and great at- tention 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 di- sease 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 serv- ice was vaccinated against smallpox and inno- culated 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 com- plete 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 com- plaint 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 Gen- eral Headquarters would lend any assistance to soldiers desiring to return to their old com- mands after having been separated from them for a time, due to 'Ilness, wounds or other causes. At no time was it easy for them to do so. This was the first time in American his- tory that the war department failed to make an effort to foster pride in regiments and divi- sions, and its policy in this respect was un- questionably 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 sys- tem which abolished voluntary enlistments for the Regular Army and National Guard. Be- fore a good plan was perfected to provide these replacements without destroying the effective-
ness of whole new divisions, the war was end- ed.
The 85th division, formed at Camp Custer, is a good example. It was organized and train- ed. Then a large number of its men were sent to other divisions as replacements. New men were sent to the 85th and there was more training. The division went to Europe, and one whole regiment of infantry was sidetrack- ed 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 replace- ments depleted almost every unit in the divi- sion again to the point where they could hard- ly be termed organizations at all.
The rules at the training camps were quite severe. The strictest observance of the mili- tary 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 giv- en, general permission to do so being granted only for the hours between evening mess and taps, without a pass. The government requir- ed 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 in- sure the maintenace of a high standard of phy- sical 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 lead- ers. Moving pictures were exhibited at camps, and there was a general policy of attempting to keep the new soldiers in a cheerful and con- tented frame of mind during their periods of recreation. The Knights of Columbus did ex- cellent 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.
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